(WSAW) -- "I grew up in a kind of stair step with some of my cousins,” Shannon Young said, “and if we were growing up now, all of us at some level would have been labeled at risk,"

“At risk,” is a term Young, the principal of Enrich Excel Achieve (EEA) Learning Academy in Wausau said she does not like because all teens are prone to be more impulsive and at risk of making more mistakes. But she uses that term now to refer to some adverse childhood experiences in her past.

"When I was 9, I had an older brother who went to prison for a while and...I think it was last school year when...I put that out there in a professional sense," she recalled.

She is sharing these experiences explain a study about adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs that has been gaining the attention of schools, social workers, and criminal justice members, as these potentially traumatic childhood events can change the way the brain is wired.

"It was just striking to me as someone who is in a leadership role with kids to realize that we need to be aware of these experiences, we need to be aware of how we should interact, but our biggest focus is what resources can we put in place to help heal," Young said. 

To read the full article, written by Emily Davies, click HERE