A bad example for our kids

For years our schools have emphasized to kids that they shouldn’t bully others, especially online. Our Storm Lake schools teach our students to be nice to each other. We’ve had many stories about this over the years.

We’d like to think the President of the United States would be a role model for all Americans, particularly our youth, about respecting others.

Instead, President Trump has been on an insult tirade denigrating all sorts of people.

In recent weeks, on social media and in talks from the Oval Office, Trump has referred to the governor of Illinois as a “big fat slob,” the governor of Minnesota as “stupid” and “retarded,” and the governor of California as “scum.” He called one reporter “stupid” and another “piggy” during a news conference aboard Air Force One. Last week he said Somalis are “garbage,” including those who are American citizens living in Minnesota and right here in Storm Lake. Does he really believe a little second-grader in Northwest Iowa is garbage?

He called for members of Congress who oppose him to be put to death. And he even turned on one of his biggest supporters in Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene, when she called for release of the Epstein sex trafficking files (that may implicate Trump himself). Trump called the Congresswoman a “traitor” and “lunatic” in online rants. Now she and her family are targets of death threats.

In public comments, from the White House and in events across the nation, Trump has used foul and obscene language that we won’t repeat here because it is inappropriate for a family newspaper.

During his time in office, Trump’s wife Melania has sponsored a “Be Best” initiative that attempts to fight online bullying and promotes kindness to others. Trump must not have received the memo from the First Lady.

If Donald Trump was a student at any elementary school in Buena Vista County, he’d be called to the principal’s office for a talk with his parents and the school counselor about his abusive behavior. If he posted online that some of his classmates should be be put to death, he and his parents almost certainly would be investigated by Storm Lake Police and probably ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation. He would not be allowed back in school while this investigation was ongoing and could ultimately be expelled. People around town would look at him nervously for the rest of his life.

If Trump was an employee or volunteer in the Storm Lake schools who bullied or harassed someone, he would be terminated and banned from school grounds, according to the school district’s anti-bullying/harassment policy, adopted in 2007 and updated in 2023.

Meanwhile, in real life, a man making physical threats and bullying people online is allowed to preside over the most important nation on earth. And members of his own party stand by and refuse to challenge him because they are afraid of his bullying.

It says a lot that any second-grader in Storm Lake is better behaved than the President of the United States.