Kids who are in religious or ethnic minorities, or are gay or disabled, are more likely to be bullied in school than other kids. Their point of difference can be a point of vulnerability. In the last decade, schools have put more energy into preventing bullying, to the benefit of these kids and others (girls, too, are more frequent targets). And they’ve often had the authority of the courts, state legislatures and the federal Department of Education behind them.

Now the country has elected a man who threaded racist, xenophobic and misogynistic messages and mockery of disabled people through his campaign. Donald J. Trump’s victory gives others license to do the same. There are already signs that during his presidency, the moral values that schools and parents have been helping to instill in young people — empathy and “upstanding,” a term schools use that means looking out for fellow students who are being mistreated — will be in danger of eroding.

Since Mr. Trump’s election, the Southern Poverty Law Center has received more than 430 reports of bullying, harassment and racist displays around the country. “We haven’t seen this volume in the United States in decades, with the exception of the wave of anti-Muslim incidents that followed 9/11,” said Ryan Lenz, a spokesman for the center. Not all of the reports have been verified. But they include real and painful episodes at secondary schools and colleges.

At York County School of Technology in Pennsylvania, white students were filmed walking through the hallway with a Trump sign and yelling, “White power!” Minority students there report being called racial epithets and say some have been staying home from school.