https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/05/us/racist-bullying-school-incidents/index.html
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Some Black students are being told they stink while others are being called monkeys by their White peers. The n-word has been written on the walls of school restrooms as other students are the targets of racist rants on social media.
Students of color are facing racial slurs and bullying in and outside the classroom, and many who are fed up have been walking out of class, speaking at board meetings and even suing school districts.
In Minnesota, a 14-year-old Black girl spoke in front of a crowd to condemn a video widely shared online that she said encouraged her to take her own life. Meanwhile, a community in Utah is scrutinizing a school district after the family of a Black and autistic student said she was bullied by classmates before dying by suicide.
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In a new report released last week, the Government Accountability Office estimated that 5.2 million students aged 12 to 18 were bullied in the 2018-2019 school year and one in four of them experienced bullying related to their race, national origin, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation.
In the same school year, the report says, there were 1.6 million students who were subjected to hate speech due to their identity. Among those incidents, half targeted students' race and 24% related to their national origin.
The agency found that while students experience a range of hostile behaviors, hate is widespread in schools. More than 1,500 schools reported having at least one hate crime occur and about 5.8 million students said they saw hate words or symbols written at schools. That included anti-Semitic slurs, references to lynching, the Holocaust, and anti-immigrant rhetoric, the report indicates.
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A study released last month found that young adults who experience discrimination about their bodies, race, age or sex have a greater risk of dealing with mental health problems than those who do not.
Those who faced discrimination frequently -- at least a few times per month -- were around 25% more likely to be diagnosed with a mental disorder and twice as likely to develop severe psychological distress than people who didn't experience discrimination or did less often, according to a study published in the journal Pediatrics.
The findings mirror what experts have said about the effects that discrimination and hostile behaviors have on children. Experiencing a negative racial climate at school can impact K-12 students in a number of ways, including lower grades, low engagement and their mental health, said Charity Brown Griffin, a certified school psychologist and an associate professor of psychological sciences at Winston-Salem State University.
"If you have to frequent a place every day where you feel like you don't belong, that you're left out and where you don't don't feel safe, that is certainly going to take a toll on your mental health," Griffin told CNN.
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Here is more detail about one of the incidents in the article:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/15/us/minnesota-racist-rant-investigation/index.html
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Nya Sigin, a Black student at Prior Lake High School, told CNN that she was "shocked" by the video, which she believes targets her.
"I really couldn't comprehend what I was listening to, it was really just a wave of different emotions. I was angry, I was disgusted, I was sad, I was confused," the 14-year-old said, adding that she's known the girl in the video since elementary school -- "basically, my entire life."
In the 57-second clip, a girl says to the camera, "You can f**king rot in hell...no one likes N***ers ... f**king kill yourself right this time." Another girl is heard in the background of the video -- who, like the teenager on camera, alternates between vitriol and laughter throughout.
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Nya said the girls in the video also targeted her struggle with mental health.
"They were always kind of hateful towards me ... they would always bring up, like, my mental health issues, like my personal issues," Nya said.
Nya's father, Taban Sigin, said his daughter has dealt with mental health issues in the past and he's worried about her saying she's struggled with anxiety and depression. The teen shared that she was hospitalized in May after attempting to end her own life.
"I had returned to school and I had told a couple of my close friends about it," the soft-spoken teen said, adding that the information made its way to the girls seen and heard in the racist video and a few of their friends.
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Republicans want schools to stop talking about race so white kids won’t feel bad. So board Republicans, what should schools do to stop white kids from making BIPOC kids feel bad? You all have ruled out actually talking to children about race. Teachers can’t actually teach anti-racism without conservatives going crazy at school board meetings. Teachers can’t even share books about the challenges BIPOC kids face in schools without risking reprisal from Republicans politicians.
How are teachers supposed to stop kids from racist bullying if they’re scared of their racist bully parents and politicians? You Republicans need to think about other children beside your own. This land isn’t just your land. It’s our land, too. You don’t own us anymore. Time to act like it.