The nation's largest union, the National Education Association, launched a coordinated campaign yesterday in 14 states and 2 congressional districts aimed at linking Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's deplorable comments to a sharp rise in classroom bullying.
According to the union, Trump has normalized bullying and kids have noticed.
“We are going to do everything humanly possible to make sure that we have a president who will be a good role model for children,” NEA President Lily Eskelsen García said. “Donald Trump is not on that list, but Hillary Clinton is.” [...]
“Kids feel like they have been given permission, and they are invoking the name of Donald Trump,” she said.
Here in southwestern Ohio, the most common political ad I've seen on television is the Clinton campaign ad featuring Trump making a series of gross comments about women as young girls look into the mirror at home. I don't have children but I do have two nieces and it sticks with me every time I see it.
Trump's language undoubtedly seeps into the minds of children who see a presidential nominee and the leader of one of our two majority political parties saying these kinds of terrible things. There have been many reports over the past year of kids taunting other students by chanting Trump's name or slogans, or by telling them they're going to be deported.
The Southern Poverty Law Center published a comprehensive report earlier this year on the "Trump Effect" that has altered the atmosphere in schools across the country.
The National Education Association has over 2.9 million members and a super-majority of them are women.