Are America’s schools safe for AAPI students?

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. 

By  Charissa S. L. Cheah, Aggie Yellow Horse and Kevin A. Gee,

As schools reopen and students return to their classrooms after 18 months of homeschooling because of the coronavirus virus, AAPI parents worry about safety for their children from that other virus -- hate.

The rise in anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic has prompted many Asian American parents to enroll their children in remote learning out of concern for their child’s safety at school. Asian American youths are enrolled in remote learning at much higher rates than other racial groups. 

Federal data show that 78% of Asian American eighth graders attended school virtually in February 2021, whereas just 59% of Black, 59% of Latino and 29% of white students attended school virtually.

Below, three scholars address school safety for Asian American students.

Are America’s schools safe for Asian Americans?

AGGIE J. YELLOW HORSE
Assistant professor of Asian Pacific American Studies at Arizona State University

Data show that many Asian American youths have experienced anti-Asian violence in the past year.

Asian Americans have experienced a great deal of racial harassment amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent survey found that 1 in 8 Asian Americans reported experiencing anti-Asian hate incidents in 2020. The victims of that harassment aren’t just adults – they include students.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 3,800 hate incidents targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have been reported to the Stop AAPI Hate National Reporting Center. Among the incidents early in the pandemic, 16% percent of the targets were Asian American youths ages 12-20.

The majority of the young victims, about 80%, reported being bullied or verbally harassed. In over half the incidents, the perpetrator used anti-Asian hate rhetoric. About 1 in 5 hate incidents happened at school.

National trends before the pandemic suggested that Asian American students were already more likely to experience racial discrimination, such as race-related name-calling, from their peers at school than other categories of students. About 11% of Asian American students reported being called hate-related words, compared with 6.3% of white students in 2015. A separate study found that bullying and physical violence were less of an issue for Asian American students. Only about 7.3% reported being bullied at school in 2017, compared with 23% of white students.

How common race-based harassment against Asian students is can vary based on different factors, such as where students live, their gender, grades or immigration status. For example, a study from California found that Asian American sixth graders in California reported being bullied and victimized at higher rates than other racial groups.

What are the biggest worries for Asian American youth and parents?

CHARISSA S.K. CHEAH
Professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Many Asian American parents are worried that their children will be the victims of discrimination once school reopens.

Asian American parents are worried about schools reopening. NPR3.38 MB (download)

In one survey, nearly 1 in 2 Chinese American parents and 1 in 2 Chinese American youth reported being directly targeted with COVID-19 racial discrimination in person or online. About 4 in 5 of these parents and their children also reported witnessing racism directed at someone else of their own race either online or in person.

Despite their concerns, some parents may avoid talking to their children about anti-Asian racism to avoid scaring them while they are at school. Even if parents want to have the “race talk” with their children, many struggle with how to talk to their children about the potential racism they might encounter. Some parents may not have been taught these lessons while growing up and are grappling with how to make sense of these experiences.

Anti-Asian racism is also associated with greater depressive symptoms and anxiety in Chinese American parents and their children. A majority of Americans blame China for its mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak. Researchers have found that even thinking that one’s racial or ethnic group is viewed by the general public as a threat to the health of Americans is linked to poorer mental health in both Chinese American parents and youths.

Asian Americans are less likely than non-Hispanic white Americans to seek mental health help. This is due in part to perceived stigma, language barriers and lack of mental health providers of the same ethnicity. These disparities are even greater for Asian American families with fewer financial resources.

Some Asian American parents have also expressed concerns about the ability of schools to maintain appropriate COVID-19-related health and safety measures. They are worried about the health risks that children exposed to others at school might bring home. Asians Americans are more likely to live in a multigenerational household, in which older adults might be at a higher health risk.

Even if parents choose to keep their children home because of one or several of these concerns, they are getting the message that in-person education is superior to virtual education. Being out of physical school could cause Asian Americans to miss out on these opportunities and resources even more. Also, due to the “model minority myth,” which characterizes Asian Americans as successful, the needs of this very diverse group, including a large number of immigrant and refugee Asian families in the U.S., are often overlooked. With 30% of Asian Americans reporting limited English proficiency, these families are more difficult to reach. The fears of being harassed also make some parents reluctant to access educational materials or free meals or even reach out to teachers or counselors for help.

What can schools do to reduce threats to Asian American students?

KEVIN GEE
Associate professor in the school of education at the University of California Davis

Helping students build strong and supportive relationships with each other can reduce their physical victimization and buffer the negative effects of discrimination Asian Americans face.

Schools can also create supportive environments by implementing a range of evidence-based approaches, such as building teachers’ cultural knowledge and strengthening teacher-student relationships. Activities like engaging students in class discussions about bullying have been shown to reduce bullying.

Alongside initiatives to build supportive environments, schools should also consider partnering with parents. Directly engaging Asian American parents in anti-bullying initiatives can help reduce victimization. For example, schools can collaborate with parents to craft disciplinary policies on bullying. Schools can also hold workshops to teach parents how to handle and prevent bullying.

In order to reduce threats and eradicate harm, I believe schools will need to consider whether they are doing enough to protect Asian American youth. One landmark case underscores this. In the aftermath of violent attacks on Asian American students at South Philadelphia High School in 2009, a Department of Justice investigation revealed that the school district was “deliberately indifferent” to harassment against Asian students that fueled the attacks.

A key takeaway: Harms against Asian American students can be systemic and require broader structural solutions. When South Philadelphia High School began to do more to promote multicultural awareness and improved systems to report and investigate harassment, the school saw fewer violent incidents.

To make Asian American youth feel safe and protected, schools need to track, report and respond to incidents of hate against Asian Americans, especially among Asian American ethnic subgroups. Subgroup data, often lacking on Asian Americans, can be a powerful tool in revealing potential disparities and highlighting groups that schools need to target for support.

I believe schools also need to invest in longer-term systemic changes such as including a more complete history of Asian Americans in U.S. social studies curricula.

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The writers: Charissa S. L. Cheah, Professor of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Aggie Yellow Horse, Assistant Professor of Asian Pacific American Studies, Arizona State University, and Kevin A. Gee, Associate Professor of Education, University of California, Davis

Sunday Read: California Muslim students more likely to be bullied in school

Muslim students in California continue to report being bullied or harassed at a higher rate than other students in the state and the country, according to a new report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The CAIR report, "Singled Out: Islamophobia in the Classroom and the Impact of Discrimination on Muslim Students,"  released Wednesday (Oct. 16) reveals that Muslim students are bullied at twice the rate of the national statistic.

While the report shows some hope that there is a decline in bullying, CAIR-Greater Los Angeles' Senior Civil Rights Attorney Patricia Shnell, Esq., the lead editor of the report., said, "Muslim students still report bullying at alarmingly high rates, and there is a need to continue to advocate for students at the federal, state and district levels, so that everyone has uninterrupted access to their education, regardless of their religion or background."

“I was in second grade when I first decided to wear a headscarf (hijab). Three days after my decision, a classmate attacked my new appearance by implying that I was connected to Osama Bin Laden," said Anoosh Ali, 18, a first-year student at Sierra College. She was so traumatized she never wore a hijab again until last year. "It took me 10 years to get over the shattering effects that bullying had. Ten years!"

SCREEN CAPTURE

At a press conferencee, Anoosh Ali relates how traumatic bullying can be for a young Muslim student.

The report, is based on findings from a statewide survey of approximately 1,500 Muslim students between the ages of 11 and 18. This report is the fourth in CAIR-CA's series of biennial reports documenting the rates of bullying of Muslim students in California.

Each report is based on a survey which asks Muslim students across the state about how they perceive their school environment and the type of bullying and/or discrimination they have experienced at school, as either a target or bystander.

According to the responses received for the new report, 40% of respondents reported being bullied for being Muslim, which is double the national statistic for students being targets of school bullying.

Key findings illustrate minimal improvement in school environments for Muslim students.

While 72% of Muslim students reported feeling comfortable letting others know they were Muslims, that percentage is down from the 2016 survey, when 77% of respondents felt the same.

Seventy percent of respondents felt safe, welcomed and respected in their schools, just 1% higher than as reported in 2016. However, looking at the wider trend among CAIR-CA surveys, the number of Muslim students who report feeling safe, welcome and respected at their schools has declined 13 percentage points since 2014.

The survey also considered gender-based differences in survey responses. More female students reported experiencing bullying, with 44% of female respondents reporting being bullied compared to 37% of male respondents.

In addition to analyzing gender-based differences, CAIR-CA also focused on age-based differences. The data revealed that high school-age student respondents were bullied at a higher rate than lower grades, with 48% of 12th-grade respondents reporting being bullied, the highest rate based on age/grade.

To comply with that law, Assembly Bill 2291, the California Department of Education posted online an anti-bullying training module that schools must offer to teachers and other employees who have regular interaction with students.

“In the era of Trump and abhorrent attacks on our immigrant communities, the fact that 40% of Muslim students have faced bullying is extremely troubling, but not surprising," Chiu said in a statement. "Moving forward, we will be monitoring this issue and working with advocates to see what steps can be taken to make sure all students feel safe and welcome at school.”

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Report: AAPI students fight invisibility and bullying

CHARGE Coalition members after giving the initial findings of the California Asian American and Pacific Islander Youth Report to the California legislature on November 6, 2017.

Fifty percent of Asian American and Pacific Islander youth have been bullied in school according to a California report. 

The California Asian American and Pacific Islander Youth Report reveals that AAPI youth across diverse communities report high rates of bullying and discrimination, but youth from certain AAPI subgroups face significantly higher rates of economic insecurity and violence, and lack positive mental health supports to cope with these challenges.

The survey of AAPI youth gives a strong argument for disaggregation of data for Asian American and Pacific Islanders: Different AAPI communities suffer different problems. What affects one community might not be a problem for others.

The report "shines a light on and lifts up voices from communities who are not reflected in the 'Asian' categories on data dashboards, communities who have for too long been largely invisible in the eyes of schools and educators,” said Lailan Huen, program manager for Asian Pacific Islander Student Achievement at the Oakland Unified School District.

The report, produced by the nonprofit Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) and Asian American and Pacific Islander Coalition Helping Achieve Racial and Gender Equity (AAPI CHARGE) and scheduled released Thursday (June 6), is based on a 2016-17 survey of 813 Asian American and Pacific Islander youth and young adults, as well as five focus groups across California.

The survey found that 50 percent of Cambodian, Laotian and Iu Mien (a Southeast Asian ethnic minority) respondents said they have not taken classes about their culture, ethnic history and identity; 85 percent of Samoan respondents said they felt invisible and unrecognized because they haven't seen their cultural identities represented in classes; and 50 percent of youth reported being bullied in school with stereotypes of their racial or ethnic identity.

Social workers conducted the survey because of problems that have arisen in California schools were mounting. While there were plenty of anecdotal evidence, they didn't have the data to back up their arguments for more specific services.

In plainer terms, the model minority myth didn't fit all the students.

“These smaller Asian American and Pacific Islander communities just do not have the visibility when it comes to their educational challenges,” said Gabriel Garcia, a coordinator at the Asian American and Pacific Islander Coalition Helping Achieve Racial and Gender Equity (AAPI CHARGE).

“So every step that we can take to bring visibility to these communities to their experiences in school will bring us closer to educational equity that we would be advocating for,” said Huan.

Stanley Pun — program manager at Oakland-based nonprofit AYPAL, which helped design the survey — said in an email that the findings are significant because, while the model minority myth may apply to certain groups of Asian Americans who have had generations to adjust to the United States, other communities struggle with trauma from events such as the Vietnam War, the Cambodian genocide and the legacy of colonialism in the Pacific Islands.

The report also found distinct regional trends. Fresno’s Hmong youth described feeling invisible or misunderstood at school, despite living in one of the largest Hmong communities in the country. Thirty-eight percent of Oakland respondents and 77% of Stockton respondents reported feeling unsafe in their neighborhoods, compared to one in four respondents overall.

Long-time Stockton community leader Sokha Kaz Lek remarked, “These kids are living in the modern-day Killing Fields. We need to find a way to stop the cycle of violence. We need to help our youth live in peace.”

The report offered several recommendations to address the findings, including developing ethnic studies curricula that reflect the diversity of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, requiring faculty and staff to undergo training on diversity and inclusion, and implementing restorative and transformative justice models in schools to address bullying.

“We cannot continue with only universal programs and expect to reach our goals for equity, without giving students who need more access and support those resources to achieve standards and thrive," said Huan.

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Professors look at bullying and Asian Americans

HULU

In the Hulu's series, PEN15, bullies harass Asian American character, Maya Peters, played by Maya Erskine (right).

By Akemi Tamanaha

ASAM NEWS

Often, Asian Americans teenagers are left out of broader conversations about bullying, says a new study that seeks to remedy the oversight.

On Monday, the Asian American Journal of Psychology published a quantitative study on how schools play a role in the victimization of Asian American teenagers. One of its goals is to help quantify the victimization and bullying Asian American teens experience because of their race, say the study's authors, Professor Kevin Gee and his colleague Professor North Cooc of UT Austin. 

The study cited experiences of Asian American teens like Sam who spoke to AsAmNews, with the condition his last name is not revealed.

Sam’s Experience

Two years ago, Sam graduated from college and moved from a small town to the big city to pursue a career in music. He lives and works in a city that reflects America’s vibrant cultural diversity.

That cultural diversity was not always present in Sam’s home town. Several years ago much of his sense of community was defined by a private middle school with mostly affluent White students. Sam was one of the few students of color attending the school on scholarship.

Like many middle schoolers, Sam was a victim of teenage bullying and teasing. Unlike many of his peers, however, the bullying Sam experienced related to his race. One male student would slant his eyes at Sam, call him racial slurs, and yell “ching-chong.”

One day, Sam decided he had had enough and fought back. No one ever spoke to him about the incident, and from that moment on Sam and the student in question remained friendly.

“To be clear, I’m pretty ashamed of what I did,” Sam said. “In hindsight it was a needless act of violence.”

Study's beginnings

It was a story of Asian Americans attempting to fight back against their bullies, told in NPR’s podcast Code Switch,that inspired Professor Kevin Gee and his colleague Professor North Cooc of UT Austin to conduct their study.

In 2009, several Asian American students reported being beaten up by their peers at a high school in South Philadelphia. The students claimed that the school did nothing when they reported the physical harassment. The federal government would later claim that the school “deliberately ignored” the rising racial tensions that contributed to the bullying of those Asian American students.

“I think the disturbing thing is these are people who took their concerns to people who are supposed to protect them, and they did nothing,” Gee said.

Gee and Cooc began to wonder what schools were doing to protect Asian Americans students against bullying. They also wondered what might be happening in schools that might increase the victimization of Asian American students.

To answer these questions, took multiple years of data from a subset of the National Crime Victimization survey. The School Crime Supplement asked adolescents about their perceptions of crime and safety at school. The two professors took multiple years of data to ensure that they had a large enough sample size, an issue that often plagues research on Asian American communities.

“A lot of research on Asian Americans gets dinged because there are small samples…” Gee said. “I think it says a lot about how we think about data on Asian Americans and why we need to collect larger samples and also thinking about disaggregating Asian Ams.”

Their study does not disaggregate Asian Americans by ethnicity, but they hope to eventually collect enough data in future research to do so.

Social context

According to the study, Asian American teenagers most frequently experienced social victimization (15%) as opposed to physical victimization (4%).

The study unearthed three main relationships. First, Asian American teens with more peer support experience less physical victimization. Second, teens who engage in physical fights or attend schools with a strong gang presence experience more social victimization.

Finally, the study found that commonplace school security measures like metal detectors, locker checks, or school conduct codes make no difference in the level of victimization Asian American teenagers experience. The social context of the school was really what was driving the victimization. Researchers need to examine the racial dynamics and implicit biases not just among students, but also the school staff and faculty.

According to Gee, the need to examine the social context of schools is one of the biggest takeaways from the study.

“I think those are the more complicated conversations to have,” Gee said.

The study did examine social interventions that are designed to help students make friends and get support from adults. Gee said that the problem with these interventions is they tend to work best for White students. Socially based interventions, he says, should consider the diverse school settings they are being implemented in.

“And that’s difficult, to sort of take a step back and say if an Asian American student comes to me and reports bullying how might I have my own implicit assumptions about that relative to other students,” Gee said.

Data collection continues

Gee says the next step in their research is qualitative, that is taking the numbers and putting faces to the bullying experience. Researchers need to sit down with Asian American teenagers and ask them about their experiences with victimization and bullying. Both professors hope that this study will encourage researchers to continue conducting thoughtful data collection on Asian Americans.

Thoughtful data collection can also be done in schools, Gee says. Schools could conduct their own surveys and interviews to better understand the social dynamics of their school.

You can learn more about Asian American victimization and bullying on the Asian Pacific American website. You can also read a report published by the Asian American Pacific Islander Bullying Prevention Task Force.

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Trollers beware: Kelly Marie Tran is back!

INSTAGRAM / KELLY MARIE TRAN SOURCE

RACISTS and misogynists bullied her off Instagram and for the first time since she left that social media site, actress Kelly Marie Tran is speaking out.
“Their words seemed to confirm what growing up as a woman and a person of color already taught me: that I belonged in margins and spaces, only valid as a minor character in their lives and stories,” Tran wrote in an essay for The New York Times published Tuesday (Aug. 21).

“And those words awakened something deep inside me ― a feeling I thought I had grown out of,” she continued. “Their words reinforced a narrative I had heard my whole life: that I was ‘other,’ that I didn’t belong, that I wasn’t good enough, simply because I wasn’t like them. And that feeling, I realize now, was, and is, shame, a shame for the things that made me different, a shame for the culture from which I came from.”

Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico.

Tran, 29, who played the of Rose Tico in the latest The Last Jedi installment of the Star Wars franchise, was the first woman of color to play a lead role in the science fiction saga. However, despite the historic nature of the role for being "first," the negative comments attacking her appearance and her presence were clearly racist and proved to be too much. Tran closed down her Instagram account earlier this summer with no explanation.

Until now.

It wasn't any particular Instagram post that caused Tran to delete her account. Her moving and powerful opinion piece is a strong reminder of how far this country still has to go in race relations despite the lofty words of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. The practice - intentional and unintentional -- of being made to feel "not good enough," because she's not white; being made fun of because she could speak a language other than English; of having to change one's name to one easier to pronounce' of being  "othered" because one is Asian American is insidious and pervasive throughout America's institutions and culture.

The Star Wars franchise has been hounded by angry fans who feel white males are losing their status in the galaxy far, far away. It started with John Boyega and Daisy Ridley in Star Wars: the Force AWakens and continued to target Tran.

For some reason, these small contingent of insecure fans think they have some ownership over the George Lucas-inspired mythology. (I would not be surprised if they blame Lucas' African American wife for this trend.) The anti-diversity fans could be seen as a reflection of the rise of white nationalists who voted for Trump out of fear that their America (and their privilege of being white males) is threatened as America becomes more diverse.

“It was then that I realized I had been lied to,” the Vietnamese American actress wrote, adding later: “This is what it is to grow up as a person of color in a white-dominated world. This is what it is to be a woman in a society that has taught its daughters that we are only worthy of love if we are deemed attractive by its sons. This is the world I grew up in, but not the world I want to leave behind.”

Her essay continued: “I want to live in a world where women are not subjected to scrutiny for their appearance, or their actions, or their general existence. I want to live in a world where people of all races, religions, socioeconomic classes, sexual orientations, gender identities and abilities are seen as what they have always been: human beings.”

Tran defiantly concludes: “You might know me as Kelly,” she said. “I am the first woman of color to have a leading role in a Star Wars movie. I am the first Asian woman to appear on the cover of Vanity Fair. My real name is Loan. And I am just getting started.”

Tran's strongest message to her haters will come next year when the next episode of Star Wars will come out. She will reprise her role as Rose Tico.

READ Tran's entire letter by clicking here.

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Man who killed his 'bully' neighbor wants death penalty

PASCO COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE

Qiu Feng Ke admits to killing his neighbor after being harassed for two years.

ASAM NEWS

A FLORIDA MAN who is accused of killing his neighbor says he’ll plead guilty if he is promised the death penalty, reports TampaBay.com.

Qiu Feng Ke told Fox 4 in January that he killed his neighbor, Edward Lee Tudor, who he accused of adult bullying,

Ke offered to plead guilty in a March 13 letter to Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Mary Handsel, reported TampaBay.com.

“Death sentence is a win-win for every side involved in this case,” he said in that letter.

What Ke is offering to do may not be allowed under the law.

“You cannot plead guilty for the death penalty,” Stetson University College of Law Professor Charles Rose said.

He said only Florida juries can recommend the death penalty.

Ke say he has been angered by incessant noise coming from Tudor’s home for two years. He blamed his neighbor for banging his walls and yelling profanity.

Ke is accused of continuing to shoot Tudor as the man begged for his life.
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