Texas police have decided not to charge a 14-year-old Muslim boy arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school.
The BBC reports that officials at MacArthur High School in Irving alerted police because they thought the device was a “hoax bomb”.
Ahmed Mohamed’s arrest has been sharply criticised, and the boy has received an outpouring of support including an invitation to the White House.
Ahmed told reporters it was “very sad” that his teacher thought his clock was a threat.
“I built a clock to impress my teacher but when I showed it to her she thought it was a threat to her. I’m very sad that she got the wrong impression of it.”
At the same news conference on Wednesday afternoon, Ahmed announced he plans to transfer schools.
The police have rejected the claim made by Ahmed’s family that he was detained because of his name.
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“We have always had an outstanding relationship with the Muslim community,” Irving Police Department chief Larry Boyd said on Wednesday. “Incidents like this present challenges. We want to learn how we can move forward and turn this into a positive”.
Under the hashtag “#IstandwithAhmed,” thousands of Twitter users praised the boy’s initiative and questioned why he was detained including Nasa scientists, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and US President Barack Obama.
“Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great,” Mr Obama wrote on Twitter.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations says it is investigating the incident.
Ahmed said that he had made a clock at home and brought it to school to show his engineering teacher.
The teenager said another teacher became aware of it when the device beeped during the lesson.
“She was like – it looks like a bomb,” he said.
The homemade clock consisted of a circuit board with wires leading to a digital display.
Later in the day the boy was pulled out of class, interviewed by senior teachers and four police officers, and put into juvenile detention.
The school issued a statement saying it “always ask our students and staff to immediately report if they observe any suspicious items”.
