Children in Alabama are apparently taught to hate at an early age. A 10-year-old Black student at Chelsea Park Elementary in Birmingham, Alabama faced assaults and harassment by White students, according to Alabama.com.
Taylor Armbrester, 10, and his family recently moved into the area and he became a new student at Chelsea Park Elementary in the fall. The school has 883 students and only 88 students are Black. He soon became a victim of bullying by fellow White students. The abuse was physical and verbal.
The White students punched, kicked, and called him “Black boy.” One student wrote a racist poem that said, “Roses are red, violets are blue, I am white, why aren’t you? God made me pretty, what happened to you?”
Another White student accused him of stealing a fidget and punched him the face. The kid actually lost his book bag and the fidget fell out. Armbrestrer was also abused be a White female student who he thought was has friend. While shooting basketball by himself, the girl asked if she could play. Armbrester gave the girl a ball and threw it at him with force. The force of the ball broke his finger. His mother had to take him the emergency room.
School officials have had a meeting with the White students, but they claimed that it was an isolated incident. But research has shown that more racist attitudes have emerged in schools since the election of Donald Trump. One day following the election, students at York County School of Technology in Pennsylvania yelled “White power.” In Philadelphia, White students spray-painted swastikas and other racist symbols on the walls. According to Southern Poverty Law Center, racist incidents continue to rise after Trump used White supremacy as a basis for his campaign.
Armbrester’s mother has yet to reveal if she will sue the school for the harassment that her son faced due to racism.
