Teachers Are Finding the Presidential Debate Topics Tough to Explain

Elections are commonly used by teachers to show students real-life examples of democracy in action. But with the sensitive and often controversial topics raised in this presidential cycle, some teachers are finding the debates difficult to discuss.

Gina Daniels, a high school social studies teacher in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, told ABC News that some of her students are "afraid to even address the topic" of the election.

A particularly difficult moment came after the last presidential debate. Donald Trump defended himself against a vulgar recording where he described how he kissed and approached women, which some interpreted as descriptions of sexual assault.

"I had to explain to a class of students why sexual assault is not okay and not a joke and not an idle threat. My students —- the girls -— looked on in horror as the boys tried to justify locker room talk," Daniels said.

She believes Trump's example is leading their thinking. "Why did they do that? It's because they've seen the example of Donald Trump doing just that and they think its okay to try and justify it," Daniels said. "And it's not."

The rhetoric of the election is extending beyond high school classrooms.

Maureen Costello, the director of the Teaching Tolerance Project, which is associated with the anti-discrimination watchdog Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), said that they have heard from teachers from across the age spectrum about how the election is having a negative impact on students.

"We heard of children from kindergarten through high school breaking down into tears in class," Costello told ABC News. "We heard of very young children worrying that, while they're at school, a wall will be built that will keep them from their families. We heard about Muslim middle and high school students who are called 'terrorist' and 'ISIS' as they pass through the school hallways, or who have to sit through class discussions where a classmate says that 'all Muslims should be killed.'"

Hillary Clinton cited the so-called "Trump Effect," the term coined by the SPLC following a survey of teachers earlier this year during the first debate at Hofstra University, saying that "children are listening" and that "bullying is up" in schools.

Costello said that the age of the students is a big factor because younger children have fewer resources to understand.

"It's important to remember that these are impressionable children," Costello said. "They don't have the intellectual background or life experience to be able to critically question these statements."

The tension is more present among those individuals who are part of racial or ethnic groups that Trump has directly criticized through words or proposed policies.

"Students who belong to some of the groups that have been specifically identified as sources of problems for the country —- undocumented immigrants, particularly Mexicans, and Muslims, for instance —- are experiencing a lot of anxiety," Costello said. "They're bringing that anxiety to school and talking about it with teachers."

"Some of the concerns are very real: will they be separated from their families because of deportation? Will Muslims be treated as 'enemy aliens?' Some of them are damaging to their psyches: Why isn't this country welcoming them? Why do people hate them?" she said.

Daniels sees the rhetoric as having "a trickle down effect from the national level."

And on the personal level, that means that Daniels, who is a Democrat but tries to stay neutral in the classroom, has had to adapt her conversations.

"I try to remain as neutral as possible it just becomes really difficult because you can't remain neutral about sexual assault or bullying of immigrants," she said.

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