MARLEEN WONG: We have seen
so many children
come into schools
who are exposed to violence--
issues that place our children
in jeopardy every single day.
RON HERTEL:
Bullying and harassment.
MARY DORGAN: Domestic violence,
neglect, abuse.
TIM DELMORE: We have had
a multitude of suicides.
JOE VARGAS: I've got kids here
that have seen a dead body
in the street.
They think,
"Am I going to be next?"
MARY WILSON: We had
a first grader choking himself,
saying that he wanted to die.
RON HERTEL:
Survival trumps learning
for children who have trauma
in their life.
And when survival
trumps learning,
learning is going to be
compromised.
Every student, you know,
spends six to seven hours a day
in the school.
If they live in a chaotic
environment at home,
many times, the school
is the only safe, sane place
where they feel that
their well-being is regarded.
It becomes a real important
survival tool
in students' lives.
MARY DORGAN: We talked
about what bullying is.
Now who can think of a way
that someone is bullying?
Children who deal
with traumatic issues,
their mind is not
on the schoolwork.
As educators we need to address
the emotional, the social,
the physical,
and the intellectual parts
of children.
RON HERTEL: When you think
of one-third of the students
that are in your classroom,
impacted by the traumas that are
going on in their life...
The Compassionate Schools
Initiative in Washington State,
and the training
that accompanies that,
is really to help teachers
better understand
what trauma does to a student's
ability to learn.
MARY WILSON: My staff went
through extensive training.
They welcomed it.
It was a huge paradigm shift
of changing attitudes
and perceptions.
It talked about adverse
childhood experiences
and how it affected the child.
RON HERTEL: We ask a student,
"What happened to you?"
instead of,
"What's wrong with you?"
MICHELLE CANION: We know
the problems that they have.
But really understanding
how it affects them--
the long-term effects of it--
has been real helpful to us.
Active listening!
Sometimes it's the quiet kids.
They put on a mask, and you have
no idea what's going on.
I'm always asking, you know,
"Hey, how's it going?
We're here to help you."
It's all about building
a relationship with the kid.
MARY WILSON: We have to be able
to intervene right away.
We build safety plans,
we work with the parents,
and we say, "This is
the plan that we have,
but we want your input.
What can you do to support us?"
MARY DORGAN: When you deal
with children who have traumas,
the conventional methods
of dealing with them
are often not applicable.
INSTRUCTOR: So we're going to do
the sun salutation.
MARY WILSON: Many of our kids
needed to learn
how to calm down.
So we started yoga.
And the kids absolutely love it!
INSTRUCTOR: This is...?
STUDENT: Swaying tree.
INSTRUCTOR: Swaying tree.
RON HERTEL: It's not our intent
to turn teachers into counselors
or social workers
for their students,
but to really create the climate
and the culture in the school
that benefits
their ability to learn.
MARLEEN WONG: School-age
children can experience
a wide range
of traumatic events,
regardless of whether a child
lives in an urban area
or a suburban or rural area.
Is there a lot of crime
in the child's neighborhood?
Is there drug use and abuse?
Experiences that adults
need to ask about.
DEITRA BRYANT-MALLORY:
We know that there is a link
between academic engagement
and school engagement,
and traumatic stress
and violence.
Some of the symptoms that
our children present with,
in school, like re-experiencing,
hyper-arousal, avoidance--
those things show up
as problematic behaviors
in the school setting.
MARLEEN WONG:
When we created CBITS--
that's Cognitive Behavioral
Intervention
for Trauma in Schools--
we wanted to create
an intervention
that was school-friendly.
SARA DUCKERY: The goal of CBITS
is to give our students
a set of skills.
It helps the students deal
with the past trauma
that they've experienced,
and also helps them deal better
in the future
with things that may be
stressful for them.
We're going to be using
the Fear Thermometer
in order to kind of assess
how we're feeling, okay?
DEITRA BRYANT-MALLORY:
CBITS is a 10-week intervention
that gives kids
individual and group sessions.
It includes all kinds
of activities
that make trauma bearable.
SARA DUCKERY: We talked about
different relaxation strategies
that we can use when we're
feeling really stressed-out.
DEITRA BRYANT-MALLORY:
It's an intervention that is fun
and is appropriate for kids
in the adolescent
developmental stage.
MARLEEN WONG: They learn ways
to cope with the anxiety,
how to work
through those moments
when they're thinking
about the incident.
Really teaching them
problem-solving skills.
DEITRA BRYANT-MALLORY: What that
means is that we have children
that are better able
to attend in class,
better able to have
strong social relationships
and make healthy attachments
to both peers and adults.
Those are the things
that make for successful
personal and academic lives.
JODY THOMPSON:
In our school system,
everybody is responsible
for our children--
from the custodian to the cook
to the classroom teacher
to the school secretary
to the building principal.
FAYE KIHNE: Every school in
Grand Forks County has signed on
to do primary prevention
and intervention for kids.
The Safer Tomorrows project
addresses childhood exposure
to all types of violence.
JODY THOMPSON: We work closely
with very good partners
across our community
to make sure
that our students are safe.
THERESE HUGG: We bring
therapists that are trained
in trauma therapies
into the schools
to meet with students who have
been exposed to violence.
It's important to have
trauma-informed care
and trauma-informed teaching.
JAN VERDI: Bullying
can stay with you forever.
And it can leave scars;
it can tear you apart.
We had indicators that bullying
is going on,
especially cyber bullying.
The anti-bullying training
that we took
gave us the background on how
to conduct, say, class meetings
and how to train other teachers.
JODY THOMPSON: We have our own
social workers and counselors,
so if there is a report
of bullying or violence,
we have a systematic way
to manage that
across all of our
school facilities.
TIM DELMORE: Our counselors
do a very good job
of alerting staff
of potential students that are
going through problems.
If we hear that students
are going through
some kind of abuse,
we're obligated to report that.
A lot of students
don't understand
that they are
in abusive situations.
So we focus a lot on
relationships, talking about,
"What does a normal, healthy
relationship look like?"
MIKE BERG: One of the points
we want to get across
is that we can be abusive
without even thinking about it.
[whistle blows]
Coaches see things
and hear things
that other adults don't.
They're in situations
on a practice field,
in a locker room, on a bus,
where they can actually see
teachable moments.
We can impart so much more
that the kids can take with them
when they leave
that's gonna have
a great influence,
not only on themselves,
but on the people
in their lives.
JAN VERDI: The safety
of our children
is everybody's responsibility.
They're our kids,
they're our legacy,
and they need to be
taken care of.
