Ionic icon as button

I have a search bar at the header and wish to be able to link a click event to one icon.

Here is the header code:

<ion-nav-title>
    <div class="item-input-inset" style="padding:5px">
        <label class="item-input-wrapper" style="background-color:#FFF">
            <i class="icon ion-ios-search placeholder-icon" style="font-size:20px"></i>
            <input ng-model="search_text" type="text" placeholder="Search"
                   style="width:100%;height:33px"
                   focus-me my-enter="new_search(search_text)">
            <i class="icon ion-android-close placeholder-icon" style="font-size:20px;" ng-click="clear_search_text()"></i>
        </label>
    </div>
</ion-nav-title>

As can be seen, there are two icons. the second one has a ng-click that never fires once tapped. In fact, when clicked, it’s like i had clicked on the input.

Is there any solution for this situation?