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New research from the United States suggests that President Donald Trump is influencing bullying behaviour in the nation’s schools.
The study was conducted by Dewey Cornell, a national expert in school violence and bullying at the University of Virginia, and Francis Huang, an expert in quantitative research techniques at the University of Missouri.
In April, the authors of the study addressed the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in a presentation, entitled: “School Teasing and Bullying After the Presidential Election.”
They revealed that bullying in middle schools was 18% higher in GOP districts compared with Democratic districts. Almost 20% of middle school students in Republican regions reported being bullied, on average.
In Democratic districts, almost 17% of the students reported being bullied. Interestingly, bullying actually decreased a bit from 2015 to 2017 in schools located in districts that primarily voted for Hillary Clinton.
However, teasing about race or ethnicity was 9% higher in GOP districts than Democratic districts in 2017.
Jonathan Cohen, past president of the National School Climate Center and an adjunct professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, told WHYY that the study confirms that Trump is actually having an effect on America’s children.
“It’s not surprising. I’ve been hearing this in conversations I’ve been having with superintendents across America, an increase in students being mean and intentionally cruel, especially to immigrants,” Cohen said.
“It’s not that Trump alone is affecting how people think and feel and act – it’s that Trump in partnership with the local community.”
Cohen said that “if there is large segment of the parent community who are connected to racist, anti-immigrant sentiment, then Trump is giving permission to these people to give voice to that sentiment.”
Cornell and Huang’s research in Virginia echoes national reports conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has been publishing a monthly roundup of hate incidents at schools and conducting less scientific surveys with teachers around the country.
In March 2016 and again in December 2016, thousands of teachers reported that anti-immigrant sentiments were increasing in their schools.
Maureen Costello, director of the Teaching Tolerance project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, told WHYY that while school bullying is a common phenomenon, the use of political slogans to do so was unusual.
“Students would chant, ‘Build the wall,’ or ‘Trump, Trump, Trump,’ and aim those chants at Latinos,” Costello said.
“People described it as testosterone-drenched emboldened bullying behavior. I cannot recall a time when political slogans were used in schools to harass or threaten other people.”