The family of a 14-year-old Muslim student who got in trouble over a homemade clock mistaken for a possible bomb withdrew the boy earlier yesterday from his suburban Dallas high school.
Ahmed Mohamed’s father, Mohamed El-Hassan Mohamed, said he has pulled all of his children from schools in the Irving Independent School District.
Mohamed said the family is still deciding where to send the children to school. Ahmed has said he brought the clock he made to MacArthur High School in Irving last week to show a teacher.
Officials say he was arrested after another teacher saw it and became concerned. Ahmed wasn’t charged, but he was suspended from school for three days.
“Ahmed said, ‘I don’t want to go to MacArthur’,” Ahmed’s father told The Dallas Morning News. “These kids aren’t going to be happy there.”
News of the arrest sparked an outpouring of support for Ahmed, including from President Barack Obama.
The turmoil surrounding Ahmed’s case has had a harmful effect on the teen, Mohamed said, adding that his son has lost his appetite and is not sleeping well. “It’s torn the family and makes us very confused,” Mohamed said.
Numerous schools have offered to enrol Ahmed, his father said. But Mohamed said he wants to give his son a breather before making a decision.
He said his entire family plans to fly to New York on Wednesday, where United Nations dignitaries want to meet his son.
Then, if the appropriate visas can be obtained, Mohamed wants to take his son on a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. “I ask Allah to bless this time. After that, we’ll see,” Mohamed said.
When they return, a visit to the White House and a meeting with Obama is in the works, he said.
