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Far too many Baltimore students come from impoverished inner-city neighborhoods wracked by drug and gang violence where shootings, stabbings and beatings occur on a daily basis. When impressionable young people witness dreadful things happen to family, friends and neighbors, it leaves a mark on the soul that can last a lifetime. They've been cruelly traumatized by what they've seen and experienced, and if they're ever to get over it emotionally and psychologically they're going to need help.

Google the definition of play and the first thing that pops up is this: “[To] engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.” Jack Shonkoff, the director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, finds that language supremely frustrating. “It’s not taking a break from learning when we talk about play,” he told me, rattling off a litany of cognitive, physical, mental, and social-emotional benefits. “Play is one of the most...

The concept of being both a human and an educator is one I’ve grown increasingly concerned about since I had my first child. I’ve always been focused on my job as an educator. Sometimes, I think people assume I’m nuts for being so driven and passionate. I just know it is part of who I am, and, honestly, I don’t want that part of me to go away because I genuinely like it. I am also a mother, and I like that part of who I am, too. I am no less committed to being an educator since becoming a...

The new documentary "The One That Got Away" takes a look at the tough problem of dealing with at-risk youth in American schools. In the feature, Dan Gill, a teacher at Glenfield Middle School in Montclair, New Jersey, reconnects with his former student, Tourrie Moses. Moses is serving prison time for manslaughter and aggravated assault. One of the documentary's co-producers, Steve McCarthy, joined us to talk about the work. [For more of this story, written by David Brancaccio, go to ...

Gemyra Wynn doesn't need to go into the details of her childhood in Camden. After sketching out how adverse childhood events can traumatize people and cause lifelong health consequences, the 17-year-old can just offer her ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) score — it's seven out of 10 — and leave it at that. The same goes for her fellow instructors, 16-year-old Aunyay Fussell and 15-year-old LeBaron Harvey. They each survived psychologically trying experiences. But these students are...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/magazine/an-effective-ut-exhausting-alternative-to-high-school-suspensions.html?_r=0

When it comes to children's brains, Rahil Briggs describes them as ... sticky. "Whatever we throw, [it] sticks. That's why they can learn Spanish in six months when it takes us six years," says the New York City based child psychologist, "but also why if they're exposed to community violence, or domestic violence, it really sticks." Briggs works at the Healthy Steps program at the Montefiore Comprehensive Health Care Center in the South Bronx, screening children as young as 6 months for...

A little over two years ago, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed into law “The Safe and Supportive Schools Framework.” This statute creates the conditions for schools to become safe and supportive by establishing a statewide framework that incorporates trauma sensitiv ity . The law , signed August 13, 2014, also established the Safe and Supportive Schools Commission to provide the legislature and the state with recommendations on how best to ensure that all schools have the time and...

I recently wrote a blog post about how to take the first step in creating a trauma informed care model (TIC) in your school. The first step, Establishing a Baseline, is necessary because it fuels future steps in the process. In the blog post "Is Your School Ready to be Trauma Informed and Trauma Sensitive," I also listed the key components of a TIC model. I am adding them here as well, because I don't want you to have to keep going back to the other blog as you are working on this process.

Check out NPR's interactive app exploring mental health in public schools. http://apps.npr.org/mental-health/

Trauma-Informed Instruction: The new foundation for a positive school climate Please join us for a free one-hour webinar next week on Trauma-Informed Instruction for K-12 educators and administrators. We hope you'll consider joining us on Wednesday, September 7th at 2:00pm Eastern. In this webinar, Leora Wolf-Prusan, Ed.D. (School Climate & Student Support Specialist at WestEd) and Lara Kain (Senior Director of Transform Schools at Los Angeles Education Partnership) will discuss: The...

Kansas City Star, Letter to the Editor Keith Martin Overcoming abuse As a pediatric resident physician, I treat kids whose problems extend beyond the diseases I learned about in medical school. Often, helping children and families requires looking into root causes hidden outside of doctors’ offices. One such problem is toxic stress endured by children who have had adverse childhood experiences such as child abuse, neglect or family dysfunction. In the late 1990s, a landmark study of 17,000...