A 14-year-old Texas high school freshman was arrested and suspended for three days after arriving to class with a homemade clock that police and school officials feared was a bomb.
It wasn't an explosive device. But the boy's arrest was, indeed, a sign of the times.
Ahmed Mohamed wanted to impress his engineering teacher with his creation that took him 20 minutes to build at his Irving home. Local media described the device as being built with "a circuit board and power supply wired to a digital display, all strapped inside a case with a tiger hologram on the front."
The Dallas Morning News, which first reported the arrest, said the youth's engineering teacher at MacArthur High in Irving said it was a "nice" device but cautioned him not to show it to other teachers. But the boy would soon be led away in handcuffs and eventually booked by Irving police.
Things went south for the boy when the clock beeped while in his backpack during English class and the teacher confiscated it. Later that day, he was interrogated by Irving police and school officials. "It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car. The concern was, what was this thing built for? Do we take him into custody?" Irving police spokesman James McLellan told the Dallas Morning News.
It wasn't an explosive device. But the boy's arrest was, indeed, a sign of the times.
Ahmed Mohamed wanted to impress his engineering teacher with his creation that took him 20 minutes to build at his Irving home. Local media described the device as being built with "a circuit board and power supply wired to a digital display, all strapped inside a case with a tiger hologram on the front."
The Dallas Morning News, which first reported the arrest, said the youth's engineering teacher at MacArthur High in Irving said it was a "nice" device but cautioned him not to show it to other teachers. But the boy would soon be led away in handcuffs and eventually booked by Irving police.
Things went south for the boy when the clock beeped while in his backpack during English class and the teacher confiscated it. Later that day, he was interrogated by Irving police and school officials. "It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car. The concern was, what was this thing built for? Do we take him into custody?" Irving police spokesman James McLellan told the Dallas Morning News.
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