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Welcome to the Trump Era.
Its impact on youngsters was heard during lunchtime Wednesday in Royal Oak Middle School's cafeteria, where some pupils chanted "build the wall."
An eight-second video of the [choose one] (a) stunt, (b) taunt, (c) incident has been seen more than 9.5 million times on Facebook in a day and a half. The shaky clip is posted here by Dee Perez-Scott. It's shared nearly 150,000 times and draws 25,000 comments. It also generates news coverage across the country and in the United Kingdom.
"It is so sad," says Perez-Scott. "Latino children were crying."
Also responding Thursday is district Supt. Shawn Lewis-Lakin, who distributes a four-paragraph statement reaffirming his commitment to a "a safe, secure, and supportive learning environment for all students."
"A small group of students engaged in a brief 'build the wall' chant," the superintendent acknowledges. "School personnel in the cafeteria responded when this occurred."
The Detroit Free Press originally linked to Perez-Scott's video post with its online coverage, but had second-thoughts Thursday morning and deleted the link "because some of the children might be identified," Katrease Stafford writes.
Media coverage stretches far beyond Detroit. The video is picked up by BuzzFeed, The Root, The Daily Mail (a United Kingdom newspaper) and broadcasters in Atlanta, Memphis, Tucson and elsewhere.
In his message to parents and the community, Lewis-Lakin notes that "we have had families express concern regarding student safety." He writes:
We are addressing [the chanting] today. We are working with our students to help them understand the impact of their words and actions on others in their school community. . . .
In responding to this incident – indeed in responding to this election – we need to hear each other’s stories, not slogans, we need to work towards understanding, not scoring points, and we need to find a way to move forward that respects and values each and every member of our community. We will be working on this in school today.
