A New York elementary school was forced to cancel a mock presidential election after students were heard repeating “negative rhetoric about minorities.”
Speaking with ABC News Today, Glen Rogers, principal of Jericho Elementary School in Centereach, said teachers and staff members raised concerns about what students were repeating from presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
“Teachers have said they’ve heard some kids in the cafeteria chanting ‘Trump! Trump! Trump!’ or saying they don’t want Muslims here,” Rogers told ABC News. “I mean, kids often repeat what they hear on the TV or the news, but it doesn’t mean it’s OK.”
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A Grade 5 student told New York’s WABC News kids would often argue about who would be a better president.
“Some people were getting angry because some people like Trump and some people like Clinton,” Miranda Waters said. “Some people think Clinton’s not good. Some think Trump’s not good. So there’s a lot of arguments going on, and I don’t like that.”
During his campaign, Trump has called for a ban on Muslim immigration and called for profiling foreigners who look like they could have connections to terrorism or certain Middle Eastern nations.
“This isn’t just a matter of terrorism, this is also really a question of quality of life,” Trump said. “We want to make sure we’re only admitting people into our country who love our country.”
The school principal told ABC News that not wanting minority students to feel “uncomfortable,” the school decided to tweak the mock election from voting for president to voting for favourite school lunch.
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“We still thought it was important to do something with voting and showing democracy in action,” Rogers said. “We still want them to get excited about Election Day.”
Americans head to the polls on Tuesday.
-with a file from The Associated Press
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