1. Chronic stress, trauma, and PTSD changes the brain development of children
1.1. Suffering from PTSD or having suffered trauma as a child, can cause students to have a lack of trust for their environments
1.1.1. Teachers can become careful observers to identity students in needs, and schools to become "trauma sensitive schools"
1.2. Children learn to be hyper aware, or always perceiving their surroundings or others a threat. This alters the ability to be able to take in new information.
1.2.1. Teachers can help students feel safe with them, and safe within their environment
1.3. Trauma has a negative impact of learning
1.3.1. Although trauma has a negative impact on learning, learning can undo trauma
2. Trauma can impact a child's ability to learn
2.1. Trauma experienced by children is linked to poor physical health and poor cognitive performance
2.1.1. Students must feel safe in all their classes and supported by all their teachers
2.2. Lack of trust for teachers, schools, adults in general, and learning or any environment, impedes a student's ability to learn
2.2.1. Teachers should not limit their expectations of students who suffer from trauma, but instead should work on their relationship with students
2.3. Students who have suffered trauma have a brain that is busy trying to protect them from everything that is perceived as a threat, and not able to take in or focus on new information
2.3.1. Teachers should help to make students feel safe, validated, and heard at school
3. Trauma affects everyone's experience at school
3.1. Teachers can become traumatized from students' trauma / become vicariously traumatized
3.1.1. Teachers need to be aware of the social and emotional toll that coping with students' trauma can have on them
3.1.2. Teachers need an outlet to discuss their experiences and help processing their own emotions
3.2. Other student's can be affected by trauma experienced by their classmates
3.2.1. Teachers and other students need to learn coping strategies to help manage some of the behaviors that children who are experiencing trauma at home may exhibit
3.3. There is data that shows that more than half of all U.S. children have experienced some kind of trauma, whether is is abuse, neglect, and or violence
3.3.1. Schools need to be sensitive to this fact, and schools need to become trauma informed and trauma sensitive schools
3.4. "Trauma in children often manifests outwardly, affecting kids’ relationships and interactions"(Minero, 2017).
3.4.1. Teachers can create routines that become part of their daily activities to help reduce stress for all students, such as taking breaks to stretch and breathing exercises.
4. Traumatic experiences, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, impact students, teachers, administrators, and families
4.1. Due to the pandemic, students lost their experiences of interacting with peers, teachers, and their school community
4.1.1. There is a need to reconnect with others
4.1.2. There is a need to reconnect with oneself
4.2. The pandemic caused families to be disconnected from support systems
4.2.1. Teachers and staff should help build students' emotional vocabulary, and teach them to express emotions
4.3. Families suffered financial instability as a result of the pandemic
4.3.1. Teach tools for handling and coping with difficult moments and situations
4.4. Teachers and educators, were quickly forced to try and figure out how to deliver instruction and teach all online
4.4.1. Emphasis should be placed not on academics at first, but on remediation of staff and students
4.5. Students lost support of teachers, counselors, and support staff
4.5.1. No one should attempt to go back to "business as usual"
4.6. Students lost the ability to have discussions to foster discussion and share feelings about distressful topics such as the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter Movement, as well as the pandemic
4.6.1. Teachers and staff should foster discussions about emotions in a safe space
5. Distress reactions can cause PTSD to develop
5.1. Worrying about one's health during the pandemic, without any support, can lead to loss of sleep, ability to eat, and other PTSD related symptoms
5.1.1. Find ways and teach tools to students and families for how to manage distress
5.2. To deal with distress, some family members will engage in smoking, drinking, taking prescription medications, or other substance abuse, as a way to cope
5.2.1. Families need additional support and to not have any added stress from school systems
5.3. With the distress of the pandemic, and other stressors, family conflict may increase as well as family violence
5.3.1. Teachers need to be aware of social emotional distress, or trauma in students
5.4. Distress reactions from increased family conflict or violence can lead to traumatic experiences for children within family systems
5.4.1. Teachers and staff help create school as a "safe space" for students again