Hate at School 2018 Teacher Comments
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HATE AT SCHOOL 2018 TEACHER COMMENTS These comments came in response to questions asked in a questionnaire asking educators whether they had seen or heard about hate and bias incidents in their schools during the fall 2018 semester. The survey was conducted by Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, from December 5 to December 17, 2018. A link to the survey was sent to educators who subscribe to the Teaching Tolerance newsletter and also shared on Teaching Tolerance social media sites. It was open to any educator who wanted to participate. Several other groups, including the NEA, also shared the survey link with their social media audiences. Respondents were asked a series of questions, each of which asked if they had seen or heard about a par- ticular form of hate or bias. Those who answered “yes” were invited to describe the incidents; not all did. These are the questions that generated the comments: Q. Have you seen or heard about incidents Q. Have you seen or heard about harass- of vandalism or graffiti involving hate sym- ment, threats, slurs or name-calling based bols or slurs this school year? Yes … page 2 on gender or sexual orientation at your school this school year? page 63 Q. Have you seen or heard about harassment, threats, slurs or name-calling directed at immi- Q. Have you seen or heard about anti-Se- grants in your school this school year? page 23 mitic harassment, threats, slurs or name-calling at your school this school year? page 83 Q. Have you seen or heard about harassment, threats, slurs or name-calling directed at Muslims Q. Have you seen or heard about the dis- in your school this school year? page 37 play of Confederate flags on school property this school year? page 92 Q. Have you seen or heard about harassment, threats, slurs or name-calling based on race Q. Have you seen or heard about harassment, in your school this school year? page 42 threats, slurs or name-calling based on poli- tics in your school this school year? page 99 In the course of a week, we received responses from over 2,700 educators working in K-12 schools in the United States. Their comments have been lightly edited for spelling, except in cases where they contained personally identifiable information, in which case that information has been removed. Some comments answer more than one question; in that case they’ve been repeated. Have you seen or heard about incidents of vandalism or graffiti involving hate symbols or slurs this school year? Yes … Nazi symbol with sidewalk chalk. “make like a [n-word] and work in her yard all week- end long.” Student drawing a swastika on his math Racial slurs against black peo- paper and when called on it telling his parents that ple, Jews and gay people. he didn’t know what it meant and parents taking that defensive line. Students saying “immigrants Inappropriate words in the bathroom stalls are dirty and steal our jobs” just upon hearing the word immigrant from our social studies book. Our campus is a public park outside of school hours, and students have reported find- Swastikas, specific mention of girls’ ing graffiti of swastikas, genitalia and curse names with derogatory speech. words- usually on the first day back after a long break. To our knowledge, it is not our students Students wrote swastikas in the bathrooms. doing this, but other community members. Swastika drawn on wall outside school. An outdoor area, beyond the playground, designed for teaching was destroyed. Students said another student could not play with their toy because the student, who is There were swastikas drawn on the bath- black, would make the toy turn brown. room wall on two occasions. High School incident, bathroom graffiti threat- [There were] separate incidents where white stu- ening the black students with gun violence. dents called black students apes and/or monkeys. Hate symbols were painted on side of We have 3 elementary schools in our district, 1 buildings, including swastika. middle school, and 1 high school. One of our teach- ers at the elementary school has a son at the high Students entered a classroom and said “Build a school who is bullied and called the “n” word. wall” several times. There were many Hispanics in that room. In another classroom, some stu- I had a 5th grade student draw a swastika on dents started talking about the immigrants his hand with the words “white power.” at the border and how we should send them back saying “Mexicans are drug dealers.” Elementary students chanting “build the wall” in class. Students putting paper signs on their desks I heard students calling other stu- that say, “build the wall.” Students calling other stu- dents white trash and chopstick eyes. dents “gay.” Students calling the teacher a liar when the teacher said that children were indeed being The word gay and Nazi were used taken from their parents at the border. A staff mem- on separate occasions. ber telling another staff member that her child was “dirtying up the reading group.” A staff member Students destroyed a Muslim women telling another staff member that she was going to poster in my colleague’s classroom. SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER // HATE AT SCHOOL 2018 TEACHER COMMENTS 2 HAVE YOU SEEN OR HEARD ABOUT INCIDENTS OF VANDALISM OR GRAFFITI INVOLVING HATE SYMBOLS OR SLURS THIS SCHOOL YEAR? YES … At the middle school there were rocks found There were swastikas painted on the wall. that had “build the wall” written on them as well as the website of a white nationalist group. People drawing swastikas on per- sonal and school property. KKK was recently written on a bathroom stall wall. Drawings on fence, hate letters. Some students wrote in permanent marker racial slurs on the bathroom walls. There was an incident of “gay” being tagged on the playground Swastikas, penises, and racial slurs were spray- painted to outside walls and windows. Fights between students using racial slurs to one another. We have students who write body-sham- ing or negative comments, ‘slut,’ ‘whore,’ in [The] KKK had disseminated flyers rallying hate the girl’s bathrooms. Many of the boys tend in our community, up and down the residential to make comments regarding body parts streets. Children out playing (most of whom are to the girls in class, or will tease the girls multicultural students) found these flyers and about who they like, their parents, etc. reported them. Spurred a lot of fear in our school. The [n-word] written on a school wall. N-word in bathroom stalls, students call- ing each other the N-word. Comments made about Jews and African American people. Racial slurs on bathroom stalls. Not very nice words Students using the “N” word. High school bathrooms, N-word, other racial slurs Hate notes passed around. Swastika was drawn in the ground by the front Swastikas penned inside desk entrance to the middle schools. Some fifth grad- in middle school room. ers called an Asian boy “Kim Jung Il” during recess. Some of them taunted the boy with Calling students gay and using homophobic slurs. this expression while others watched and laughed. This repeated the following day. Students being told that they will have to ‘go back home’; graffiti describing girls as ‘ho’s.’ The [n-word] was spray painted on sidewalks near the school. Writing that a student was a bitch on playground equipment. Students drawing swastikas on each other’s name tags and writing N words on each other’s papers There have been incidents where swastika was scratched into the paint on classroom doors. I heard that the N word was painted at a nearby We are finding notes on several campuses say- park. A black father was called ‘you people’ for ing “All brown people should go home.” parking in a way that another parent didn’t like. That same family recently moved to [a local] area Symbols found in student bathrooms. where a neighbor began to fly the confederate flag. Remarks by parents and students. Students using hurtful and racist lan- Profane language on building, stairs and sidewalk. guage towards each other. Swastikas and racial slurs have been written on SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER // HATE AT SCHOOL 2018 TEACHER COMMENTS 3 HAVE YOU SEEN OR HEARD ABOUT INCIDENTS OF VANDALISM OR GRAFFITI INVOLVING HATE SYMBOLS OR SLURS THIS SCHOOL YEAR? YES … notes and dispersed student to student. An inci- Student outed a trans student at recess. dent of desk vandalism of the same nature. Students were bullied and harassed because of In boys’ bathroom there were some racist messages known sexual orientation or perceived sexual ori- entation; students of current African immigrants 1. Hate/kill/maim lists found; 2. Inappropriate were harassed because of the darkness of their skin. slurs such as: [n-word]; 3. Telling Mexican stu- dents that a wall should be built to keep them out. Words saying “Mexicans need to leave” in the restroom. Swastikas were drawn on a wall in a stairwell. Calling others ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian ’or ‘retarded.’ Although we are a multi-racial ethnic school, many times students feel it is okay to call people Students regularly write on walls, [n-words], gay, fags, crackheads, bitches and more. desks, and/or stalls words of hate. Black students call other black students “white” Written on walls in bathrooms: Black ass; [n-word]. if the other students speak in “job interview/for- mal” language, do well in school and/or don’t listen Sexual drawings in bathrooms.