A 14-year-old boy was placed in handcuffs and led from his high school in North Texas by police after a concerned teacher suggested he may be carrying a bomb.

Ahmed Mohamed, who is known for his love of electronics, arrived to his US engineering class with a homemade clock in order to show his teacher and fellow students.

Alarmed by the device, a teacher at MacArthur High in Irving raised suspicion and ultimately alerted the principal to the possibility it may be an explosive.

Commenting on the incident, Ahmed told Dallas Morning News: "She was like, it looks like a bomb. I told her, 'It doesn't look like a bomb to me.'"

Equally concerned, the principal contacted police who questioned the teenage boy before searching through his belongings in an incident which the Council on American-Islamic Relations is now investigating.
 


Recounting his experience with the police, Ahmed told NBC News: "I tried making a phone call to my father. They said, 'You're in the middle of an interrogation. You can't have a phone call."

While acknowledging the homemade clock was not dangerous, authorities asserted that it could easily be mistaken for a fake explosive and insisted that Ahmed was unwilling to discuss the incident while under interrogation.

Speaking to NBC News, Police Officer James 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."

The teenager was suspended from school for three days, but has not been charged with any crime.

Justifying the school's approach to the matter, Irving Independent School District Spokesperson, Lesley Weaver, said: "We will take all necessary precautions to protect our students and keep our school community as safe as possible."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations insists the incident is further evidence of the negativity experienced by Muslims in Irving.

Opening up about the incident, Ahmed said: "​It made me feel like I wasn't human. It made me feel like a criminaL."

 

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