Trauma-responsive school thinks outside-the-box to engage students during pandemic

Before the pandemic, Sara Buckley, an 8^th grade science teacher at Park Middle School in Antioch, California, could handle students who were acting out during class. Understanding that trauma lies beneath disruptive behavior, she didn’t send kids to the principal for punishment. Instead, she’d talk with them to find out what was going on at home or outside of school—and then work out a plan for how to respond differently the next time they were triggered. They could visit the school’s wellness room or take a walk to calm down before returning to class.

Buckley’s response to students was part of an entire culture shift at Park Middle School towards a more supportive approach to students and their problems. Changes included meditation at the beginning of classes, a wellness room that offered counseling, yoga classes, calming music, and a host of tactile objects like squeeze balls to help bring students triggered into “fight, flight or freeze” back into the present. The culture change also spawned teacher and staff healing circles, as well as a buddy system in which teachers who were triggered could reach out to their colleagues to give them a 5-minute break. (Read about the school’s transformation in this story from 2018.)