Ahmed Mohamed’s clock wasn’t really a bomb, although the contraption is blowing up in the faces of Irving school administrators and police right about now. The 14-year-old boy’s family wants apologies from the city’s mayor and police chief, along with $15 million. If the ransom isn’t paid, the family will file lawsuits.
If you’ll recall, Mohamed, who considers himself an inventor, removed the guts from a clock, stuck it in a metal box, and took it to school to impress his teachers. But who would this impress? He didn’t create anything. He tore apart something. Kids do this all of the time. It’s called “breaking shit.”
Mohamed did make an impression, however. His clock-box resembled a bomb, which is why a teacher advised Mohamed not to show the clock to anyone else at school (advice the boy ignored). In this age of school shootings and terrorist bombings, it’s understandable that some people might freak the fuck out. The Irving school district probably overreacted by calling police, and police probably overreacted by handcuffing the kid. The school certainly overreacted by suspending Mohamed for three days after the mix-up about the clock was straightened out.
Many parents expressed gratitude that school officials were erring on the side of caution. They think it’s nice to know that if someone walks into the building carrying what looks like a bomb, somebody will notice and intervene. Mohamed himself said he worried that people might be suspicious about his “invention.”
It wouldn’t kill Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne and Police Chief Larry Boyd to write letters of apologies. Why not write an apologetic, uplifting, encouraging letter to a young man who wants to do well in life?
But forking over $15 million in taxpayers’ money is ridiculous.
Attorneys said in a letter that they “would anticipate” that Mohamed will suffer lifelong fear of law enforcement and establishments of educational learning due to his ordeal. No word on whether he actually has these feelings. But, according to his attorneys, just the fact that Mohamed might one day become terrified of school and police is worth millions of bucks.
The family’s attorneys also say Mohamed’s “reputation in the global community is permanently scarred.” Prior to the clock incident, Mohamed had no global reputation. After the clock incident, his reputation is one of a boy who was unjustly accused of bringing a bomb to school and rewarded with global fame, television appearances, equipment from Microsoft, and invitations to visit NASA astronauts and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. In the future, Mohamed can actually list the president of the United States as a reference on his job resumes. Mohamed should be paying the school $15 million.
