Hillary Clinton said Sunday night that Donald Trump was poisoning young minds with his campaign rhetoric, and argued that it was affecting the way kids interact with other kids in a negative way.
“Children listen to what is being said. There is a lot of fear. Parents and teachers are calling it the ‘Trump effect.’ Bullying is up,” she said.
The claim relating to Trump’s supposed schoolyard influence was based on a survey by the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center released in April. That study warned the election was producing “an alarming level of fear and anxiety among children of color and inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in the classroom. Many students worry about being deported.” It said that Trump was the cause most frequently cited.
The authors of the study conceded the survey of about 2,000 K-12 teachers was “not scientific,” however. “Our email subscribers and those who visit our website are not a random sample of teachers nationally, and those who chose to respond to our survey are likely to be those who are most concerned about the impact of the presidential campaign on their students and schools,” they said.
Teachers unions and the Democratic National Committee have nevertheless promoted the study repeatedly.
