Teaching, anti-bullying policy, and Donald Trump

3 minutes of reading

Tony Monchinski
| Exclusively 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 many things. He is insensitive, dishonest and insecure. Many of us do, to varying degrees. That said, the biggest problem I have with my Queens native is that he is a bully.

I know about tyrants. When I was an elementary school student at a parochial school in New York in the 1980s, I was bullied. When I got to high school I decided I wasn’t going to be pushed around anymore, I stood up for myself and it didn’t happen. Instead, I was the bully myself for a short time and felt relieved that I wasn’t the victim.

I am intimately familiar with the bullying manual. Bullies put other people down. Consider Trump’s tendency to come up with nicknames for people he doesn’t like, from Tampon Tim Walz to Horse Face Stormy Daniels. Bullies attack those they perceive as weaker than themselves. Trump has shown a lack of respect for people with disabilities, starting with imitating a Washington Post reporter with a congenital joint defect in 2015 and most recently condemning Kamala Harris as “low IQ” and “retarded.”

Bullies should not be concerned about the established norms of a civilized society. The New York Times reports that in 2024, Trump used 1,787 swear words in public. He described poor, non-white majority countries as “s-holes.” Bullying thrives on the internet, where it’s even easier to be a jerk. WX and Truth Social Trump constantly bombards us with impulsive talk and nonsense.

Persecutors surround themselves with flatterers and apologists. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung is doing everything he can, Squealer the pig from “Animal Farm,” to justify and invent his boss’s latest lies. Bullies often express admiration for other bullies; hence Trump’s kind words about 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 attack. Trump won the Electoral College vote in 2016 but lost the popular vote, claiming that two million illegal immigrants voted. In 2020, his tantrum after losing the election led to the Stop the Steal movement and the storming of our nation’s capital. Trump has repeatedly declared that if he loses the November election, it will be because the election was unfair.

When called to account for their terrible behavior, bullies blame others. That’s why Trump tells us: he is victim of a “witch hunt”; that the January 6 rioters are “great patriots”; that Democrats are the “enemy from within” threatening our democracy. Ironically, Melania Trump spearheaded the Be Best anti-bullying public awareness campaign during her husband’s presidency.

Bullying can be entertaining for both those who witness it and those who are not victims. This helps explain some of Trump’s support.

“There is a benefit in seeing others suffer,” Nietzsche wrote, “it makes others suffer even more.” A performance from another that made an impression less than appeals to our lowest instincts.

Everyone these behaviors by a student at my school would result in disciplinary action and possible expulsion; any manifestations on the part of the teacher would lead to investigation, removal from the classroom and possible termination of employment. All of this would be a violation of my district’s anti-bullying policy.

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

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

We owe it to our students and our public education system to call out and oppose bullying behavior, regardless of who the bully is. It doesn’t matter how popular he is.

Dr. Tony Monchinski is a high school teacher in Westchester County. His books include Education in Hope: Critical Pedagogy and the Ethics of Care.“