Gavin Cortina, Make America Great Missouri sixth grader attacked on school bus; How a 12 year old boy experienced the political discord in America up close.
It seems political division even goes so far as to embroil school children, case in point a Missouri sixth grader, Gavin Cortina, who was recently attacked after wearing a ‘Make America Great Again’ baseball cap as ubiquitously worn by now president elect, Donald Trump during the campaign trail.
According to the 12 year old boy, fellow students ganged up on him whilst riding the school bus, with some pupils taking exception to the iconic hat the boy was wearing.
In cellphone video of the incident obtained by News 4, students en route to their Parkway school can be heard arguing with the six grader over the Donald Trump now famous hat along with some of the controversial president’s proposed plans.
‘You want to build a wall?’ one student yell, ‘You want to build a f–king wall?’
Things quickly escalated from there, the Middle school student said.
‘At one point, he just got so frustrated he pushed me,’ told the 12 year old student, ‘And then he kept hitting me and backing me up by the window of the bus, and so I just had to push him out.’
A spokesperson for the Parkway School District said the altercation was investigated and that all students involved have faced ‘consequences.’
Not spared consequences was 12 year old Gavin who school authorities suspended.
Reacting to the decision to suspend her son, Christina Cortina said Gavin was ‘made an example of” while also adding she never anticipated the heated response to her son’s Trump hat. Do you suppose?
Said the mother: ‘As a parent it’s so unsettling,’
‘I feel like my son was made an example of, it was a tricky situation — it was politically charged.’
A spokesperson for the Parkway School District said the altercation was investigated and that all students involved have faced ‘consequences.’
The district, which sent out notices to parents offering suggestions on how to speak with their children about the election results following Trump’s victory in November, added administrators will sit the students down with the hope of cultivating more harmonious relationships between those involved in the incident.
Perhaps administrators may want to make the trek across the entire United States and replicate those discussions as a deeply divided America struggles to come to terms with the new dialectics at play …
