Bullying has been a major problem for ages affecting adults and children alike. Victims are targeted due to their race, religion, and sexual orientation. Bullies have now found a new excuse to victimize others, namely the rhetoric of Donald Trump. As shown in the disturbing video above, a large crowd of students at Royal Oak Middle School are chanting, “Build That Wall” while Mexican-American students sit with tears streaming down their faces:

As soon as the chants began, seventh-grader Josie Ramon, 12, said she pulled out her phone and captured the video to share with her mother. “Tears were running down my face,” said Josie, who is Mexican-American. “I was so upset. A friend went to the bathroom crying. Everybody was chanting along with it. She was scared. She looked really upset. I felt really bad for her.”

What wall are they chanting about? The wall Trump wants to build at the southern border:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jbfP5vS0SM

Here are other comments Trump made about Latin American immigration to the United States:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6QEqoYgQxw

Even black children are experiencing racial harassment from Trump supporters:

Welcome to the Trump era. Students wrote hate speech in bathrooms of Maple Grove high school in Minnesota. Not even children are safe. pic.twitter.com/weXILatKOS

— CallMeWin (@WintanaMN) November 10, 2016

These incidences represent only a few of the barrage of harassment people of color are experiencing via the Trump Effect. Naturally, parents of the victims are angry and some are frightened. Parents must demand that schools protect their children. Trump’s election to the highest office in the land legitimizes racial and ethnic intimidation in the eyes of bullies. Whether one feels that Trump or “home training” is responsible for all of this does not change the undeniable fact the impressionable children are using Trump’s rhetoric to bully others. How can we teach our children that we must be tolerant of those different from us when when an individual elected by tens of millions of people voices the same sentiments they use to harass their victims? Contrary to what many believe, it is possible to validate students regardless of their support for any particular candidate while maintaining a an environment that will not tolerate bullying of any kind.

Lorraine M. Nowlin
Staff Writer, Beyond Black & White Kids
Independent Consultant at Touchstone Crystal by Swarovski
Consultant, Rodan + Fields