The brain research around trauma, adverse child events and their impact on our children continues to mount. Even though I understand the pervasiveness, the inherent difficulties and the double-binds that a school can face in dealing with this issue, it is still a reality that so many of our schools provide little or no trauma training regarding trauma’s impact on their children in the classroom each day.
When the evidence won’t be ignored
The evidence and research is just too strong to ignore, and we as a culture need to embrace what we now know. Here is a simultaneously compelling and discouraging article by Sara Sidner / CNN regarding students involved in Compton Unified School District’s lawsuit:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/21/us/california-lawsuit-violence-disabled-students
When will this national problem receive due attention?
When you consider all the issues facing the students in this situation there is a lifetime of undoing here that should already be a part of their lives yet they do not trust anyone to help them.
We have got to offer new ideas and capabilities to schools to help with this national problem. Most of all, someone needs to be there for these students as they process this inordinate amount of violence and trauma that they have experienced in their lives.
Gerry Vassar, President/CEO, Lakeside Educational Network
