SALISBURY — They’re only 5, 6, 8, 10-years-old — but life has already thrown some elementary school students more punches than they can handle. Rowan County children walk into school every day with the scales stacked against them; bearing the weight of abuse, poverty or community violence — and when one more weight is added to the pile, they break.
“The response could be fight or freeze,” Christy Lockhart, a social worker at Koontz Elementary said. “And it’s out of their control.”
Lockhart, and others who specialize in working with children, refer to childhood trauma as Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs; and have seen firsthand how multiple instances of trauma can cripple a student’s future. The CDC reports that one in six children nationally have experienced one or more adverse childhood experiences.
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“If we want to be a trauma-sensitive community, our schools have to be trauma informed and trauma sensitive,” Houpe said.
It’s part of what let Koontz to a partnership with the Public School Forum of N.C. Every few years the forum, a champion for students and schools, launches a year-long research and study group. This time, the organization has chosen to focus on trauma in education and tapped Koontz as a participant.
Koontz Elementary is one of only three schools in the state to be part of the forum’s North Carolina Resilience and Learning Project — the other two are located in Edgecombe County.
To read the full article, written by By Rebecca Rider click here: Take a deep breath: Koontz launches resiliency program to help kids cope with stress
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