Opinion
Arrest of Texas student in perspective
By Levi Lorenzo ’18
September 25, 2015
You have probably heard the story: an innocent, curious 14-year-old boy brought a homemade clock into a Texas high school to show his teacher. The teacher, fearing that the clock was an explosive, confiscated it and the boy was arrested. The clock ended up being, well, just a clock, and the issue, unlike the clock, blew up.
While the situation might have piqued the interest of some, the drama was fueled by the fact that the student, freshman Ahmed Mohamed, is Muslim. That fact helped incite national uproar prompting tweets from President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other important figures in politics and entertainment in support of Ahmed. For many this seems like merely another case of Islamophobia and racial profiling. Many see the case as deplorable and the epitome of lingering bigotry in the United States.
On the surface it is pretty widely agreed upon that no 14-year-old should be arrested for bringing a homemade piece of technology into school to impress his teachers. However, when delving deeper into this issue, it becomes less clear. We must ask ourselves, what if it had been a bomb? What if the teacher, for fear of being labeled an Islamophobe, by acquiescing allowed that bomb to kill all of the kids in the class, and potentially, the school? If she had taken away the clock and it was a bomb, I suspect she would have been hailed as a hero.
Some might say that the teacher should have recognized that it was not a bomb. I implore you to look up the picture of the clock. For someone with limited expertise in electronics and electro-engineering, it is pretty difficult to say with confidence that it is not a bomb. The clock physically resembles a briefcase bomb, especially to someone whose only encounters with such bombs are in science fiction movies. I would not expect the average high school English teacher to be able to say, with enough confidence to put his or her life as well as the lives of all her pupils on the line, that the clock is not a bomb.
Was the teacher profiling in making this decision? Perhaps, but I do not blame her for making it. It is against Texas law to possess a fake bomb with intent of convincing someone that it is actually a weapon. In accordance with the law, it is actually the duty of authorities to determine Ahmed’s intent in bringing in the object. Regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity, if Ahmed actually was as uncooperative as the police claim, to the point where they cannot confidently ascertain his motive, then they were justified in taking him away in handcuffs. Some might think that a 14-year-old could hardly have the malicious thoughts required to bomb his school. But what if his parents had given him the bomb and told him to show it to his teacher and tell him or her that it is a clock? What if the student legitimately thought the object was a clock when it was not?
Now, what if this incident had occurred at Hamilton? If a professor was presented with the object by a student and was unsure about whether or not it was bomb, what should they be expected to do? I suspect that the majority on campus “Stand with Ahmed,” but I inquire, if campus went on lockdown last spring because someone called in a bomb threat, how is it then unreasonable to take action when presented with an object that could potentially be a bomb, even when the owner claims it is not? It is understandable why many are outraged at Ahmed’s arrest. But I question whether one can stand with Ahmed, regardless of the situation. Sure, he was curious, inquisitive and innovative, and displayed qualities that more 14-year-old boys should. Some will charge that his only crime was being Muslim, but it does not matter whether Ahmed was Muslim, Jewish or Christian or anything else; it does not matter whether Ahmed was black, white, brown, green, or orange; if a teacher believes that there could be a bomb in her class, it is her duty to act. I believe the teacher did the right thing, and if it happened here at Hamilton, I would hope that my professor would do the same.