Trauma Doesn't Stop at the School Door: Strategies and Solutions for Educators, PreK–College

Recipient of the 2021 Delta Kappa Gamma Educators Book Award. This book explores how educational institutions have failed to recognize and effectively address the symptoms of trauma in students of all ages. Given the prevalence of traumatic events in our world, including the COVID-19 pandemic, Gross argues that it is time for educational institutions and those who work within them to change their approaches and responses to traumatic symptoms that manifest in students in schools and colleges. These changes can alter how and what we teach, how we train teachers, how we structure our calendars and create our schedules, how we address student behavior and disciplinary issues, and how we design our physical space. Drawing on real-life examples and scenarios that will be familiar to educators, this resource provides concrete suggestions to assist institutions in becoming trauma-responsive environments, including replicable macro- and microchanges. Book Features: Focuses on trauma within the early childhood–adult educational pipeline. Explains how trauma is often cumulative, with recent traumatic events often triggering a revival of traumatic symptomology from decades ago. Provides clarifications of currently used terms and scoring systems and offers new and alternative approaches to identifying and ameliorating trauma. Includes visual images to augment the descriptions in the text.

Table of Contents:
Contents (Tentative) Preface Scope and Coverage Structure and Approach A Trigger Warning Acknowledgments Part I: Naming 1. What Is Trauma? At Least We Can Agree That . . . On These We Should Agree The Word Itself The Medical Definition A Psychological Definition Trauma and Traumatic Responses A Flawed Distinction An Alternate Approach Definitional Diversity A Definition for the Educational Context Assessment Devices and Definitions of Trauma ACEs ACEs Caveats Educators 2. Trauma in Action Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Scenario 3 Small e Events Small e Event Reactions There Are Solutions Transferred Trauma Next Steps What About Those Anniversaries? Dealing with Trauma Anniversaries Planning, Teachable Moments, and Control Kent State and New York Law School Some Lessons Material Goods as Memorials Tangible Evidence Onward 3. Acute Symptomology Is Autonomic First Appearances Acute Symptomology Nervous Systems The Three Fs The F Words What Happens to Our Bodies? The Autonomic Nervous System in Action The Impact of Repetitive Acute Symptomology Adult Physiological Responses 4. It’s Actually Triphasic The “Traditional” Delayed Divide But There’s More: Think Tri Story 1: It Is Dark at Night Story 2: A Change of Teachers What the Stories Tell Us Chapter 5: Secondary and Vicarious Trauma Concrete Exemplars A Personal Story over Time Part II: Taming 6. Finding Solutions Where and How to Begin Benefits of Allostatic Load Lifting Breakaway Learners, Baseball, and Trauma Name It Then Tame It Trauma Terms Change Doesn’t Have to Be Uniform Change Won’t Be Easy Trauma Matters 7. Change on the Horizon Lessons from Smoking and Civil Rights Context Counts Nine Factors Toward a Tipping Point Amalgamation and Associations Pivoting Right Who Isn’t Responsible? Who Is Responsible? Finding the Trauma Lens Collaboration? Macro Change Micro Change The Six Ts and Breakaway Learners 8. The Trauma-Responsive School A Caveat Why Deconstructing the Ideal Is Key The Ideal Trauma-Responsive School The Five Ss Values 9. Deconstruction I: Macro Changes Space and Place Play Table The Role of the Educator and Secondary or Vicarious Trauma Antifragmentation Punishment and Discipline The Center and Truth Macro Changes and the Brain 10. Deconstruction II: Micro Changes Transitions Use of the Senses Materials on the Walls Rovers and Pop-Ups Teams and Teamwork Implementing Change Part III: Framing 11. What Is a Frame? The Definition of Generation T The Meaning of Generation T Frames, Framing, and Framed What Is Trauma’s Frame? Other Frames The Generation T Frame 12. Conclusion: Having Hope New Research The Powerful Positives Unanswered Questions PCEs and Trauma-Responsive Institutions The Need for Empiricism Rising Tides Endings and Beginnings Notes Further Readings Index About the Author