DALLAS » Nearly a year after Irving police arrested and interrogated him for bringing a homemade clock to school, Ahmed Mohamed said today that he still feels the hate. And it hurts.

“I get a lot of hate. I got a lot of support in the beginning but it’s the hate that sticks,” said Ahmed, 14. “I get death threats. What did I ever do to someone to get death threats?”

Irving’s so-called “clock boy” made his comments today in Dallas where he, his parents and their lawyers announced a federal lawsuit against the city of Irving, the Irving Independent School District and MacArthur High School Principal Daniel Cummings.

The Hutchison & Stoy law firm of Fort Worth is representing Ahmed’s father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, in the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.

The suit alleges Ahmed’s civil rights were violated last September after Irving police mistook his clock for a bomb.

“Despite the fact that they knew it wasn’t a bomb, that he never threatened anyone, that he never said it was a bomb, that he never alarmed anyone,” said co-plaintiff attorney, Susan Hutchison. “Despite all of those things, they yanked him out of his chair, put him in handcuffs and arrested him. There was no cause for arrest.”

Hutchinson said the lawsuit was based on the Equal Protection Clause and Title VI. She also asserted that the school district has a history of discrimination.

The U.S. Department of Justice is currently investigating the school district on complaints of harassment and discipline of students on the basis of race, religion and national origin.

Representatives for Irving ISD said in a written statement Monday that district administrators are aware of the Mohamed suit, and district attorneys will respond to its claims after they review them.

“Irving ISD continues to deny violating the student’s rights and will respond to claims in accordance with court rules,” the statement said. “Because this matter is now in litigation, Irving ISD officials will have no further comment at this time. Irving ISD employees are focused on welcoming 35,000 students for the 2016-17 academic year and doing everything possible to ensure each student is achieving his or her maximum potential.”

Irving city officials said in a statement that they have not yet been served the litigation, but maintained that their handling of Ahmed last year was “justifiable.”

“The city of Irving is prepared to vigorously defend itself and the justifiable actions it took in this matter. The legal process will allow all facts to be revealed, and the city welcomes that opportunity,” the statement said. “The city of Irving’s top priority is to ensure the safety and security of its children and the entire community. The city will continue to take its duty and responsibility to serve and protect the public seriously.”

Also Monday, Ahmed revealed that when he was arrested, a school resource officer “made some indirect comments like, ‘that’s who I thought it was,’ ” he said.

The family has asked the school and city to apologize.

“The thing is you shouldn’t have to ask to be apologized to,” Ahmed said. “They should apologize automatically because they did something wrong.”

In the incident last September, both police and Cummings interrogated Ahmed about the clock for more than an hour and prohibited him from having his parents present. The suit alleges that Ahmed, an African-American Muslim, was discriminated against based on his race and religion and that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated when he was questioned by police and Cummings.

Irving police eventually arrested the boy at MacArthur High School on charges of possession of a hoax bomb. The charges were later dropped, but he was suspended from MacArthur High for three days.

Ahmed and his family moved to Qatar in October, but the family returned to Irving in June for the summer.

“Will we be faithful to our American principles of equality and freedom or will we let fear and hate prevail, the two biggest evils that will defeat our democracy?” the suit asks. “History tells us that when we have stood tall and proud for equality and freedom, we have grown as a nation. When we have given in to fear and hate, we flounder.”

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(Staff Writer Caleb Downs contributed to this report.)

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©2016 The Dallas Morning News