Did you assume the teacher who told children their parents will be deported was racist?

They could be racist or they could hate Trump and be terrified and have said a very stupid thing to their students. Either way, awful, but no I didn’t make assumptions.

I am hearing very sad things about white children yelling “Build the wall” at Latino children in the cafeteria. Makes me sick. What kind of parent teaches their child that hatred?

@Mariah I just really wonder how much of it is happening and how much of it is true? I don’t doubt for a second there are some kids and adults saying horrible things to other adults and children, but when it gets into the social media and media realm it’s hard to gauge how much of it is really happening, if the teasing, taunting, and bullying has really increased, etc. it seems all around us once it’s in the media even when it isn’t. Hard to know.

I really believe some of the problem is Trump, and some is overzealous liberals either truly freaking out themselves (I do believe many liberals are really frightened) or purposely winding people, including kids, up more, which is something they can roll out as an example of the terrible things Trump is causing.

There are probably over exaggerated claims, but Build the Wall has happened in at least a few places for real. It happened in the elementary school district my parents live in, which is a very conservative gun-loving suburb of Pittsburgh.

The millennials are fine, people my age are for the most part very liberal, free-thinking, independent from their parents. It’s the little kids who know nothing but what their parents think that I’m worried about right now.

I agree its not all Trump supporters, the intense fear many of us are feeling right now is a contributing factor that we should get into check. The kids don’t need to hear the worst case scenarios right now, though we should all be aware of the atrocities that could very well happen.

@Mariah Sure, I don’t want any adults to have their head in the sand. Not now, not ever. I do think we can shield very young children from most of it for now. Nothing is actually happening yet. He isn’t even president yet. The build a wall chant is awful, and I don’t doubt some kids have caught onto it, and used it against other children.

It’s about what Trump said, the tsunami of hate he raised up with his hateful rhetoric.. And some of this may be made up, but lots is definitely not. I witnessed and intervened in an incident last Thursday. It did not involve children but a young attractive woman being harassed by men invoking Trump’s name. In my educated town in my very blue state.
But after all is said and done, how many non-manufactured incidents do there have to be to promote real outrage?
Stuff is definitely happening. I don’t believe that the “overzealous liberals” are “winding people up” so much as reacting to the reports they(we) hear, or the things they(we) see.

The Klan and neo-Nazis are excited about their new ally in the White House.

White nationalists see advocate in Steve Bannon who will hold Trump to his campaign promises

I’m seriously talking to people about how to support our undocumented friends. We’re not talking about ribbons and Facebook likes, we are planning to feed and shelter them if they’re hounded out of jobs and hunted by deportation patrols.

I realize that I didn’t answer your question. “Racist”? Maybe not exactly, but definitely bigoted against the Hispanic population. One would have to have the deductive reasoning skills of a gnat to not realize how frightening such statements would be to children. Threatening them with foster care? With the loss of there parents? This wasn’t any kind of warning, this was malice.

Ack! “Their” not there…

What a pig. People should find out where he lives and terrify him and see how he likes it.
What the hell is wrong with people.
I have to try really hard to remember that there are millions in this country and we are bound to run into an a hole every once in while in all walks of life.
My biggest question is, if you can be that mean to children, why are you even working with children? Why? He couldn’t be a janitor and clean toilets.
No one should be able to call themselves a man if you have to target children with your hate. Bet he wouldn’t say it to a grown man his size.

Oh, I see I didn’t answer. Yes or no. He is either a racist pig or really hates children and shouldn’t be anywhere near them. EVER!

There is no need for assumption. The teacher’s own statements as recorded by the student make it crystal clear what his intentions were, to wit:

“If you were born here, then your parents got to go. Then they will leave you behind, and you will be in foster care,” the teacher can be heard telling Reynaga’s 11-year-old daughter.

When the sixth grader asked how Trump would find them, the teacher replied, “I have your phone numbers, your address, your mama’s address, your daddy’s address. It’s all in the system, sweetie.”

That is the very same type of threat made to school children in Germany after 1936 who were either the wrong race or for one reason or another were slow to join the Hitler Youth.

I can’t imagine any adult, much less a teacher, speaking to an eleven year old like that. Permanently pulling his teacher’s cert isn’t enough. I’m sorry guys, but I personally believe animals like this need to be given the same medicine as the Nazis gave out: Drag his ass into the street and shoot him.

Technically bigot is more correct for my question, because Hispanic is not a race. I just used the word racist, because that’s the word the news outlets were using.

I’m going to veer off a little and say I got into a heated discussion with a friend in facebook who said his 8 year old daughter was very upset some of her friends might be deported because Trump was elected. I told him kids that age don’t need to be so aware of some of the fears adults have regarding Trump being elected and immigrants. He said he was going to lie to his daughter. I said you certainly can reassure her and limit her exposure to the details of what’s going on. He doubled down that he wouldn’t lie and got incensed that I might be criticizing his parenting. He is quite outspoken on facebook about politics, very liberal, and hates the idea of Trump. He, like many liberals, make it sound like Trump threatened to get rid of all people with darker skin than his daughter. That’s how he worded it regarding who is the target.

Sorry, but I think he just helps his kid feel afraid. I do believe he tries to reassure her also, but kids pick up in their parents fears, especially if that parent already insists on telling their very little children “the truth.” It’s bad enough Trump is happy to have KKK supporters and people chanting “lock her up” and “build the wall” but people afraid of him still don’t need to involve their kids under the age of 10. I barely saw a political ad for because I fast forward through commercials usually. I doubt he was advertising on stations very young children watch. No reason for little children to be consistently exposed to that garbage.

A child overhearing their parent talking to someone else about how Trump hates a Hispanic and wants to send them all out of the country is practically the same as what that teacher did.

His daughter was probably already hearing it in school or would be soon enough. I think it’s better she hear it from her dad. She knows where he stands on the issues and children need it to be clear what their parents beliefs are. Sure he could try to shield her but it won’t work. She’ll find out if she didn’t from other kids. In a world where you don’t know who to trust, it’s nice to be able to rely on your parents to tell you the truth.

My son was in the car with myself, my husband and my son and daughter. She was having a severe asthma attack. We were terrified. She could hardly beathe and her skin was turning pale as her lips were turning blue. I sat holding her as my husband drove. There was no time to find a sitter or wait for an ambulance. My son was only 5. He turned around and asked me if she was going to die. He put our fear into words. I looked at him and said, I don’t know but hopefully the doctors can fix her. Till today I know that sinking feeling. I didn’t want to lie to him because I wasn’t sure she was going to make it. I didn’t want him frightened but if I was wrong, I felt it would’ve hurt worse. He would have lost his sister and never had faith in me after that. He’s an adult now and even now, he will turn to me for advice. He often says, he knows he can count on me to tell him the truth as it is. That day he learned some things were beyond my control, but it doesn’t mean I will give up on him or his sister.

Maybe that is the lesson he is trying to teach his daughter. Children are shielded too often from truths that can affect them. I hate that children have to be afraid of strangers and have their innocence taken away, but they can’t prepare for possibly being harm if they trust everyone. Knowledge is power. However, what this teacher did wasn’t about knowledge. It was malice and a direct threat.

Brilliant answer, @Pandora. I’m so, so glad your daughter was okay. You changed my view. I’m so glad I don’t have the responsibility of being a parent right now. I wouldn’t know where to begin.

@Pandora I actually used the analogy “what if your daughter was afraid you were going to die?” This is assuming he is healthy and his daughter became aware of death and loss. He dwelled on about telling his kid the truth. Sure you can say one day it will happen, but reassure her in the moment that you aren’t going anywhere. I just can’t see telling an 8 year old, “I could die at any moment” even if we all know in reality it’s true.

Your situation was different, it was an accure emergency. It would also be different if God forbid, a parent is diagnosed with a terminal disease. Plus, as parents we aren’t talking about dying in from of our little kids if we are healthy. Do we? Maybe religious people do because they have that whole heaven thing. I don’t know from that regarding being a very young child.

Most Hispanics in our country are legal! Trump has never talked about trying to get rid of them. There is no reason for every Hispanic kid to be terrified and all their friends to be full of anxiety. Especially, not yet. I’m talking about little kids! If adults want to worry it’s the next Nazi regime then by all means let’s all keep our antennas up. We should always have our antennas up regarding bigotry and violence, but America is not at the point where we can take action against what’s happening. Sure we can demonstrate, I always support demonstrating and protesting peacefully, but Trump is not rounding people up yet if that’s what people are afraid of.

I was talking to my dad and I made the point Obama has deported a lot of people, and his response to me was, “yeah, but he does it quietly.” Holy shit?! So, my dad thinks that makes it ok? He’s bothered by Trump doing it as policy and making the citizenry aware of it, but if it’s done quietly it’s ok. What are we really saying there? I get that Trump is giving bullies and racists language to use like “build a wall,” which I think is awful, but if your favorite leaders are deporting people and it’s ok, and then your least favorite leaders talk about doing the same thing and it’s not ok, then I find something wrong with that.

@JLeslie: Deportation of certain people is not, in and of itself, a bad thing, you are fantastically naive if you think so. Threatening large groups of people very publically from the standpoint of “I will be very powerful, so I can make these threats with impunity” is a bad thing.
Context is everything. geez

@canidmajor I don’t know exactly what you are talking about, but I am talking about what we tell children. Children! Little kids. Do you think it’s reasonable for the average American child aged 0–10 to be anxiety ridden because of Trump being elected? Are you really going to blame that all on Trump? Or, do you think other adults have some responsibility too?

The children who do have illegal parents already probably live a little on edge, because their parents would most likely have talked about concerns of getting caught. That’s a separate subject.

Hell, I even reassured my inlaws, because they don’t speak English very well and all the Hispanics around them are freaking out about Trump.

And, actually, some liberals are critical of deportation period. I’m personally for letting people who have been here a long time stay, and developing better policies for work visas, and for sealing up the border better if possible. Ideally, helping to improve the economies and opportunities in Latin American countries would be the best solution to keep migration down.

@JLeslie I don’t think it’s necessary to talk to children about everything and give them unnecessary fear but if the kid ask, why tell them a lie? I think a lie can do more damage then fear. There are some things I believe children need never know even if they ask because it’s none of their business. Like how many lovers mommy or daddy had and at what age they started having sex. But people tell them all the time. That wouldn’t be a lie. You just don’t tell them.

Pick your battles carefully. So long as you know your friend informs their children of things with genuine love for their child, there is nothing to protest. It is their child. If you know your friend is doing it to be malicious then that is a different matter. Then fight away.

I still remembered the first time I learned that the world was evil. My dad informed me. I was maybe about 8 or 7 years old. At the time I thought the world was full of humans like my dad. It was the first time I heard about war and people killing each other. Mothers, fathers, sons, daughters. I was horrified and angry. But I remembered thinking that I didn’t have to be like them. Most children can adapt to the painful things life throws their way so long as they have a strong loving and supportive family and friends.

Did I wish he let me continue in ignorance a little longer. Sure, but had he waited longer, it might’ve hurt even more and maybe even risked my well being if I wasn’t made aware of people who hated others so much. Up to then, I trusted absolutely everybody. I felt a little unsafer out in the world, but in the world that most children exist (parents and family), I felt most secure in my trust of them. And I learned to adapt.

I was directly addressing the last paragraph of your post just above mine.

@canidmajor Thanks. Trump is talking about deporting people here illegally, isn’t that what Obama does also? Or, are you saying Obama is purposely ignoring some people who are here illegally while Trump will go after them.

@Pandora I couldn’t agree more that when a child asks a direct question in most situations is best to tell the truth. To set one thing straight, I believe my friend (it’s a facebook friend from high school) is a good parent. I believe he mostly was just hyping up his hate for Trump and how “Trump is ruining everything and a racist and his followers are racist.” However, I also think it’s possible his intense irritation with the election is causing his child indirect undo stress. Kids are very perceptive.

I think among adults most people agree purposely omitting or withholding information is a lie. So, it might just be how we define lie. I use the same definition even if it is an adult and child. The adult filters information to protect the child or shield them from excessive worry is perfectly reasonable in many cases.

I was younger than you when I learned there are bad people out there. Since I can remember I wasn’t allowed to open the front door for a stranger, I wasn’t allowed to wear my name on my t-shirts or necklaces, I couldn’t take food from strangers, etc. Add in since I can remember there were comments about Hitler, tidbits about he experimented on people, gassed them in ovens, family members would not buy anything German. It’s not that I was in a bubble, but I felt safe with my parents, and didn’t have daily fears of the boogie man.

@JLeslie I said exactly what I meant. Reread my post. It’s really very simply stated, no hidden message, no political agenda, there.

I know this is a very liberal site and most of the Democratic base is looking for ways to paint a Trump presidency as a disaster before he even takes office but get real. Nothing Trump said is any different than the laws that currently exist. If you are here illegally your subject to deportation. Obama supporters brag about the number of illegals he has deported. Trump has stated that there is no intention of creating some massive deportation force to go after illegals but the law still exists. Whatever you told your children prior to a Trump victory is what you should be telling them now. The Wall does not alter anything for those currently here but rather stops the flood of new illegal immigration. The law that exists will be addressed after the wall is built and the border is secure. All the ranting, protesting and ‘Hair on Fire’ predictions is what is causing the panic. The sky is not falling.