It started out as a civics lesson. It quickly became a lesson in incivility.
The anti-immigration signs lining the hall at Erwin High School in this mountain city carried messages like 鈥淎merica Is for Americans,鈥� 鈥淚llegals Go Home,鈥� and 鈥淚f We Don鈥檛 Take Out the Trash, Who Will?鈥�
Posted to Facebook by a student angry about the signs, the images went viral in September 2015, sending shockwaves through Erwin High, where Hispanic enrollment has more than doubled in the past decade.
For Keyla Estrada, the signs were a jarring and frightening welcome to the United States; it marked the first week of high school in this country for the Mexican immigrant.
Educators and child advocates worry what happened at the 1,300-student high school is confirmation of what some have dubbed the 鈥淭rump effect,鈥� a spike in anxiety and fear among nonwhite students sparked by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump鈥檚 rhetoric.
Trump鈥檚 statements on race, religion, and immigration鈥攖hat many Mexican immigrants are drug dealers, rapists, and other types of criminals, that Muslims are a danger to America, and his vow to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border鈥攈ave reverberated through the nation鈥檚 K-12 schools, with students in some communities bearing the residual brunt.
During the second presidential debate, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton scolded Trump for the rhetoric, going so far as to blame him for increased tension in American schools.
鈥淐hildren listen to what is being said, ... and there鈥檚 a lot of fear,鈥� Clinton said. 鈥淚n fact, teachers and parents are calling it the Trump effect. Bullying is up. A lot of people are feeling uneasy. A lot of kids are expressing their concerns.鈥�
School leaders here in Asheville refer to the controversy at Erwin High as 鈥淭he Incident,鈥� a civics and economics class project taken completely out of context on social media. 69传媒 were asked to take a stance on immigration, based on what they鈥檇 heard from the candidates running for president. About 30 signs were created鈥攕everal bearing decidedly anti-immigrant messages.
The fallout was both immediate and enduring.
69传媒 staged a protest the next day, with many waving a Mexican flag that they claimed was confiscated by school employees. Parents showed up in droves to demand answers and accountability for perceived grievances past and present. School leaders scrambled to quell the tension, hiring more bilingual staff and providing training sessions to help educators understand how to talk about culturally sensitive issues.
鈥淚t was an assignment, but it hit the nerve that was reality to those who have experienced that frustration, and anger, and that cultural difference,鈥� said David Thompson, the director of student services for the Buncombe County school district.
Still, more than a year later, Keyla doesn鈥檛 feel comfortable on campus.
鈥淚 feel that racism continues existing there,鈥� the 19-year-old said through an interpreter. 鈥淭he school has a lot of work to do because they don鈥檛 even realize everything that鈥檚 going on. How racism comes out amongst the students, they don鈥檛 know what some students go through every day.鈥�
Educators at Erwin High acknowledge that uneasiness like Keyla鈥檚 remains evident at the school.
鈥淲e鈥檇 be remiss to say that it鈥檚 not there, and that it鈥檚 not underlying,鈥� school social worker Shelly Rose said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that by any stretch of the imagination that it鈥檚 not a part of these kids鈥� lives.鈥�
Clear and Present Anger
Teaching Tolerance, an education project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, took an informal, unscientific poll of educators last spring to gauge how the presidential campaign had affected schools. The organization queried teachers who subscribe to its weekly newsletter to collect anecdotes.
More than two-thirds of the 2,000 teachers who responded reported that students鈥攎ainly immigrants, children of immigrants, and Muslims鈥攅xpressed concerns or fears about what might happen after the election.
Fearing anti-immigrant violence in the wake of the controversy at Erwin High, 15-year-old Maria Cruz said her mother kept her out of school for a week after the signs went up.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 even want to come,鈥� said Maria, a Mexican immigrant. 鈥淚f they don鈥檛 want us here, why am I here?鈥�
Teachers who answered the Teaching Tolerance survey also reported that the election has caused some students to feel more empowered to bully. The offensive, sometimes shocking language coming from the presidential campaign has accelerated in recent weeks, with women joining immigrants and Muslims as a target for Trump.
鈥淲hat [Trump] says, for children, it鈥檚 catchy. It ignores nuance,鈥� said Phillip Carter, an assistant professor at Florida International University who studies language and culture in Latino communities.
A suburban Dallas high school hosted a Trump-themed football pep rally鈥攚ith a sign depicting the border wall he wants to build鈥攂efore a game against a rival high school with a large Latino population. The rally鈥檚 theme, 鈥淢ake Colleyville Great Again,鈥� was a direct reference to Trump鈥檚 central campaign pledge: 鈥淢ake America Great Again.鈥�
At a Spanish-language immersion school in California鈥檚 Sonoma County, vandals last week spraypainted 鈥淏uild the wall higher鈥� and 鈥淭rump 2016" on walls around the campus.
In a high school 40 miles west of Asheville in McDowell County, about 30 students posed in front of a makeshift wall for an Instagram post captioned, 鈥淲e built the wall first.鈥� The student sitting front and center in the photo wore a Trump T-shirt.
While there鈥檚 no research or quantitative data to back the theory that bullying is on the rise and that Trump鈥檚 rhetoric is behind the increase, there is palpable unease for some students in schools with documented Trump-related incidents
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 going to continue, I think it鈥檚 going to get worse a little,鈥� Erwin High student Josue said through an interpreter. (Education Week is identifying Josue only by his first name because of his immigration status.)
The 18-year-old immigrant from El Salvador arrived in the United States in January, joining his mother and two siblings. During his month-long journey, he often went without food, 鈥渒nowing that there was only a possibility鈥� he might arrive to his destination.
鈥淏ecause Donald Trump has started discriminating against everyone,鈥� Josue said. 鈥淣ow that鈥檚 how people will feel they can treat us from now on.鈥�
Maureen Costello, the director of Teaching Tolerance, said: 鈥淜ids learn the lessons we show them, not just the ones we teach explicitly, and they are not going to unlearn them in a day.鈥�
Racial Trauma?
Researchers who study the development of racial attitudes in children and the impact of racial trauma can鈥檛 say what the long-term effects will be on the students who are the targets of taunts and bullying.
鈥淲hat does that do to the way they construct meaning of themselves, of their families, of their home languages, of their ethnicity?鈥� asked Carter of Florida International University.
鈥淭hose effects are unfortunately already out there. Chances are these kids are already feeling insecure and unsure of their place in school and maybe even ashamed. In which case, these kinds of comments affirm the sense of shame and vulnerability they鈥檙e already getting from school.鈥�
That fear and vulnerability for Erwin High students spiked this summer after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested one of their former schoolmates at his home in one of its raids.
Guatemala native Elmer Reynoso, a 19-year-old, sat in a South Carolina detention center for months after skipping an immigration hearing.
Reynoso鈥檚 case drew support from immigrant activists who helped get him released from detention and secure a new hearing. But the threat of deportation still looms for Reynoso and others.
Josue鈥檚 legal status remains in limbo as he awaits his own immigration hearing. The possibility he might be sent back weighs heavily.
鈥淎ll the effort it took to arrive here. Knowing that there was only a possibility that you might arrive here alive,鈥� Josue said. 鈥淢aybe that first day you present at court, they might say, 鈥楴o, we don鈥檛 accept you,鈥� and they send you back.鈥�
Anxiety over the sweeps led the Buncombe district to declare its schools 鈥渟afe zones,鈥� where immigration authorities are not allowed to enter the campuses or round up students.
Parents were spooked by reports of unmarked black vans near schools, searching for undocumented students, said Thompson, the district鈥檚 student-services director.
Erwin High Principal Jim Brown has been a mainstay in the school as a teacher, counselor, assistant principal, and principal spanning more than two decades. He鈥檚 witnessed the school鈥檚 demographic shift that brought more students from Mexico and Central America. The school is now 62 percent white, 22 percent Hispanic and 9 percent black.
While Brown and his staff tried to figure out what led to widespread parent and student frustration, immigrant families shared stories of feeling alienated from the school and unequal treatment of their children, said Mirian Porras Rosas, a community organizer with Nuestro Centro, a Latino rights advocacy organization.
鈥淲e thought we were doing a good job reaching out to our immigrant community, to our Latino community,鈥� Brown said. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 really realize the perception that was out there that we weren鈥檛 doing a fair job at reaching out to our immigrant kids.鈥�
Said Thompson, the district鈥檚 student-services director: 鈥淚 think if you were to ask somebody, before this incident, 鈥業s this an unfriendly environment?,鈥� they would probably say no.鈥�
Beneath the Surface
But some community members said the anti-immigrant signs kindled racial tensions residing just beneath the surface in a community that bills itself as progressive and immigrant-friendly.
鈥淚t is about immigration, but it鈥檚 also about racism and how it affects all communities of color. Unfortunately, that鈥檚 not a quick fix,鈥� said Andrea Golden, a community activist with the Center for Participatory Change, an organization that pushes for racial equality in western North Carolina.
In the final presidential debate, Trump reiterated his pledge to build a border wall and deport the drug lords and 鈥渂ad hombres鈥� that migrate here. Two days later, he swung through suburban Asheville for a rally where he claimed that Clinton had allowed 鈥渢housands of criminal aliens鈥� to remain in the U.S. because their home countries refused to take them back.
鈥淭hey don鈥檛 want to take back killers and drug dealers and all of the people that we鈥檙e sending back,鈥� Trump said.
His statements stirred up familiar feelings for Keyla Estrada.
鈥淲hen Trump talked about immigration, it made me very angry, because for him, we are the bad guys that ruin this country,鈥� she wrote in an email. 鈥淗e doesn鈥檛 think about others, what we suffer to come to this country, and the racism that we suffer once we鈥檙e here. It made me feel very uncomfortable.鈥�
