Police in suburban Dallas will review their response to a 14-year-old Muslim boy who brought a homemade clock to school that was mistaken for a possible bomb, according to the police chief overseeing the matter.
Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd on Friday said his department will examine its handling of the scare at MacArthur High School but that officers were justified Monday in questioning and handcuffing Ahmed Mohamed, given the limited amount of information they had.
The teen has said he brought the clock to school to show a teacher. Officials say Ahmed was arrested after another teacher saw the clock and grew concerned.
The device featured a circuit board, power supply and other items within a carrying case.
Police ultimately chose not to charge Ahmed with having a hoax bomb.
“I had significant feedback on this, some of which you wouldn’t be able to print,” Boyd said. “It’s clear to me that no matter what we did, there would be those who agreed with it and those who wouldn’t.”
Khalid Hamideh of the Islamic Association of North Texas on Thursday blamed political leaders for espousing inflammatory anti-Muslim rhetoric and creating a “climate of fear.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article
In this age of zero tolerance the police were justified in their actions. Clocks, timers and cell phones are used to trigger explosive devices. When you see wires protruding from such devices it is wise to be concerned.
Over the years our focus of in-school terrorism has been directed toward guns. Explosives have a way of doing far more damage in far less time. Increasingly schools are teaching their students, faculty and staff how to deal with an active shooter scenario. Explosives have the ability to render all that training worthless.
I believe it is better to make a mistake of this nature and follow with an apology than it would be to back off until it is too late, and have something tragic happen. I would think, with the world situation as it is, the boy and his parents should have seen this reaction coming. It could have been avoided with some extra communication.