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P. 5
U.S. NEWS A5
Tuesday 20 October 2015
Student arrested for homemade clock visits White House
KEVIN FREKING port and said he’s OK
with the nickname that
Associated Press so many have given him
over the past few weeks
WASHINGTON (AP) — — “clock kid.” He said the
lesson of his experience is:
Ahmed Mohamed, the “Don’t judge a person by
the way they look. Always
Texas teenager arrested af- judge them by their heart.”
Ahmed’s family is looking
ter a homemade clock he at several options for a new
school. He hopes to even-
brought to school was mis- tually go to the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology
taken for a bomb, capped and become an engineer.
Before the White House
a whirlwind month with a event, he got to tour labs
at the National Institute of
visit to the White House on Standards and Technology.
The White House invitation
Monday. has brought some back-
lash. Republican presiden-
Ahmed got a personal tial candidate Ted Cruz
complained that Obama
invitation from President didn’t give law enforce-
ment officials the same re-
Barack Obama for “As- spect he’s giving Ahmed.
White House spokesman
tronomy Night.” The presi- Josh Earnest said Monday
the president has made
dent uses the event to en- clear in many settings the
respect he has for law en-
courage students to pursue forcement officers.
Earnest said several hun-
careers in science, tech- dred people will attend
the astronomy event, so he
nology, engineering and doubted there would be
any one-on-one meeting
mathematics.
Last month, Ahmed
brought the clock to his
school to show a teach-
er, but another teacher
thought it could be a
bomb. The school contact-
ed police, who ultimate-
ly chose not to charge
Ahmed with having a hoax
bomb, though he was sus- Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old who was arrested at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas for
allegedly bringing a hoax bomb to school, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press,
pended from school. Monday, Oct. 19, 2015, in Washington. Mohamed is in Washington for a visit to the White House for
White House Astronomy Night.
Obama subsequently
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Tweeted an invitation to
Ahmed and said the U.S.
should inspire more kids like between the president and House on Monday night will meteorites. They will also
Ahmed. get the chance to explore meet with astronauts and
him to enjoy science. The students visiting the samples of rocks from the peer at the planets and
South Lawn of the White moon, Mars and various stars from telescopes. q
Ahmed said he was grate-
ful for the president’s sup-
Secure treatment, probation for US teen in school plot case
WASECA, Minnesota (AP) LaDue will serve five to 10 returns, The Free Press of ily then go to the school, kill the sentence and LaDue’s
— A teenager with autism years of probation, includ- Mankato reported. the school’s police liaison placement at Devereux
spectrum disorder who told ing an unspecified amount “The Waseca community officer, then kill as many of Georgia in Georgia.
authorities he was planning of time at a secure treat- likely has a role to play in his fellow students as pos- LaDue declined to say any-
a massacre at a school in ment facility for autism minimizing the risk of dan- sible by setting off bombs thing before the judge sen-
Minnesota was sentenced spectrum disorder patients, ger in the future,” Chase and shooting them in the tenced him.
Monday to up to 10 years the Star Tribune reported. said. ensuring confusion. He initially was charged as
of probation, which will be- He will eventually move to LaDue was 17 when au- He directed police to an a juvenile with attempted
gin with treatment at a se- a halfway house and then thorities say he plotted an extensive handwritten jour- murder and eight other
cure facility. supervision. attack at Waseca Junior- nal detailing his plans and counts including damage
John LaDue, 18, was sen- In giving the sentence, Senior High School. In April admitted setting off in- to property and possession
tenced in Waseca County Judge Joseph Chase re- 2014, a witness called po- cendiary devices around of a bomb by someone
District Court on one count flected on the fear caused lice after she saw LaDue Waseca. under 18. But the attempt-
of possessing an explo- in the community because enter a storage locker. Po- Both Waseca County Attor- ed murder and property-
sive device. LaDue ear- of the crime, LaDue’s diag- lice found him with bomb- ney Brenda Miller and Ste- damage charges were dis-
lier pleaded guilty to the nosis of autism spectrum making materials, and he phen Ferrazzano from the missed, and a judge later
charge, and five other simi- disorder and the need for told authorities that he public defender’s office certified him to stand trial
lar counts were dropped. reintegration when LaDue planned to shoot his fam- said they were satisfied with as an adult.q
