A recent article by KQED — a newspaper from my hometown area back in the the San Francisco Bay — has determined that Muslim children living in the US are experiencing unusually prevalent symptoms of depression and anxiety. The supposed cause? Their president.

Iranian-American Dr. Nooshin Razani, a pediatrician out of Oakland, has said that the hateful islamophobic rhetoric since the 2016 election has had a deeply negative effect on the emotional and psychological stability of children who perceive themselves as at risk. She is quoted saying, “Discrimination is always painful, but it’s worse when it comes from an authority figure.”

This quote in particular resonated with me, and reminded me of a conversation I had with my own family two years ago, when Trump was just announcing his candidacy. My racist horrible climate-change-denying xenophobic Catholic grandfather had been once again defending Donald Trump, and denouncing the Communist liberal anti-christs (aka me). Calmly, my mother had turned to him and said, “a president should be a strong and safe example for children, a trusted adult in power. I don’t even want my children to hear the things he says.” But now, in 2017, children not only hear the things Trump says; they feel hated and targeted and unsafe because of the things he says.

In the past six months, specifically since the buzz surrounding the Muslim ban, there have been countless headlining stories of children breaking down into tears in the middle of school, reporting severe chest pain and headaches, and appearing incredibly on edge and overstressed. There have even been instances of children as young as eight years-old beginning to talk about suicide, as a result of heightened bullying at school.

Rolling Stone describes this as “the Trump Effect.” I described it as the disgusting result of a disgusting man.

A Vox article describes that “students whose families are more engaged with religion or go to a mosque tend to have more information, whereas kids who have less of a community organization supporting them are mostly only hearing things from other kids at school, so there’s more fear there.” This is made much worse by the fact that many school-age children are not yet capable of fully comprehending the aggressive language they overhear on the TV, on the radio, or in adult/sibling conversations. They’re just scared. Teachers have reported seeing Muslim students who are natural-born American citizens break down in tears at the threat of a simple detention, believing that they may be at risk for deportation for minor school discipline. Or other counts of harmless questions from confused kids in class turning quickly to a hostile argument between students of “you’re getting deported,” “no, you’re getting deported!”

It is incredibly easy to close one’s eyes to this, turning away with the excuse of “kids will be kids.” But when children’s academic performance and psychological well-being is being affected by the hateful rhetoric spouted by their own government, this becomes systemic bullying; top-down fear mongering; a public health issue; highly dangerous islamophobic propaganda. And as seen in this experiment by Noor Kids, such systemic discrimination and propaganda will even heavily affect the way in which Muslim children see themselves.

As a means to counter the negative effect of Mr. Trump’s aggressive rhetoric, community-building groups and advocacy groups have sprung up across the nation. One example, in particular, stood out to me. Wee the People, an advocacy group in Boston which seeks to bring together parents and children to spread messages of inclusion and tolerance, held an event called “To Islam, With Love.” This was a Valentine-making project, in which elementary school children wrote Valentine’s to members of the Muslim community with a message of love, safety, and inclusion. Of course, at first I was a bit skeptical, as I tend to be. Didn’t it seem awfully condescending for preschoolers to send Valentine cards with messages of “Be strong!” when the fear experienced by these communities was very valid and real? However, I came to realize the intention in this project for the dialogue it creates for children. Muslim children are able to see that their classmates stand with them, in a time when they are being taught that many don’t. Non-Muslim children are able to have conversations with their parents about the importance of tolerance, the power of words to heal or harm, and concepts of empathy, justice, “protecting your neighbor” and “standing up to bullies.”

This is beautifully illustrated in a quote from Francie Latour, co-founder of Wee the People and organizer of the event. When asked about children’s reactions to the event, she replied “there was confusion: ‘Why would our president do this? Why would people hurt someone just for wearing a scarf on their head?’ And there was some fear: ‘Is the president going to try to hurt my family?’ But the strongest response was, ‘I am going to make the most sparkly, most loving Valentine so that whoever gets this will feel better.’ That’s where pretty much all the kids landed emotionally.”

Little girl poses with valentines made at Boston’s Wee the People “To Islam, With Love” event on February 5, 2017