Education, anti-bullying policies and Donald Trump

3 minutes reading

Tony Monchinski
| Special to the USA TODAY Network

I am a teacher at a public high school. Donald Trump continues to make it difficult for me to do my job. The 45th president is a lot of things. He is insensitive, insincere and insecure. Many of us are, to varying degrees. That said, the biggest problem I have with my fellow Queens native is that he is a bully.

I know about bullies. When I was an elementary school student at a parochial school in New York City in the 1980s, I was bullied. When I got to high school I decided that I would no longer be pressured, I would stand up for myself and I didn’t. Instead, I spent a brief period as a bully myself, relieved that I wasn’t on the receiving end.

I know the bullying manual well. Bullies belittle other people. Consider Trump’s tendency to make up nicknames for those he doesn’t like, from Tampon Tim Walz to Horse Face Stormy Daniels. Bullies target those they perceive as weaker than themselves. Trump has shown disrespect for disabled people, from impersonating a Washington Post reporter with a congenital joint disease in 2015 to recently denouncing Kamala Harris as “low IQ” and “retarded.”

Bullies could care less about the established norms of civilized society. The New York Times reports that Trump used 1,787 curse words in public in 2024. He calls poor, largely non-white countries “s— holes.” Bullying thrives online, where it’s even easier to be a jerk. On X and Truth Social, Trump broadcasts a constant barrage of impulsive rants and whining.

Bullies surround themselves with sycophants and apologists. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung is doing his best to justify and distort his boss’s latest lies. Bullies often profess admiration for other bullies; hence Trump’s kind words for Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un and even Hitler, who, lest we forget, “did some good things.”

When things don’t go their way, bullies get frustrated and lash out. Trump won the Electoral College vote in 2016 but lost the popular vote, claiming that two million illegal immigrants had voted. In 2020, his tantrum over losing the election led to the Stop the Steal movement and the storming of our nation’s capital. Trump repeatedly states that if he loses the November election, it will be because the election was not fair.

Bullies are held accountable for their heinous behavior and blame others. That’s why Trump tells us: he is the victim of a “witch hunt”; that the January 6 rioters are “great patriots”; that the Democrats are “the enemy from within” who threatens our democracy. Ironic that Melania Trump led the Be Best anti-bullying campaign during her husband’s presidency.

Bullying can be entertaining for those who witness it, as well as for those who don’t experience it. This explains some of Trump’s support.

“Seeing others suffer is good,” wrote Nietzsche, “making others suffer even more.” The spectacle of someone else made me feel less-than appeals to our basest instincts.

Each any of this behavior exhibited by a student at my school would result in disciplinary action and possible expulsion; any exhibition by a teacher would result in an investigation, removal from the classroom and likely termination of employment. All of this would be against my district’s anti-bullying policy.

The children in my class know they are safe. They are appreciated. They are important. I don’t treat anyone differently because of their legal status, the sign on the lawn in front of their house, whether they live in subsidized housing or have parents who work on Wall Street. If we follow the norms of civilized society in the classroom—civility, civility, avoiding profanity—we can all disagree and still get along. We are not teaching our students anything by ignoring or normalizing Trump’s behavior.

It was very telling to me how the school district where I work handled the events of January 6, 2021. They said nothing. Nada. Zipper. Compare that to the neighborhood where I live, where Mine children go to school. Peekskill City Schools Superintendent David Mauricio immediately sent a letter home stating that the storming of the capitol was an attack on our democracy. He encouraged every teacher in Peekskill to discuss it in their classrooms. This is what we are assumed to do. This is what it looks like when you’re on the right side of history.

We owe it to our students and our public education system to confront bullies and stand up to their behavior, regardless of who the bully is. No matter how popular he is.

Tony Monchinski, Ph.D., is a high school teacher in Westchester County. His books include Education in Hope: Critical Pedagogies and an Ethic of Care.“