Children and youth hear the words adults hear. They hear them on the Internet, over a shoulder and repeated by other kids on the playground or in the classroom. And words matter. They shape what young people think about themselves, each other, adults and their country.

From Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president, young people have heard distorting claims about Mexicans as rapists to deport and distrust, of Muslims as violent anti-Americans who should be banned from entry to the United States, of African Americans as people living in hellish inner cities, of women as people to grope without permission, and of violence toward critics as admirable passion, to name just a few examples.

Such comments echo through school hallways, too. … Teachers reported that children and youth across the country were hearing Trump’s language on the news and restated in the mouths of peers. The report documents Latino, African American, and Muslim children, and children of immigrants, terrified and fighting with peers; reporting slurs and threats from peers that Trump would hurt or kill their families; and asking teachers whether their entire families (even as American citizens) would be deported, walled off or worse by Trump.