According to a recent Southern Poverty Law Center survey of 2,000 teachers, the presidential campaign is having a negative impact on school-aged children across the country.
Lily Eskelsen Garcia, who was the Utah Teacher of the Year in 1989 and is now the president of the National Education Association, says there’s something very different about what young children are learning compared to what they are seeing during the presidential campaign.
“And we’ve never had this uptick in child harassment—kids feeling like they’ve been given permission to bully other kids because they feel like they’re superior to those kids," Garcia said.
According to Garcia, this increase in bullying is a result of the republican presidential candidate’s negative comments.
“It’s true that campaigns can be very negative—in fact I think that’s just the definition of campaigns now. No one has ever seen anything like what we’re seeing now," she said.
Garcia said bullying will never be tolerated in schools.
“We have to deal with the "Trump effect" now or we’ll be dealing with it for
years," Garcia said.
She also said two things need to happen. First, bullying needs to stop in schools and teachers need to make sure students know that bullying will not be allowed. Second:
“We absolutely need parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, big brothers and sisters, neighbors on the street, scout leaders—we need everybody who actually can give an opinion about Donald Trump," Garcia added. "And to tell your kids what you think of what he’s saying. To tell your kids, listen to this and here’s why this is wrong.”
