Trump: Stop scaring our children

In late October, a 6-year-old girl in my mother’s first-grade class threw up on herself while sobbing.

A boy had told her that if Donald Trump won the presidency, her parents would immediately be deported. Not only am I appalled at the political knowledge of first graders, but at the fear instilled in this child, who shouldn’t have been worrying about the election in the first place or whether her family could be torn apart by a man who doesn’t even know her name.

Hold on to the accusations you keep in your back pocket for anyone who isn’t “willing to accept” the election’s outcome, and instead, ponder this: The president is supposed to represent our nation, correct? The president is supposed to provide both physical and emotional security for the public? At least, that what’s I, an American teenager, had always presumed.

I support your right to elect whomever, but you can’t disagree with the fact that our president should be utterly devoted to eradicating fear within our nation, not to instilling it in our people, our homes, our protests, our assemblies, and certainly — not in our children.

This story was originally published December 5, 2016 at 2:36 PM with the headline "Trump: Stop scaring our children."