California high school students increasingly criticize each others’ politics, race, sexuality
By Andre Mouchard
The angry and sometimes violent speech expressed by parents at school board meetings in recent years has found a mirror, as students at high schools throughout California increasingly are willing to criticize each other about politics views, race, and sexuality.
What’s more, incidents of students demeaning each other verbally are most common on campuses in the most politically divided congressional districts, according to a study based on reports from 150 high school principals released late Monday, March 13, by researchers at UCLA and UC Riverside.
Though principals told the researchers that the vast majority of students don’t engage in such speech, they said the incidents are rising and increasingly problematic. The researchers said such speech is now about three times more common than when they conducted similar polling in 2018.