On Sept. 14, Ahmed Mohamed took what he calls a homemade clock to MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas. Apparently believing that Mohamed sought to scare students and teachers with a “look-alike” bomb in violation of the Irving School District Student Code of Conduct, the school called in local police.
Mohamed was taken to a local juvenile detention center, where he was booked and released to his father later that day. For this response, Mohamed’s family is suing the Irving School District for $5 million and the city of Irving for $10 million.
At the time, we noted that “the Mohamed Clock Controversy Shows One Thing, Overcriminalization.” By all accounts, school administrators and police never thought the “clock” was actually a bomb. And even if Mohamed were seeking to scare teachers and students, taking him away in handcuffs appears unnecessary. Interviewing Mohamed at school or at home would have been much more reasonable.
That said, it was reasonable to place Mohamed on out-of-school suspension temporarily while facts were gathered. Especially given Mohamed’s troubled disciplinary history, the school had reason to proceed cautiously. While public school students are entitled to notice of a hearing and an opportunity to be heard if they are being disciplined, a short-duration suspension without such due process is well within constitutional requirements.
Put another way: The school might have overreacted, but it most likely did not harm the constitutional rights of Mohamed. All the school did was call the police and temporarily suspend Mohamed.
But this is exactly what Mohamed’s lawyer, self-described “leftist” Kelly D. Hollingsworth, is claiming. He claims “constitutional, statutory, and common law rights” violations for Mohamed’s arrest and discipline by the school. The lawyer himself notes that he is “relatively new to this engagement, so please do not take the list of rights violations in this letter as exhaustive of the possible causes of action[.]”
While a bit vague, the latter appears to allege that Mohamed was unconstitutionally targeted and punished by his high school for arbitrary, and perhaps racial, reasons. The city of Irving, for its part, is alleged to have unreasonably searched and booked Mohamed. Both the high school and the city are alleged to have violated their own internal procedures to go after Mohamed. Following all this, the city and school allegedly compounded the harm to Mohamed by making statements implying that they acted reasonably, which constituted defamation by impliedly calling “both Ahmed and his family … liars.”
All of this is worth $15 million to Mohamed and his family, who have left the United States and now reside in Qatar.
It is absolutely the case that schools should not unfairly target students based on race or religion. And it still appears as though the Irving school district and city overreacted: No one appears to have actually believed that Mohamad’s “clock” was a bomb.
But in today’s environment, with violence and multi-million-dollar litigation, it is understandable that schools occasionally overreact. Ultimately, after being feted at the White House, meeting President Barack Obama, and making the talk show rounds, Mohamed likely could have returned to school triumphant.
Instead, he has now filed a massive lawsuit that, even if meritless, will take time and money to resolve.
