Obama, Facebook, Twitter support teen arrested for bringing homemade clock to

The 14-year old boy who was arrested for bringing a clock to his Texas high school spoke to MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Wednesday night, and he showed more poise and optimism than anyone would expect under the circumstances.

Ahmed’s parents have announced that they are transferring him to a new school since officials at MacArthur high school allowed the police to handcuff the teen.

Ahmed Mohamed, 14, was accused of making a hoax bomb, police in Irving said.

Eager to show off his talent for building things, Mohamed brought the clock he built over the weekend to school.

Yesterday, Twitter and facebook were swept by the trending hashtag #IStandWithAhmed which has attracted more than 700,000 people to participate.

“In fact, I think the whole of JPL would welcome Ahmed with open arms”, Doug Ellison tweeted from the Jet Propulsion Lab.

He said that the experience made him feel like a criminal.

“They’ve never seen the actual inside of a clock”, he said. “It’s what makes America great”, a message on Obama’s Twitter feed said.

Ahmed Mohamed’s arrest has been sharply criticised, and the boy has received an outpouring of support including an invitation to the White House.

“We attempted to question the juvenile about what it was and he would simply only say it was a clock”.

Mohamed told a news conference in front of his house that he was going to Washington for the White House Astronomy Night. Local police spokesman James McLellan said his team didn’t believe Ahmed was telling them the whole story.

“A teacher heard beeping in her classroom, and then this device was brought to her. So, what she saw was a case with exposed wires and a timer attached to it”, said Lesley Weaver, director of communications for the Irving ISD. His family’s lawyer and a representative of the the Council on American-Islamic Relations were also present, reports the Texas Tribune.

After the incident, several leading institutions offered him invites to come and visit them including Facebook, NASA and Google.

Bobak Ferdowsi, a science organizer engineer on NASA’s Cassini space test to Saturn, joined in.