Has anyone read this exciting article from NPR about specific approaches schools can use to address student trauma?
When Schools Meet Trauma With Understanding, Not Discipline
A brief excerpt:
"...schools, because they have so many children dealing with many different issues, often don't think about the reasons behind behaviors. Mental health workers, like her, though, have learned a lot recently about how trauma changes the brain.
"A kid who's been exposed to trauma ... that fight or flight response is much more developed and stronger," Carter says.
Crocker has developed ways to help students who are dealing with those experiences. Two full-time social workers hold one-on-one sessions with students who need someone to talk to. Teachers send disruptive students to a room called the wellness center for a meditative time-out that's not supposed to be punishment.
If students fight, they first work it out through group discussion. Kids who act up or shut down get extra support, not detention or suspension like they used to. The idea is to tend to life troubles at school, instead of sending kids home."
Could some of these approaches work in Sonoma County classrooms?
