I am beginning to question the degree to which the radical liberalism parading across the Internet is legitimately aiding in resolving social injustices. My skepticism was sparked last week, when Ahmed Mohamed was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school. Police detained the 14-year-old in Irving, Texas on the grounds that he had designed a “hoax bomb” posing a threat to the students and faculty. Not surprisingly, Ahmed’s wrongful arrest began to emerge in news outlets across the country the next day. It even reached so far as the Oval Office, where President Barack Obama himself was kind enough to extend Ahmed an invitation to the White House over Twitter, indicating his solidarity with the young boy in the most 21st century way possible and causing the hashtag “#IStandWithAhmed” to explode in social media spheres. Ever since Ahmed’s story became apparent to the American public, popular opinion has continued to stand overwhelmingly in opposition to the police and administrators who seemingly engaged in racially profiling an innocent, aspiring engineer.
This reaction scares me deeply. It makes me wonder what kinds of values truly rest at the core of “American” ideals. It makes me wonder what people across races and socioeconomic classes truly desire from their administrators and their government. What precedent are we setting by “standing” with Ahmed? Is it a civic duty of our nation’s students to test the boundaries of administrative power at their respective schools? It seems Americans have become so caught up in their critiques of power-wielding entities that they have forgotten why safety precautions exist in the first place: to preserve the American ideal of a right to life.
Administrators across the nation have worked for decades to improve safety at schools; each national tragedy drives our policy-makers to pay more attention to school safety, and popular opinion has always seemed to stand behind reforms that truly benefit the general welfare. Why, then, are we retreating into an anti-establishment fervor just because a teacher exercised caution when presented with a difficult situation?
Would we rather not proceed with caution at our nation’s schools? It is intuitive that students should not be encouraged to bring suspicious packages into their classrooms, especially without any sort of screening by their teachers or administrators. Even if Ahmed’s clock was not the “most” suspicious item ever to be identified as a “hoax bomb” by police, even if the image of the clock that is circling around the Internet is “not suspicious enough” for some people, the external opinions that are driving support for Ahmed fail to recognize that his teacher’s actions were driven by the situation, not the stereotype. Instead of “checking” her racial and ethnic biases when making a decision, the teacher acted in the way that was clearly intended to best protect the students.
There is a frightening alternative to Ahmed’s story: a student walks into a classroom with a suspicious package, and the teacher decides not to intervene out of fear of persecution for her failure to be “politically correct.” The end of this story, rather than being an opportunity for partisan flash-bloggers to wave their fingers at the establishment, is a national tragedy, a result of poor judgment on behalf of a teacher, a result of poor intervention into school safety on behalf of the federal government.
Yes, a line needs to be drawn where paranoia and stereotyping cannot impinge on a student’s academic curiosity. Yes, Ahmed did not “deserve” to be arrested, as his intentions were seemingly innocent. But, no, the line for school policies does not get to be drawn in conjunction with Ahmed’s story; our safety standards should be far higher at our nation’s schools, where it is unquestionably imperative for students to feel protected in their respective learning environments.
American citizens need to step back and analyze the cause they are supporting when they “stand” with Ahmed. The young boy clearly did not act maliciously when he brought his clock to school, but the American people don’t seem to care too much about that fact; they would rather throw around the term “institutional racism” in a situation where it does not apply. Americans would rather scapegoat the individual who caused discomfort to one person than praise the individual who acted with caution on the behalf of hundreds.
My mind drifts to a few short years ago when the overwhelming majority of the population was in uproar over the lack of school security at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Have our minds completely reversed on this topic in the years since? I would like to think we have not completely lost our heads as a population, but something about Ahmed’s story makes me think we often care more about sensationalizing the issue than fixing the underlying problem. There is something deeply saddening about that fact, and the only solution I can think of is this: Mr. President, please think before you tweet.
Ryan Gorman is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at r.gorman@cavalierdaily.com.
Read More
EDITORIAL: Celebrating and reflecting on The Cavalier Daily’s independence
By Editorial Board | 9 hours agoOur independence grants us the ability to ask the hard questions and to say what University representatives cannot.
ARRAS: U.Va. must revise the Sexual Assault Prevention Training module
By Aoife Arras | YesterdayIn addition to its failures in interactivity, the module lacks details specific to the University and discusses key concepts in universal terms.
EDITORIAL: Pedestrian safety is an institutional imperative
By Editorial Board | 3 days agoAmid a national crisis of pedestrian safety, Charlottesville and the University are also struggling to properly maintain pedestrian safety.
