Supporting students of trauma

Julie, a 7^th-grade girl at the Neighborhood Middle School, is creating quite a ruckus in her third-period math class today. She came in the room scowling, has refused to take any notes or even open her book, and the teacher’s requests for her attention and eye contact are met only with deeper scowls. Julie has typically been disenchanted with math, and lately she has acted especially negatively and uncooperatively in class.

As Julie’s teacher, what do you do?
a)      Offer her one more chance to get started on her work; after that, send her to the classroom next door. Her behavior is disruptive to the other students and cannot continue like this.

b)      Invite her to come to your classroom at lunchtime to talk about math, life, school, or just to eat. Perhaps she’ll open up about what’s bothering her.

c)       Move her to a quiet corner of the room to work independently. If that doesn’t work, send her to the office. We will not tolerate disrespectful behaviors in our classrooms.

d)      Drop a note on her desk as you circulate the class, asking her to chat at the end of the period. You’d like to relay your concern for her well-being as well as her need to perform academically.

As you might have suspected, this is a more complicated matter than it appeared at the beginning, and your response is likewise complicated. Perhaps it would help to have a little more information about Julie:

Last night, Julie’s mom arrived home late, after Julie was supposed to have been in bed. Her mom was drunk, yelled at Julie for being up too late, then slipped and hurt her arm in the kitchen. Julie had retreated to her room, upset and worried – worried because her mom has been drinking more and more lately, worried that her mom might really hurt herself, and worried that her mom’s relationship with her is withering. Through her own sobs and the wild thoughts running through her head, Julie got about two hours of sleep and left for school before her mom even woke up.

Julie’s scenario is not too uncommon in today’s schools. Children like Julie arrive at school tired, scared, anxious, angry, and overwhelmed by any of a host of events that we call “trauma.” Whether it’s Acute Trauma (a single traumatic event) or Complex Trauma (repetitive, severe stressors), the effects on kids can be detrimental, even debilitating.
So, armed with some background info about Julie’s life, would you change your answer to the question posed above? How so? Does life impact the way we interact with (and react to) children in school?

Our ultimate goal is to support Julie’s academic growth and readiness for long-term success. We want her to learn the content and demonstrate skills. Public accountability demands higher assessment scores. She must acquire certain grades and pass certain classes in order to graduate. She must master the Common Core State Standards. And we want her to love learning so she’ll push herself to continue.

The trick, then, is to balance that push for academic success with the overwhelming need to provide her with a safe, trustworthy environment with safe, trustworthy adults caring for her. This is the challenge, and this is what mental health professional Kristin Souers and I are currently researching and investigating for our upcoming (and yet untitled) book.