I stand with Ahmed: My letter I sent to the principal

I read with shame about Ahmed Mohamed, the 11-year-old who made a clock at home andd brought it to school, only to be handcuffed away because it supposedly looked like a bomb.

WTF is wrong with people, that they'd punish a kid for doing something constructive with his time? It made me sick.

I wanted to share the letter I wrote to Principal Daniel Cummings. I wasn't hateful. Read for yourself, steal it if you want, and send an email yourself. Also, I encourage you to make a donation to the Council on American Islamic Relations. Empty complaining does nothing to change anything. Their donation link is here.

I know you're going to get a lot of hateful emails. I promise this isn't one of them.

I am pleading with you to drop all charges and disciplinary measures against Ahmed Mohamed, the child who made a homemade clock to bring to school.

We live in a society full of kids who only care about what the screen on their smartphone says. Wasting time on Snapchat, Xbox and like after like on Facebook. Here's a kid who isn't doing that. He's spending his time tinkering, creating gadgets. And one day, he may go on to do something great because of all that constructive work he's doing now.

And he's punished for it. That sends a message that you'd rather a child bury their nose in a smartphone than do something creative with their free time.

The one message I constantly hear in the media and in the field of education is how other countries have better test scores than we do. We lament the fact that other countries are supposedly light years ahead of us when it comes to math and science scores. But the one kid who seems to break that mold gets punished.

Why?

Please don't feed me the line about "our children's safety." No child's safety was compromised by a student bringing in a handmade clock. If anything, this is an instance of a child being bullied by a system that's supposed to help and educate.

I trust you'll take a step back, examine the situation, and act with courage and common sense. If not, I can only assume you'd rather Ahmed obsess over mindless activities instead of doing something great with his life.

God bless,

Dustin Faber