Local public figures support clock-making Texas boy
Posted Sep 20, 2015 06:18:09 AM.
Last Updated Sep 20, 2015 01:33:23 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A 14-year-old Texas boy is drawing supporters from around the world, including here in Waterloo Region.
Ahmed Mohamed was arrested in Irving just this past week for showing a clock he built to his teachers, who then mistook it for a bomb and called the police. Some have said the incident is indicative of racial profiling.
Here in town, the teen’s story has touched a nerve in a community that prides itself on technological innovation.
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University of Waterloo President Feridun Hamdullahpur says Ahmed is exactly the kind of kid the university is looking for.
“We rely on our best and the brightest — our students and faculty — to be really outside of the box thinkers, to be as creative as possible,” Hamdullahpur said. “We want hundreds or thousands of them coming out of this university.”
UW Professor Chris Hadfield has tweeted his support for Ahmed too.
Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to social media, tweeting the hashtags #IStandWithAhmed and #NerdingWhileBrown and posting pictures of themselves taking their clocks to work.
United States President Barack Obama is among Mohamed’s supporters.
Mohamed was ultimately not charged, although he still had to serve a school suspension.
