A group of middle and high school students in Compton have filed a first-of-its-kind federal lawsuit saying violence at home and in their neighborhoods has impaired their ability to learn at school. The students, along with three teachers who are also plaintiffs, allege the Compton Unified School District has failed to recognize and address their trauma-induced disabilities, and therefore has denied their legal right to an equal education.
....“You have to address trauma in order to do anything about the achievement gap,” said Anne Hudson-Price, an attorney with Public Counsel who represents the students.
...The 1998 Adverse Childhood Experiences study, conducted by researchers at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, showed that traumatic childhood experiences, like abuse or neglect, or living with alcoholic, drug-addicted or mentally ill parents raised the risk of physical and mental health issues in later life. The more trauma a person experienced in childhood, the more likely she was to suffer health consequences like cancer, addiction or obesity as an adult.
But repeated trauma also affects children profoundly during their earliest years, because of the plasticity of their brains, writes Joyce Dorado, a psychologist and professor at the UC San Francisco in her declaration supporting the lawsuit.
To continue reading this article by Robin Urevich, go to: http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhea...bility-lawsuit-says/
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