This year's U.S. presidential campaign—particularly on the Republican side where Donald Trump is continuing to stir emotions—is having a strong impact in America's classrooms, according to a new survey.
The report on the survey released by the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) says the race for the White House is stoking fears and racial tensions in U.S. schools as kids are picking up the aggressive and divisive statements being uttered by the candidates, particularly Trump, the Huffington Post reports.
The report, titled "The Trump Effect: The Impact of the Presidential Campaign on our Nation's Schools," says more than two-thirds of the teachers who took the survey reported that their students — mainly Muslims, immigrants and children of immigrants — were worried about what could happen to them and their families after the November election.
More than one-third of the more than 2,000 teachers who participated in the SPLC survey said they have seen an increase in anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment among their students as well.
"My students are terrified of Donald Trump. They think that if he's elected, all black people will get sent back to Africa," one middle school teacher told the SPLC.
"I have had Muslim students called terrorists," said another teacher who submitted comments to the survey.
"There is a boy from Mexico, who is a citizen, who is terrified that the country will deport him if Trump wins," wrote another teacher. "He is also scared that kids and grown-ups can and will hurt him."
The SPLC report identifies two troubling trends in American schools: more openly racist and vicious bullying of minorities, and more fear and anxiety among immigrants and minorities about what would happen to them if certain candidates for president are elected.
The survey did not name specific candidates, but the teachers named Trump in more than 1,000 comments — five times more often than they mentioned any of the other candidates.
The SPLC report says American students appear to be adopting Trump's attitude, including name-calling and scapegoating. Kids are expressing more hatred for more people, the teachers said.
"So many of my students have begun to show hatred towards refugees, low-income and poverty citizens, and there has been an increase in religious bias," one teacher wrote. Other educators shared similar sentiments in the survey comments.
