A Boy and His Clock

Listen, you idiots—learn good sense! You blockheads—shape up! - Proverbs 8:5 (The Message)

Newsflash…A boy and his clock. I could believe it when I first saw the story about Ahmed Mohamed and his clock. I mean a 14 year old boy brings a clock to school to show to his engineering teacher because he is excited about what he was able to accomplish and he is arrested? Seriously? He was brought to the principal’s office and asked if he tried to “make a bomb.” He was arrested and led through the school in handcuffs. The police and school officials describe what Ahmed carried as a “hoax bomb.” When asked by then police what it was he carried he said, “A clock.”

I understand the precautions we need to take in our schools. Too many serious, violent things have happened for us not to be hyper-cautious. I understand the English teacher being anxious. What I don’t understand is the assumption that what he had was a “hoax bomb.” If he said it was a clock and there wasn’t anything to prove it wasn’t then why did Ahmed get arrested? I mean almost anyone could look at a box of electronic elements and see if it was in fact a clock or an attempt to make something look like a bomb. Why didn’t the police believe him? Why didn’t they ask the engineering teacher to take a look at the device?  Why didn’t they have a bomb expert look it over? I would think that any of these people could have told them it was a clock and not a “hoax bomb.”

I give thumbs up to President Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Education Secretary Arne Duncan and many others who have reached out to Ahmed and told him to “stay curious and keep building” or something similar. I agree with them that we need to encourage curiosity and scientific exploration. I support children and youth trying things out and building things. I want our young people to feel safe and free to build things and bring them to their teachers to show off what they’ve done and to get their teachers to encourage and support them.  If we are so worried about safety that we are willing to assume that anything electronic that is home made is a bomb or hoax bomb then we are in trouble. If we won’t believe a young man who has never been in trouble and never caused people to question his motivations when he tells us what he has then we are in trouble. As Hillary Clinton tweeted, “Assumptions and fear don’t keep us safe – they hold us back.”

I can’t ignore the fact that Ahmed is Muslim and brown. I can’t ignore the fact that this took place in Texas. I can’t ignore the fact that the police chief is white and the school district official is white. I can’t ignore the fact that when it comes to people with brown skin and Muslim names the assumption by officials is the person is dangerous and their intentions are suspect. It seems that there was a very real assumption that Ahmed was not willing to tell the authorities the whole truth and they felt the best way to handle things was to haul the boy off to the police station. What if this where a white kid? I think his parents would have been called and he would have been warned about bringing something like that to school. I don’t want to make assumptions but I can’t ignore all this.

I have read stories about 5 year olds being accused of sexual harassment for trying to kiss a girl at school. I have heard of kids being dragged before police for having a pocket knife. And now we can add a boy and his clock to this list of ridiculous over reactions. Yes we need to keep our kids and schools safe. Yes we need to have clear policies and procedures. Yes we need to have very low tolerance concerning things like weapons, and sexual harassment and questionable devices. But we also need to trust what the kids say and take into account the circumstances and situations. We need to assume innocence and ignorance not malicious intent. And we need to figure out how to ignore the creed and race and focus on the situation.

I see that Ahmed is still suspended from school. Why? I see he is changing schools. I can understand that move. I see MIT says they hope he will apply. That’s good news. A boy of 14 has had to confront a situation that is incomprehensible and that’s too bad. A brown skinned person is once again harshly treated and subjected to things that seem out of proportion to the situation. Racism lives. A Muslim youth is assumed guilty, of having ulterior motivates, and of being able and willing to do something to cause fear and anxiety. Islamophobic we are!

Ahmed and all you other curious builders out there, keep at it. Even when the world seems against you remember that great things can come if you believe in yourself, your dreams and can move beyond the limited thinking of others.

Dear God, thank you for Ahmed and all those who are curious, who dream dreams and have visions and seek to explore your wonderful universe. Help us to name our racism and Islamophobia. Help us to see not the color of a person’s skin but their humanity. Help me to be a witness to how you want us to treat each other and the world. Amen.