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Less than a day after news broke that a 14-year-old Muslim boy had been arrested for having a homemade alarm clock that was mistaken for a bomb, expressions of support began flowing in from within his community, around the country, and even from the White House.

Given the potentially life-changing consequences from even a brief interaction with the juvenile justice system, the show of solidarity for Ahmed Mohamed may offer real help for the teen and his family.

鈥淪ocial support and community support 鈥� those can offset risk,鈥� says Shawn Marsh, chief program officer for juvenile law at the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. Children in the juvenile justice system, he adds, 鈥渆xperience a massive amount of risk. With the right protective factors they can get support and develop robustness.鈥�

The incident began about 20 minutes before bedtime on Sunday, when Ahmed assembled the clock for homework, 聽reported. After a teacher at his Irving, Texas, school raised the suspicion that it looked like a bomb, he found himself pulled out of class and in a room with the school principal and five police officers.

鈥淭hey interrogated me and searched through my stuff,鈥� he said in 聽with the Morning News.

Ahmed was then escorted from the school in handcuffs, an officer on each arm, and taken to a juvenile detention center. He had his fingerprints and mug shot taken. His parents arrived to pick him up before he saw the inside of a jail cell.

He said the experience 鈥渕ade me feel like I wasn鈥檛 human.鈥�

While he wasn鈥檛 incarcerated 鈥� and will not face charges, the Irving Police Department announced 鈥撀� just getting arrested and processed can have negative effects on a young student. Being escorted out of school in handcuffs has its own consequences, according to Mr. Marsh.聽

鈥淗e鈥檚 experienced the stigma, the shame, of being arrested, paraded out of school,鈥� he says. The effects of this so-called 聽can be harsher for teenagers, he adds, who are especially sensitive to how they鈥檙e perceived by their peers.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a very heightened sense of 鈥楨veryone鈥檚 looking at me,鈥� 鈥� says Marsh.

Everyone was looking at Ahmed Wednesday, but most were looking to provide support and solidarity.聽

The hashtag #IStandWithAhmed was trending on Twitter all day on Wednesday. Ahmed himself opened his own Twitter account Wednesday morning (handle: @IStandWithAhmed) and had more than 37,000 followers by Wednesday afternoon. The account鈥檚 profile picture is the now-iconic photo of Ahmed in handcuffs and his NASA T-shirt. The north Texas chapter for the Council on American-Islamic Relations has said it鈥檚 investigating Ahmed鈥檚 arrest.

In the hours since he set the account up, Ahmed has been invited to visit NASA, 听(丑颈蝉 ), and the White House 鈥� a personal invitation聽from President Obama.

Experts think the show of solidarity could help offset any potential stigma or shame Ahmed may feel as a result of his arrest 鈥� solidarity that other, lower-profile students in Ahmed鈥檚 position rarely receive.聽

Jason Nance, an associate professor of law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, writes in an article soon to be published by the Arizona State Law Journal, that one 鈥渟hould not underestimate the negative effects of arresting a student, even when that arrest does not lead to conviction and incarceration.鈥�

鈥淚f an arrested student is readmitted to school, that student often suffers from emotional trauma, stigma, and embarrassment and may be monitored more closely by [campus police officers], school officials, and teachers,鈥� he writes.

One student in Chicago, Keshaundra Neal,聽 how after being arrested at 13 for walking past a fight, her teachers "treated me differently."

"They saw me as someone who got into fights and got arrested," she added.

Schools across the country are becoming increasingly reliant聽on law enforcement to discipline students, which critics of the practice say can lead to further disengagement from school and increased delinquency.

"What happened to this student happens all the time to students of color in schools," says Shaun Harper, executive director for the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education at the University of Pennsylvania who recently published a on 13 Southern states where black students are disproportionately suspended and expelled.聽"Most other students who are suspended, expelled, unfairly disciplined in schools 鈥� most of them go unknown and have no supporters and are made to feel like what they did is wrong, even though what they did may not have been wrong."聽

"This case is very rare," he adds. "This student is getting the support he deserves."