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Reply to "Trauma informed Care - from the Inside"

Robert, the 'stuff' (poor facilities, overcrowded classrooms, lack of materials, paperwork, bullying (just for starters) these ALL lessen the 'trauma informed care' because, in essence, the realities of workplace life that are ignored, denied, downplayed, etc., cancel out the integrity of 'trauma informed care'. 

If, for example, you were switched from teaching fifth grade to kindergarten the Friday before school started and walked in to a classroom that had no curriculum (it was a storage room for several years) and you are now fully expected to get that classroom in shape over the next six hours and be fully ready to teach on Monday, the notion of 'trauma informed care' is just so much hoo-haa because your administrator will fully expect detailed lesson plans, etc., that first day -and you haven't even found one teachers guide yet. And scenarios like this (and so many more) happen routinely. This is but one discreet example. "Trauma informed care" is but one piece of a very big puzzle. 

The big, bad elephant in the living room is that in order for "trauma informed care" to truly work in urban settings (such as Compton USD, site of recent class action lawsuit) lots of ugly truths also need to be addressed... Dismally poor facilities, lack of effective workplace bullying policy, campus safety, 'buy in' from all stakeholders, etc., and so much more.

There are no effective state or national workplace bullying laws. The standards are abysmally low. In CA, the CA Teachers Union doesn't want to push for any legislation because they don't want to admit teachers bully teachers. Districts don't want workplace bullying policies because there's no requirement for it. Los Angeles County Office of Education came out opposed to anti-bullying policy in special education. They ended up having to train administrators on how to not bully teachers when I filed a complaint against them. It didn't work. 

Trauma informed care means knowing where to look for trauma, not assuming a band aide will 'do the trick'. 


 

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