They Called Children Garbage

I led a school where most students were Hispanic/Latino. I know exactly what words like that do.

By Dr. John Petrone

I have heard this before.

Not on cable news.
Not filtered through a spokesperson.
I heard it in hallways, in classrooms, and in the eyes of students who suddenly wondered whether the country they were born into had turned on them.

I taught at and later served as principal of a high school that was seventy two percent Hispanic Latino. Most of those students were American citizens. Many had immigrant parents. Some were undocumented. All of them were children trying to learn while carrying the weight of how this country talks about people like them.

So when the President of the United States called Somali communities “garbage,” I did not hear a gaffe. I heard a familiar warning bell.

Because when a president uses language like that, it does not stay on television. It walks into schools the next morning.

What Happened in Vermont Was Leadership

In Winooski, Vermont, a small school district responded the way educators are supposed to respond. Somali students were hearing the president describe people who look like them as disposable. So the district flew the Somali flag outside a school building.

Not instead of the American flag.
Not in defiance of it.
Alongside it.

The students clapped. They smiled. They felt seen.

Then the threats came.

Racist calls. Voicemails. Social media harassment. Police stationed outside schools. Families afraid. Children asking whether their parents were safe.

This is not coincidence. This is cause and effect.

Words From the Top Always Travel Down

When you tell a group of people they are garbage, you are not making a policy argument. You are issuing permission.

I watched this play out during my years as a principal. When national rhetoric hardened, discipline issues spiked. Fear showed up in classrooms. Students withdrew. Teachers had to spend time repairing emotional damage they did not cause.

The kids did not quote politicians. They felt the consequences.

That is why the claim that these threats have “nothing to do” with presidential rhetoric is dishonest. History shows us exactly how this works. Dehumanization at the top always metastasizes below.

Schools Are Not Neutral Spaces

I learned this the hard way as a principal. Schools are not neutral when children are targeted. Silence is not balance. Avoidance is not professionalism.

When students walk into a building wondering whether their culture, language, or family makes them less American, leadership has already failed.

That Vermont superintendent understood the job. His responsibility was to keep children safe and to make them feel like they belong. That is not politics. That is the core of educational leadership.

I did the same work in a predominantly Latino high school. When students felt attacked by national rhetoric, our response was not to hide. It was to affirm. To protect. To say clearly, this school is yours.

The Pattern Is the Point

This is not about one flag.

It is about who gets to belong.
It is about which children are told they are a problem.
It is about schools being pressured to erase identity in the name of comfort.

Today it is Somali students in Vermont. Yesterday it was Latino students in the Southwest. Tomorrow it will be someone else.

That is how authoritarian culture spreads. It starts by making children feel small.

How We Fight Back

We stop pretending words do not matter.
We support educators who choose courage over convenience.
We show up when schools are targeted for protecting kids.
We refuse to let dehumanization become normal language.
We teach our children that belonging is not something you earn by disappearing.

A school that flies a flag to tell students they matter is not attacking America.

It is defending it.

I know this because I have led a school where most students were told, implicitly and explicitly, that they did not fully belong. And I know what happens when leaders choose affirmation over fear.

The hate gets loud.
The threats come fast.
But the students remember who stood with them.

And that is the only side worth standing on.

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