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them Trump would deport their families; in a<br />

Massachusetts middle school, a white student<br />

told a black peer to “Go back to Haiti because<br />

this is our country now.”<br />

Teachers reported that they found swastikas,<br />

racial slurs and the Trump tagline “Make<br />

America Great Again” written on school<br />

property.<br />

Maureen Costello, Director of Teaching<br />

Tolerance at the SPLC, said no one should be<br />

surprised that tensions unfold in our nation’s<br />

schools.<br />

“They’re microcosms of our society<br />

that reflect all the divisions,” Costello said<br />

via email after the election. “They are sites<br />

to which most people are assigned, so there<br />

isn’t that kind of self-selective sorting that<br />

happens in other spheres of life, like churches,<br />

es<br />

where people are sorting themselves into<br />

like-minded groups.”<br />

Even an accepting campus such as ours<br />

can’t fully shield students from being impacted<br />

by what’s being said and done across the<br />

country.<br />

Last winter, Head of School Jim Dunaway<br />

sent an email to <strong>MPH</strong> parents urging<br />

them to look out for Muslim students. He<br />

acknowledged that children can “internalize”<br />

disheartening national happenings, including<br />

hateful rhetoric.<br />

“When students hear and see things in<br />

the media and at school that make them feel<br />

unwanted, misunderstood, even shunned or<br />

hated, they don’t feel emotionally safe, and<br />

it inhibits their ability to learn and flourish,<br />

which are primary goals of a school,” Dunaway<br />

said in an email interview.<br />

<strong>MPH</strong> junior Isabella Casella is a<br />

first-generation American whose family<br />

immigrated from Brazil when she was 5.<br />

Though she has felt sheltered from bullying at<br />

<strong>MPH</strong>, she recognizes that hateful words and<br />

actions can be detrimental.<br />

“High school is already stressful enough<br />

for public school students who don’t have the<br />

support we have at <strong>MPH</strong>, and then having all<br />

this pressure saying that being you is not OK,<br />

it’s going to mentally destroy some people,”<br />

Casella said.<br />

Though time has passed since Trump’s<br />

campaign and his stance on some of his most<br />

potent promises seems to have softened,<br />

Costello said she fears his words will persist.<br />

“Words linger in people’s memories, and<br />

the beliefs that fuel these behaviors won’t go<br />

away just because the election is over,” she<br />

said. “We all remember the unkind and mean<br />

things others say to us. If children and youth<br />

believe that immigrants are bad, including<br />

those in their own classes, I don’t see that<br />

belief disappearing.”<br />

Despite the overwhelming divisions we<br />

face, Americans must do all we can to heal<br />

our country. Costello stressed the importance<br />

of schools “stopping cold” hateful interactions.<br />

She urges teachers to listen to the<br />

voices of students of color and make them<br />

feel valued at school. She calls on students to<br />

ally themselves with targeted peers. Even the<br />

simple gesture of joining someone at lunch<br />

can make a difference.<br />

Dunaway said he believes that the key to<br />

change lies in younger generations.<br />

“I believe our children can rise above<br />

such nastiness and build a better future than<br />

we are offering them,” he said.<br />

Regardless of race, religion or gender, today’s<br />

students are builders of a better future.<br />

We possess the capacity to spread acceptance<br />

rather than resentment.<br />

Our country must not fall to such a low<br />

standard that we allow entire groups of people,<br />

especially children, to be attacked. That’s<br />

not America. Let’s create an environment<br />

in which 21-year-old Farah will never again<br />

worry that her younger siblings won’t return<br />

from school one day.<br />

Let’s make America America again.<br />

winter 2017 | 33

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