CENTER VALLEY, Pa. – A letter sent home to parents by school officials last week outlines a wave of racist behavior from students this year, a trend some are blaming in part on the 2016 election.

“Over the first two months of school we have been dealing with some of the following issues:

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“Students yelling the N word down the hall, in the lunch room and in gym

“Students calling black students cotton pickers

“Students calling lesbians, dykes

“Swastikas being drawn on homework, laptops, screensavers, being carved into bathroom stalls and students doing Hiel Hitler signs,” according to the letter sent to Southern Lehigh High School parents by principal Christine Siegfried.

School officials held an assembly last week to address what Superintendent Kathleen Evison described to Lehigh Valley Live as “extremely inappropriate language” used by a small number of students who have been disciplined for their behavior since the start of school.

“Our student body is an extremely supportive and collaborative student body,” she said. “This is very unusual for us to hear this kind of language and, obviously, very disturbing.”

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Students told the news site they’re also disturbed by the trend, and are appreciative that administrators are taking action.

“It is noticeable and I do think it is a problem,” junior Jamie Kish said. “I do think it is good the administration is trying to do something about it.”

“In the assembly today we addressed the student body about treating one another with respect. While I feel we have an excellent student body, these things are happening in our school and we need to do better. I asked students to ask themselves if they treat people the way they want to be treated,” Siegried wrote in the letter to parents, which was posted online by The Morning Call.

“I also asked them if their peers influence them at times and can they be a better person and help those friends and other be better too. I also explained that they don’t always know what someone else may be dealing with, whether it is a home situation, a school or peer group issue, or the fact that they don’t have food or a safe place to live.”

Siegried said school officials are planning school wide activities over the coming months to continue to address the issues, and implored parents to talk with their kids.

“I am asking that you have some of these conversations with your child at home in support of what we are trying to do at school,” she wrote. “It is my hope that our students will do a better job of respecting one another and accepting each other’s differences. The students were a great audience in the assemblies and I feel they listened to the message that was being delivered.”

Evison said she’s unsure what sparked the recent racist comments because there’s been no significant changes at the school and no issues in the past.

“We are not a community that tolerates that kind of language and behavior,” she said. “It is extremely disturbing and it needs to cease immediately.”

School officials did not reference the alleged racial undertones repeatedly cited by the media covering the 2016 presidential election, but Kish did, and wondered out loud whether it’s fueling the school’s problems.

“I think that might be one of the reasons why students are being so loud and open with their opinions,” Kish said, adding that other elements are also likely adding to the issue.