The Washington Post reports that school bullying is following the model created by the Big Bully in the White House, who delights in ridiculing others.
Two kindergartners in Utah told aLatino boy that President Trump would send him back to Mexico, and teenagers in Maine sneered “Ban Muslims” at a classmate wearing a hijab. In Tennessee, a group of middle-schoolers linked arms, imitating the president’s proposed border wall as they refused to let nonwhite students pass. In Ohio, another group of middle-schoolers surrounded a mixed-race sixth-grader and, as she confided to her mother, told the girl: “This is Trump country.”
Since Trump’s rise to the nation’s highest office, his inflammatory language — often condemned as racist and xenophobic — has seeped into schools across America. Many bullies now target other children differently than they used to, with kids as young as 6 mimicking the president’s insults and the cruel way he delivers them.
Trump’s words, those chanted by his followers at campaign rallies and even his last name have been wielded by students and school staff members to harass children more than 300 times since the start of 2016, a Washington Post review of 28,000 news stories found. At least three-quarters of the attacks were directed at kids who are Hispanic, black or Muslim, according to the analysis. Students have also been victimized because they support the president — more than 45 times during the same period.
Although many hateful episodes garnered coverage just after the election, The Post found that Trump-connected persecution of children has never stopped. Even without the huge total from November 2016, an average of nearly two incidents per school week have been publicly reported over the past four years. Still, because so much of the bullying never appears in the news, The Post’s figure represents a small fraction of the actual total. It also doesn’t include the thousands of slurs, swastikas and racial epithets that aren’t directly linked to Trump but that the president’s detractors argue his behavior has exacerbated.
“It’s gotten way worse since Trump got elected,” said Ashanty Bonilla, 17, a Mexican American high school junior in Idaho who faced so much ridicule from classmates last year that she transferred. “They hear it. They think it’s okay. The president says it. . . . Why can’t they?”
Asked about Trump’s effect on student behavior, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham noted that first lady Melania Trump — whose “Be Best” campaign denounces online harassment — had encouraged kids worldwide to treat one another with respect.
Asked about Trump’s effect on student behavior, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham noted that first lady Melania Trump — whose “Be Best” campaign denounces online harassment — had encouraged kids worldwide to treat one another with respect.
Melania lost a lot of my respect when she dated Trump, a married man. She was the person who put the Medal of Freedom around Rush Limbaugh’s neck. She has no problem being photographed nude and those photos are available online.
She needs to clean out the bullying in her own house. Children do not respect each other when Trump is their role model.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate group activity, surveyed 2,000 teachers nationwide on the effect the election was having on their classrooms. They reported an increase of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim discourse and harassment against minority students; of the 5,000 survey responses, more than 1,000 cited Trump specifically.
In the 10 days after Trump was elected, the SPLC tallied 867 election-related instances of harassment and intimidation, 183 of which were reported to have taken place at K-12 schools. And a follow-up survey of more than 10,000 educators found that reports of such harassment had “skyrocketed” since the last survey and that 80 percent of respondents described a heightened anxiety among minority students in the weeks following the election.
“She was the person who put the Medal of Freedom around Rush Limbaugh’s neck.”
Thank you. This is the bottom line.
I am positive that the next time the NY Times writes a fawning article about how Melania Trump is so concerned about bullying, they will include a disclaimer like “some critics who hate Melanie disagree but we at the NY Times are far too busy to explain why anyone would not think that Melania was a wonderful promoter of anti-bullying but you should definitely assume that the only reason is rabid hatred and partisanship because she really has done so much to fight bullying.”
If that complicit newspaper was interested in reporting the news instead of worried about being called “unfair” for not reporting propaganda, every further article they write about Melania’s anti-bullying campaign would be required to include “Melania Trump, who believes that bullying done by Rush Limbaugh needs to be rewarded, was asked if she would also give medals to children who treat others the way Rush Limbaugh treats others. Melania Trump’s reply to that was……??”
But that will never be asked and the reporters will continue to report fawningly about Melania’s anti-bullying campaign because everything a republican says must be presented as the absolute truth with only “enemies” who disagree with it.
We know that trickle down economics does not work. Trickle down hate, bias and intimidation are real problems in schools when the commander in chief models vile, anti-social behavior. Trump is leading by bad example, and the Republican party and evangelicals are modeling cowardice.
Exactly right, retired teacher.
The uptick of “hate” in this country is visible and most concerning. Those trump rallies are havens of hate.
cowardice and the need to follow a crowd (cult behavior)
For the most part, the kids in the integrated Florida high school I taught in for several years recently weren’t racists.
However, during the 2016 election, a bunch of Senior boys were in the hall chanting, “Build the wall. Build the wall. Hitler had the right idea.”
The $^&$@&@#!! flows downhill, doesn’t it.
I was teaching one group that reacted much the same way to the Trump campaign. I had to make it very plain that (!) I would not tell them my political preferences because my mother had taught me better than that, (2) any harassment of their fellow students would result I harsh discipline, and (3) it is a fundamental wrong to treat people I ways you would not enjoy being visited upon yourself. This sermon was at least effective in crushing such behavior around me. I think the ring leader of such sort of liked me, so he was influenced to tamp down his most revolting behavior out of personal respect.
Since Trump is so universally supported around here, most people who do not agree with this position have learned to be silent. Here the consent of the minority comes through fear of being intimidated by the majority.
Trump Bill of Rights:
The right of the majority shall not be infringed upon concerning forcing the minority to accept
I. one religion
II. majority half–truth
III. harassment
IV. murder
V. Executive manipulation of the judiciary
VI. well, you get the idea
In the school where I worked at the time, this nonsense started almost immediately after Trump’s election.