WILMINGTON, DE — An 11-year-old from Delaware can’t help his last name, which he shares with the 45th president of the United States. But Joshua Trump’s parents say their son has endured bullying, a confounding national crisis that experts say can change who kids become, because of his name, and they’re going to have it legally changed.
The trouble for Joshua started during the 2016 presidential election. Other kids in the Brandywine School District cursed and swore at him and called him an “idiot” and “stupid,” his parents said. The taunting has continued during Donald Trump’s unorthodox presidency.
Joshua will now go by his stepfather’s last name, Berto, until his name can be legally changed.
The bullying was so bad that Megan Trump Berto, who is not related to President Trump, and Bobby Berto, of Claymont, decided to homeschool him for a year. This fall, when the boy enrolled at Tally Middle School in Wilmington, his parents discussed the past torment over the Trump name with the building principal, Mark Mayer, television WPVI reported.
“The family at our open house night in September had shared with us that in prior years, he had had incidents at another school with his last name,” Mayer told NBC News. “As a group, we met with our sixth-grade team and made them aware of this particular challenge they brought to our attention.”
Teachers “were mindful so as to refer to him as Joshua T.,” from the start of the school year, and things went along “relatively well” until last week, Mayer told NBC News. That’s when the Bertos told school officials their son was being teased in gym class and was hit on the bus, reportedly for reasons unrelated to his last name.
“We disciplined the children involved and agreed to switch Joshua to a new bus,” Mayer told Yahoo Lifestyle. But last week, when the new bus driver took attendance, some of the children began chanting “Trump Trump” and “Dump Trump,” Mayer told Yahoo.
The bullying is taking a toll on Joshua, his mother told WPVI.
“He said he hates himself, and he hates his last name, and he feels sad all the time, and he doesn’t want to live feeling like that anymore, and as a parent that’s scary,” she said.
Her fear isn’t unfounded. Over the past few years, kids driven to the brink by bullying have taken their own lives rather than put up with another day of torment.
It will take some time for the Bertos to have Joshua’s last name legally changed, “but in the meantime, we switched his name to Berto in the school system,” Mayer told Yahoo.
“That way, even substitute teachers will have the right information,” he said. “Kids need to be kind and Joshua needs to feel good about who he is at school.”
Photo via Shutterstock
Throughout 2018, Patch has been looking at society’s roles and responsibilities in bullying and a child’s unthinkable decision to end their own life in hopes we might offer solutions that save lives.
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