Page 10 The Skanner August 10, 2016
News
By EMILY SCHMALL
Associated Press
DALLAS — The family of a Muslim
boy who was arrested ater bringing a
homemade clock to school iled a feder-
al lawsuit Monday against Texas school
oicials and others, saying the inci-
dent violated the 14-year-old boy’s civ-
il rights, prompted death threats and
forced them to leave the United States.
The lawsuit was iled on behalf of
Ahmed Mohamed, who was arrested at
his suburban Dallas high school in Sep-
tember and charged with having a hoax
bomb. He says he brought the home-
made digital clock to school to show his
English teacher.
Ahmed showed of the clock, made
out of a plastic pencil box and electri-
cal wire and other hardware salvaged
from his parents’ garage, on Monday
during a news conference with his par-
ents and attorneys.
Irving police later dropped the
charge, but he was still suspended for
“
court rules,” she said, adding that
school oicials for now will have no
further comment.
The Mohamed family questioned
whether the boy was mistreated due to
his religion but the district has denied
the claim.
The family has since moved to Qatar,
citing threats and a scholarship ofered
to Ahmed in the Persian Gulf coun-
try. Ahmed moved back to the U.S. last
month for the summer to visit family
and friends, and will do some traveling
around the country, but will return to
Qatar next month to start 10th grade
at Qatar Academy, a private school in
Doha.
“For the safety of my family, I have
to go back to Qatar, because right now
it’s not very safe for my family or for
anyone who’s a minority,” Ahmed said
during Monday’s news conference.
While in Texas, Ahmed said, he has to
wear a hat, sunglasses and a hoody. “I
can’t walk out of the house without be-
ing covered up because I might get shot
We have the opportunity to take a stand for
equality and for justice, two things that should
prevail above all else
three days. He never returned to the
school; his family opted to have him
take classes elsewhere.
The lawsuit names Irving Indepen-
dent School District, the city of Irving
and the school’s principal, and asks a
jury to determine the damages. In No-
vember, the family asked the district
and city to pay $15 million or else face
a suit. District spokeswoman Lesley
Weaver said in a statement Monday
that attorneys for the district will re-
view the suit and determine a course of
action.
“Irving ISD continues to deny vi-
olating the student’s rights and will
respond to claims in accordance with
because that happens here,” he said.
The teen’s parents, Mohamed Elhas-
san Mohamed and Muna Ibrahim, have
not found work yet in Qatar, so the
family of eight is living in government
housing and on food vouchers.
Among the claims made in the suit,
which was brought by the teen’s fa-
ther, is that the boy’s right to equal
protection under the law was violated
and that oicers arrested him without
probable cause.
Ahmed was a victim of systemic dis-
crimination by the school district and
state Board of Education that has mar-
ginalized Muslims and other minority
groups, the suit claims.
AP PHOTO/LM OTERO
Family of Muslim Teen Arrested for Homemade Clock Files Suit
Ahmed Mohamed shows the clock he built in a school pencil box to reporters after a news conference
in Dallas, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. The family of Ahmed Mohamed, who was arrested after bringing the
homemade clock to school, and charged with having a hoax bomb, iled a federal lawsuit Monday against
Texas school oicials and others, saying they violated the 14-year-old boy’s civil rights.
“History tells us that when we have
stood tall and proud for equality and
freedom, we have grown as a nation,”
the suit says. “When we have given in
to fear and hate, we lounder.”
The suit adds, “In the case of Ahmed
Mohamed, we have the opportunity to
take a stand for equality and for justice,
two things that should prevail above all
else.”
The Irving school district is also un-
der investigation by the U.S. Depart-
ment of Justice over an alleged pattern
of discrimination against minority stu-
dents.
The district in February sued the Tex-
as Attorney General to keep the justice
department’s investigation private.
Ahmed’s story brought an outpour-
ing of support from President Barack
Obama, other political leaders, corpo-
rate executives and NASA scientists.
“When I went to the new school, they
asked me, ‘are you that clock kid?’ I
told them yeah, I was. My identity was
stripped,” Ahmed said.
Former Somali Refugee on Brink of
Minnesota Statehouse
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Ilhan Omar
spent four years in a Kenyan refugee
camp as a young girl, leeing with her
family from civil war in Somalia. Two
decades later, ater forging a new life
in Minnesota, she appears on the brink
of becoming the nation’s irst Soma-
li-American state legislator.
Omar, a 33-year-old community ac-
tivist, cried as she delivered victory
speeches in English and Somali ater
defeating a 44-year incumbent in the
latest sign of the Somali community’s
growing inluence in the city and state.
Her victory in a heavily Democrat-
ic Minneapolis district makes her a
strong favorite in the general election.
“Tonight we made history,” Omar told
supporters ater her win late Tuesday.
“Tonight marks the beginning of the
future of our district, a new era of rep-
resentation.”
A seat in the Legislature would be
a new high-water mark for Minneso-
ta Somalis, who in recent years have
won seats on the Minneapolis school
board and City Council. First drawn
in the early 1990s by welcoming social
programs, they’re now estimated by
the census to number around 40,000,
though community advocates say the
igure is much higher.
In an interview Wednesday, Omar
said her campaign set out to build a
broad-based coalition of not only East
Africans, but longtime residents and
students in a district that encompasses
the University of Minnesota’s Minne-
apolis campus and Augsburg College.
She said she hopes her victory sends a
message to young women of color who
are thinking about running for oice
that they can raise money, shatter ste-
reotypes and win big.