An eleven-year-old Delaware boy who shares a last name with President Trump has been forced to change his name… after violent bullying from his classmates.
Joshua Trump now uses his stepfather’s last name, Berto.
According to his mother, Megan Trump Berto, Joshua was bullied on a school bus because of his last name. It escalated to him being punched by a classmate.
The violence and bullying got so bad that, on December 6, Berto pleaded via a Facebook post with the parents of other students to sit down with their kids and address bullying.
To the school’s credit, once they were made aware of the bullying, they leapt into action to protect Joshua.
The school’s principal, Mark Mayer, responded to Berto’s Facebook post asking to speak with her in more detail the next morning. He also immediately honored Berto’s request to switch Joshua to a different school bus route.
Mayer added that Joshua’s teachers “were mindful so as refer to him as Joshua T.” since the beginning of the school year, citing bullying concerns, and Mayer said that “things were going relatively well” until the bullying on the school bus earlier this month.
Mayer also said that the school has punished the kids responsible for the bullying, and has promised to provide additional check-ins with Joshua to make sure the bullying has stopped.
They also agreed to change his name in the database from “Joshua Trump” to “Joshua Berto” in an effort to stop the bullying once and for all.
