According to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, 90% educators say the school climate has been “negatively affected” after Donald Trump won the election.
As part of the report, teachers described hate incidents that occurred in their schools post-election.
Human rights leaders and education activists called on Trump to reconsider his recent cabinet appointments including those of Stephen Bannon, Gen. Mike Flynn, and Sen. Jeff Sessions.
These appointments, said Brenda Abdelall of Muslim Advocates, "indicate that bigoted and divisive rhetoric that we saw in the campaign will continue as matter of policy and practice."
“Mr. Trump claims he’s surprised his election has unleashed a barrage of hate across the country,” SPLC President Richard Cohen said at the conference. “But he shouldn’t be. It’s the predictable result of the campaign he waged. Rather than feign surprise, Mr. Trump should take responsibility for what’s occurring, forcefully reject hate and bigotry, reach out to the communities he’s injured, and follow his words with actions to heal the wounds his words have opened.”
The report said that the biggest fear of Trump came from immigrants, with nearly 1,000 teachers naming “deportation” or family separation as a major concern among students.
An early childhood teacher in Tennessee, cited in the report, said that despite her students coming from middle-class, educated families and diverse cultures, one Muslim girl clung to her kindergarten teacher on Nov. 9 and asked, "Are they going to do anything to me? Am I safe?"
A middle school counselor in Florida said that "students were suicidal and without hope" as "fights, disrespect have increased."
A middle school teacher in Pennsylvania said that many of Hispanic and Muslim students were "crying and so scared the day after Trump won."
"My Muslim students wondered why America didn’t like them. It’s been tough and emotionally exhausting," the teacher said.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/2gg3bTQ
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