If COVID has an upside, it’s that it has brought attention to the emotional needs of students (and faculty members). Indeed, if a student doesn’t feel emotionally safe in the classroom, their ability to learn is severely impeded. And if an educator is experiencing extreme stress, their ability to work effectively with kids is compromised. The bottom line is that educators must work toward balancing a student’s academic needs with their social and emotional needs. Our three guests from the Elizabethton School District in Elizabethton, TN provide the details.

Dr. Myra Newman — Assistant Director of Schools for Academics, Elizabethton City Schools, Elizabethton, TN

Dr. Jon Minton — Principal, Elizabethton High School, Elizabethton, TN

Megan Ellis — Counselor, Elizabethton High School, Elizabethton, TN

One of the clear takeaways from our series on trauma in schools is that few teachers and administrators receive training on student trauma before they find themselves in front of their kids. Most professional development in this critical area is provided to educators in what are often too-brief training sessions after they are already in the schools. Our guests in this episode, professional development consultants Tamara Neufeld Strijack and Hannah Beach, are helping to disrupt that pattern.

One way trauma grows in the Native American child is through schooling. Native American children attend either schools made up primarily of Native students, or they attend U.S. public schools with the potential for more of a mixed population. As we’ll learn during the interview, Native American children who attend U.S. public schools are often criticized for their silence. But their silence doesn’t reflect a lack of interest or knowledge, it’s culturally driven behavior. Native American children are often silent for two reasons: one, because they’re reflecting deeply on the topic under discussion, and two, they’re demonstrating respect for the thoughts of others, especially the teachers. Instead of being critical of them, we should see them for what they are. Holly Echo-Hawk, a behavioral health expert for the Pawnee Nation provides the details.

One of the aspects of trauma that needs to be fully recognized is its intergenerational potential: the trauma that a student carries with them can often be further weighted by what their parents and or ancestors experienced. This is particularly true for people of color and indigenous populations. Mary Peter, District Vice-Principal, Indigenous Education, Cowichan Valley School District on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, and Richard Matthews, the District Counselor at the Cowichan Valley School District provide the details.

When we think about trauma and adverse childhood experiences, the conversation understandably gravitates to one of what happened to the student. That approach can focus us externally on the damaging experiences and events themselves. Dr. Scott Ratchford, an expert on equity and the Coordinator of Equity Advancement for the town of West Hartford, CT, helps us shift our focus to see the internal impact of adversity and trauma on a child and how it can affect their identity, sense of safety and well-being, and perhaps most important, their potential.

Most attempts at large-scale change in education fail because of incoherent planning, lack of buy-in of stakeholders, and poor execution. Another big reason for failure is pace: leadership tries to do too much too quickly. Moving too fast can be particularly detrimental when adopting something as emotionally rich and behavior-changing as trauma-informed practices. Dr. Dana Milakovic, a mental health and trauma specialist, and the state-wide advisor for Trauma (K-12) for the Pennsylvania Department of Education urges a step-by-step approach that includes a multi-system of support.

Our study of trauma in schools has naturally focused on students. For example, the discrimination and racism that many live with in their neighborhoods aren’t experiences they can easily leave at home. That those experiences negatively impact a student’s academic success is undeniable. But our educators of color at home and around the world are hardly immune to that type of adversity. Discriminatory hiring practices engender one type of adversity for educators. But many educators are now experiencing increased adversity as legislatures and local school committees hand down restrictions on what and how they can teach. Kevin Simpson, head of a global educational consulting company explains.

Christine LeGuizamo is a licensed social worker serving as the Program Director of Mental Health at New Harmony High School in New Orleans, Louisiana. New Harmony is a growing charter school with a mission to “Foster an interconnectedness of people, land, air, and water that prepares students for college, careers, and beyond.” And part of that interconnectedness, as Christine explains, is “the intertwining of academics and social-emotional part of each student. We very much serve the whole child and understand the importance of serving the whole child. When it comes to academic learning, it is so important to understand that to get a student to conceptualize algebra, you need to also understand what happened at home last night that could impede their learning for the next day.”

Let’s join the conversation and get the details on how Christine and New Harmony High are accomplishing that.

One of the stakeholders in the larger community that is seeking to alleviate student trauma plays a huge role — perhaps the biggest role: parents. In this episode, we'll hear from Ruth Freeman, a licensed social worker, and the CEO and Founder of Peace at Home Parenting Solutions. Peace at Home’s mission is to help parents raise confident, resilient children from prenatal development through young adulthood. It does that by translating research into practical approaches and tools that parents can use at home. What becomes clear in our discussion is that for parents to be effective in that effort, they must first be in a safe, centered mental place themselves. And that can be a challenge.

One of the themes we emphasize in this series is that effectively addressing trauma is a whole community effort. Given their limited numbers, that responsibility can’t just fall to school counselors, psychologists, and social workers. As many of our guests argue, teachers can and do naturally play a crucial role given the amount of time they have with students. For some teachers, implementing trauma-informed practices may require them to make a paradigm shift in how they think about their role. For other teachers, addressing a student’s trauma at the classroom level may just mean giving them the tools they need to be supportive. Clinical social worker, Amber Warner, explains.