I'm white and I got suspended because people on the hockey team who had been bullying me for years alleged I owned books containing bomb-making instructions. It

I'm white and I got suspended because people on the hockey team who had been bullying me for years alleged I owned books containing bomb-making instructions. It took my mom arguing my case in a special meeting with the principal, a rep from the district, and a guidance counselor to get claims of anti-semetism removed from my record (because I was and am an atheist and had expressed the viewpoint that religion was a social ill). If I had brought to school what Ahmed did, I probably would have been dropped with two to the chest and one in the head by the school cop and then double-tapped on the ground. Maybe I just would have been tased, handcuffed, arrested, and recommended for expulsion as per the school district's zero tolerance policy, but since I had long hair and wore lots of black clothing at the time my school probably regarded me as the most likely Columbine copycat candidate and would have reacted appropriately. Ironically, this was in an affluent area with plenty of wealthy foreigners living in the US. There were a few Muslim students at my school, and aside from juvenile idiots I'm sure there was almost no islamophobia, and certainly none on the institutional level. But everyone has stereotypes they fear, and if you fall into that as a child in the school system god help you.