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eof [soylentnews.org] writes:

A Washington Post reports gives the story of a Texas high school student: [washingtonpost.com]

Fourteen-year-old Ahmed Mohamed just wanted to get noticed by his teachers.

Instead, he got arrested.

In an incident that has raised allegations of racism and made a Texas school district the target of online outrage, the ninth grader was pulled out of school in handcuffs after a digital clock he built himself was mistaken for a bomb.

Mohamed was interrogated at school, had his belongings searched, and asked if he tried to make a bomb. Officers stated “It looks like a movie bomb to me.” He was taken to police headquarters and processed. Further, he "said he was told he couldn’t speak to his parents until after the interrogation was over."

A local police officer, James McLellan, claims the student was not cooperative, even though the student told him what the device was:

"Clearly, there were disassembled clock parts in there, but he offered no more explanation than that,” McLellan said. “A lot of these details that the family and he have provided to you were not shared with us yesterday. He was very much less than forthcoming."

McLellan told the Dallas Morning News that Mohamed never claimed the device was anything other than a clock. But school staff and police officers remained suspicious.

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