Last week, Ahmed Mohamed, a 14-year-old from Irving, Texas, was arrested for bringing a clock to school that his teachers said looked like a “hoax bomb.”
After Police eventually released Mohamed from police custody, his story went viral.
Education facilities in Texas (and most states) have a zero tolerance policy in place when it comes to situations like Mohamed’s. School officials believed it look like a weapon, so they acted according to the school’s code of conduct and alerted authorities to handle what they perceived as a potential threat.
IJ talked to Jonathan Gilliam, a former FBI agent, about the way the issue was handled.
On Mohamed’s detainment:
“I do believe that he should have been detained and if he did not answer questions properly and openly, arrested.
We cannot play politically correct games when reacting to anything that may be terror related or the potential of injuring or killing people.”
On whether or not the clock resembled a bomb:
“I have made numerous explosive devices in my career. While I was not an Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) operator, I was a SEAL. We didn’t take bombs apart, we built explosive unconventional devices that could be used in unconventional ways.
That device (clock) resembled something that was unconventional and not understood by the teachers or law enforcement. That is typical of crude explosive devices.”