Tuesday, August 09, 2016

Texas Muslim Teen-- Alarm Clock Inventor-- Sues For Discrimination

As reported by the Dallas Observer, a lawsuit was filed yesterday in a Texas federal district court by teenager Ahmed Mohamed who made news last September when his Irving, Texas school teacher mistook an alarm clock Mohamed had constructed for a bomb. Police were called in and both an arrest and school discipline followed. As summarized by plaintiffs' lawyer:
Despite the fact that (the Irving police) knew it wasn't a bomb, that he never threatened anyone, never alarmed anyone, they yanked him out of his chair, put him in handcuffs and arrested him. There was no cause for arrest. Even after the police acknowledged it didn't look like a bomb, the school suspended him. So yes, those are violations of his civil rights.
The complaint (full text) in Mohamed v. Irving Independent School District, (ND TX, file 8/8/2016), asking for damages and an injunction, alleges in part:
The IISD has a long and ugly history of race struggles up to and including the Board of Trustees. Additionally, the State of Texas, including the IISD, has a history of discrimination against Muslims in Texas curriculum and schools.