A Texas teenager detained and questioned by police after teachers at his high school thought his homemade clock resembled a bomb was just offered an internship by Twitter through—obviously— a tweet.
Ahmed Mohamed is getting lots of encouragement on social media, including from President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Police announced
Wednesday that Mohamed, a freshman at Irving MacArthur High School, will
not be charged with possessing a hoax bomb because there's no evidence
that he meant to cause any harm. Chief Larry Boyd said the device he
brought to school was a “homemade experiment,” but it looked "suspicious
in nature."
“Cool clock, Ahmed,” Obama tweeted Wednesday
from his POTUS account. “Want to bring it to the White House? We should
inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America
great.”
U.S. Secretary of
Education Arne Duncan also tweeted about the student's arrest, saying,
"We need to be encouraging young engineers, not putting them in
handcuffs."
Democratic
presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton wrote in a tweet, "Assumptions and
fear don't keep us safe—they hold us back. Ahmed, stay curious and keep
building."
Scientists from top institutions including NASA and MIT also had words of support for Mohamed.
"Hey
Ahmed, give me a call in a couple years. We could always use smart,
curious & creative people," NASA engineer Bobak Ferdowsi tweeted.
By Wednesday afternoon, #IStandWithAhmed was trending on Twitter.
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