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demmiblue

(36,742 posts)
Thu Feb 13, 2020, 01:09 PM Feb 2020

Trump's words, bullied kids, scarred schools

The president’s rhetoric has changed the way hundreds of children are harassed in American classrooms, The Post found

Two kindergartners in Utah told a Latino 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.

“She knows that bullying is a universal problem for children that will be difficult to stop in its entirety,” Grisham wrote in an email, “but Mrs. Trump will continue her work on behalf of the next generation despite the media’s appetite to blame her for actions and situations outside of her control.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/local/school-bullying-trump-words/
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Trump's words, bullied kids, scarred schools (Original Post) demmiblue Feb 2020 OP
Don the Con, is such a major asshole spreading fear, hatefulness RKP5637 Feb 2020 #1
This is heartbreaking democrank Feb 2020 #2
That is a wonderful article. My parents would have denounced Trump's behavior and woe betide Karadeniz Feb 2020 #3
Making America grate again Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Feb 2020 #4

RKP5637

(67,030 posts)
1. Don the Con, is such a major asshole spreading fear, hatefulness
Thu Feb 13, 2020, 01:28 PM
Feb 2020

and discrimination. I hope his ass gets voted out of office and he and his empire fall apart into disgust and shame.

Karadeniz

(22,267 posts)
3. That is a wonderful article. My parents would have denounced Trump's behavior and woe betide
Thu Feb 13, 2020, 02:44 PM
Feb 2020

The child who experimented with hatefulness. One wonders what sort of role models these parents present and how the children are treated at home. It can't be good. Perhaps when bullies are caught, child protective services needs to speak with the family. Teaching or condoning hatefulness is child abuse because it poisons their minds, crippling their thinking now and for the future.

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