Texas ninth-grader makes a clock to show his engineering teacher, gets arrested for making a bomb

Ahmed Mohamed, a ninth-grader in Irving, Texas, is an engineering whiz. For fun, he makes workable gadgets and rudimentary electronics. Basically, he is what we dream an American ninth-grader will be in 2015, as our nation lags behind the world in math and science education. Wanting to show his engineering teacher what he was capable of, he brought a homemade electronic clock to school.

What should've been a beautiful moment of congratulatory pride quickly turned into a full-fledged nightmare for Ahmed. His English teacher, who decided the clock looked like a bomb, notified the principal, who called campus police, who called the county police. They then interrogated Ahmed, arrested him on the spot, and took him to jail.

Mind you: He's a ninth-grader in a NASA shirt and the clock, which anyone could see was not attached to any explosives of any kind, was harmless. He never pretended it was a bomb, never told anyone it was a bomb. It was a clock.

But, as you can see, he's not white and his name isn't Tommy Anderson, so an engineering phenom is mistaken as a threat to national security.

This entire story is an absolutely despicable case of Islamophobia and will forever impact this young man's life. Below, hear Ahmed in his own words and see a picture that was snapped when he was arrested and put in handcuffs at the school.