GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump's fiery campaign talk about illegal immigrants and Muslims scares minority children, according to a survey of teachers.
The survey by the left-leaning Southern Poverty Law Center – titled "The Trump Effect: The Impact of the Presidential Campaign on Our Nation's Schools" – reports the White House race has led to more bullying of "students whose races, religions or nationalities have been the verbal targets of candidates."
"My students are terrified of Donald Trump," one teacher from a middle school with a big black Muslim population said in the online survey,
the SPLC says in a release.
"They think that if he’s elected, all black people will get sent back to Africa."
The SPLC reports a lower-school teacher in Oregon said her black students are "concerned for their safety because of what they see on TV at Trump rallies," while in Tennessee, a kindergarten teacher said a Latino child – told by classmates he'll be deported and blocked by a wall from coming home – asks every day, "Is the wall here yet?"
The SPLC reports some teachers claim students use the word "Trump" as a taunt, while another teacher tells the online survey a fifth-grader declared to a Muslim student he was supporting Trump "because he was going to kill all of the Muslims if he became president."
"We’re deeply concerned about the level of fear among minority children who feel threatened by both the incendiary campaign rhetoric and the bullying they’re encountering in school," Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen said in a statement.
"We’ve seen Donald Trump behave like a 12-year-old, and now we’re seeing 12-year-olds behave like Donald Trump."
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