Muslim students are twice as likely to be bullied by their peers, and rates are rising in the Trump era:
After hearing stories from educators nationwide about the recent surge in bullying, Maureen Costello, director of the Teaching Tolerance program at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), decided to investigate. During the election, Costello sent a questionnaire to thousands of educators across the country. The results were startling. Over 90 percent of educators reported that school climate had been negatively affected by the election. In an earlier survey last March, with over 5,000 respondents, more than 1,000 mentioned Donald Trump — five times more than the other politicians mentioned in the survey combined.
"The elephant in the room was that Mr. Trump's campaign had an effect. We could not avoid the fact that children were imitating him both in word, tone and behavior, said Costello.
— www.npr.org/...
A Florida sheriff’s office said Friday that it is investigating the videotaped beating of a Muslim teenager by three other girls that was posted on Facebook.
Palm Beach County sheriff’s spokeswoman Teri Barbera said deputies are working with school officials to investigate the beating of the 14-year-old and added charges could be filed. It happened at a park near West Boca High School, which the Muslim girl attends. — wsvn.com/...
The story has now hit the national media:
CBS affiliate WPEC spoke with the teen's father over Facetime because he is currently out of the country. He said this wasn't the first time his daughter was harassed and teased for being Muslim at the school.
"Sometimes she says that they make fun of her because she is a Muslim, calling her terrorist, and I used to tell her don't take it serious, they're just making fun of you," he said.
— www.cbsnews.com/...
CJ also has an article up at Middle East Eye:
Teachers across the country have reported a wave of bullying in the schoolyard since US President Donald Trump's presidential campaign began more than two years ago. "We've had more racial incidents in the last 12 months than there has been here in years," said Michael Zilles, president of a teachers association in Massachusetts. [...]
A Muslim man in Folsom, California, who asked to remain anonymous, told me: "A young Muslim kid of 10 was threatened by two older kids at the local swimming pool…the two older kids threatened to kill him and tried to drown him before he managed to escape." When I asked him to elaborate more on the story, he said this attack took place over the summer, and that "it was clearly an attack based on his religion as the boys made certain anti-Muslim comments".
Other respondents told me how their kids were routinely accused of "belonging to ISIS" or being "terrorists", while one parent said her 14-year-old daughter found a note on her bag that read: "Muslims are banned in America. Goodbye", clearly referencing Trump's proposed Muslin immigration ban. — www.middleeasteye.net/...
You should not expect Donald Trump to change his ways, or be shamed into doing anything different. After all, this is the same man who led a media lynch mob demanding that five young black/brown children be executed in the Central Park jogger rape case. The NYPD wrongly extracted confessions (without lawyers) from 14, 15 and 16 year old children and they served years in jail before they were exonerated and the actual perpetrator was arrested. Even after they were exonerated, Trump continued to insist they were guilty.
Trump, who is himself an accused rapist and serial sexual assaulter, demanded that five children be executed for a crime they did not commit. He has never apologized for doing so.
A 70 year old man who has gotten away with defrauding, assaulting and threatening people his entire life, is not suddenly going to change his ways. Why would he when he has a coterie of supportive racist enablers rallying to his cause?
Advocates say President Donald Trump, who has called Muslims everything from a “sickness” to “ISIS” is to blame for the rise in faith-based harassment.
“Even those who are bystanders and observing an event of bullying happening, their mental health gets impacted,” Farha Abbasi, founder of the Muslim Mental Health Conference and Michigan State University professor, said. — www.newsweek.com/...
Trump is a bully who enjoys preying on the vulnerable, whether they be minorities, women, or children.
Democrats who insist we should “move on” need to take a long hard look at the sexual violence and bullying that the president has gotten away with.
They need to understand how “moving on” enables and exacerbates such violence.
They need to look around and see how their attitude allows Trump supporters to claim “these women are only trotted out before elections”, and “these women are paid liars”.
They need to come to the realization that it is both political malpractice, and a moral abdication to “move on” from sexual assault allegations against the president of the United States.
And if they still want to “move on”, we should bloody well “move on” from such Democrats as well.
— @subirgrewal