A sixth-grader from Missouri was recently ganged up on by his classmates on a school bus for wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat.
A cell phone video of the incident obtained by KMOV shows students yelling at a 12-year-old about whether he supports President Trump’s proposed Mexican border wall. The incident escalates and eventually results in pushing and even a few punches being thrown.
“At one point, he just got so frustrated that he pushed me,” the boy said of his assailant. “And then he kept hitting me and backing me up to, like, my window on the bus. So I just had to push him out.”
The school said it took disciplinary measures against all students involved in the incident.
Christina Cortina, the boy’s mother, said she never expected her son to be attacked at school over his political beliefs.
“As a parent, it’s so upsetting,” Ms. Cortina told KMOV. “I feel like my son was made an example of. It was a tricky situation, it was politically charged.”
“I saw him being persecuted for having an opinion of his own,” she said. “I saw him berated and bullied and beat, literally beat, because he feels strongly about the world today.”
She said she may not let her son wear the hat to school anymore out of fear for his safety.
Other incidents of students being bullied for wearing Mr. Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” hat were reported during the heated presidential race.
Logan Autry, a 9-year-old from Fresno, California, said he was regularly confronted by students last year after buying a red cap at a Trump rally and then wearing it to school.
He said his classmates were using the hat as a pretext to bully him.
“It’s not the hat that draws attention; it’s just my personality that the other children do not like,” Logan told ABC 30 at the time.
After wearing the hat for three days in a row, the elementary school asked him not to wear the hat anymore.
“The vice principal came up to me and told me to take my hat off because it brings negative attention from other students,” Logan said. “And I said no a few times and then the principal told me again and I still said no and refused.”
Connor Mullen, a student at South Portland High School in Maine, said he expected to be taunted after wearing his “Make America Great Again” hat to school during the primary race.
But he was more surprised by negative remarks from two adults who work at the school, including a teacher who blurted, “Thank God you can’t vote.”
“I knew kids would pick on me about it, that’s just kids being kids, but when the adults started doing it I thought that was problematic,” Connor, 16, told the Press Herald last April. “This is a school that preaches equality.”
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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