Trauma in Schools: A District Leaders Video Roundtable
For two years now, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought fear, uncertainty, and chaos into our lives. Children and educators alike returned to school this fall, though it was certainly not the return to normal they had imagined.
Students are struggling as they juggle an unprecedented scenario: a global health crisis, overwhelmed and under-resourced educators, and high expectations for their academic success. Mental health and well-being must be a priority as we struggle to recover from our individual and collective trauma, grief, and loss.
This video episode from the Cultivating Resilience A Whole Community Approach for Alleviating Trauma in Schools podcast features a roundtable with educators and district leaders who share their wisdom on mental health and well-being during and after the pandemic. Learn how they are allocating resources to strengthen the resilience of students and further individual and collective self-care in schools.
Questions to consider as you watch and listen to the roundtable.
How are schools addressing our ‘new normal’?
What support is being offered to heal and develop resilience?
How is your district spending its ESSER or other stimulus funds that have been established to improve the safety and well-being of students and staff in schools?
To view the Roundtable video, click the white triangle near the lower hand in the image above.
Highlights
“The coronavirus did not create the need for trauma-informed healing and resilience focused practices ... but it certainly did exacerbate the need to address the amount of stress and adversity that has been experienced …
Dysregulated adults cannot help regulate dysregulated children ... We can move toward a systems-based approach and a systems level approach to creating safe environments for everybody in the school environment.”
— Jesse Kohler, Executive Director of the Campaign for Trauma Informed Policy and Practices
“We’ve seen ... a very much increased incidence of highly reactive events that happen in schools ... We are talking about children who are in that alarm state and that have very strong fight or flight responses … The model we are following is a nonviolent crisis intervention model. Comfort versus control; it's a very important conceptual change.”
— Richard Matthews, school counselor in Canada
“Many of our students are coming into our classrooms without that place of emotional safety … it is through experiences, expression through free play, through nature … that our children can digest their world, they can process their world… It is through relationships, it is through people.”
— Tamara Strijack, thought leader in Canada
Additional participants from the U.S. and Canada include Donna Manuelito, Dr. Rachel Santa, Dr. Joseph Ricca, Kahlil Kuykendall, Dr. Chante Garrett, Hannah Beach, Tamara Strijack, Thomas Longridge, Richard Mathews, David McFall, Eva de Gosztonyi, Dr. Melissa Hughes, and students Katie Anderson and Andrea De Bartolo.
The Collaborative to Alleviate Childhood Trauma (CACT)
This podcast episode is hosted by members of the Collaborative to Alleviate Childhood Trauma (CACT), a collaborative dedicated to ensuring that educators are prepared to address the trauma that the youth experience. The collaborative is led by Dr. Christine Mason, Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Educational Improvement, Jesse Kohler, Executive Director of the Campaign for Trauma Informed Policy and Practice, and Jeff Ikler, co-host of the podcast, “Getting Unstuck: Educators Leading Change.”
Christine Mason, PhD
Email: chrismason@edimprovement.org
Website: www.edimprovement.org, Christine-mason.com
Jesse Kohler
Email:jesse@traumacampaign.org
Website: https://www.ctipp.org/
Jeff Ikler
Email:jeff@queticocoachingl.com
Website: www.queticocoaching.com