Especially after a short presentation, educators will sometimes say to me, “We’re going to take this slow and start small.” While I understand the sentiment, these words concern me because systems and schools do things every day that make things worse for youth, educators, school leaders, and families. We have to quit making it worse. This post explains why and gives three suggestions every educator can embrace to ensure the work of building trauma-sensitive schools is not delayed.
“Building trauma-sensitive schools is a journey, not a destination.”
“You can’t do everything at once.”
“Start with your strengths and resources; build from there.”
“Be specific and realistic in your goals and action plans.”
“You’ll never have this all figured out, and if you ever think you do, you’ll be mistaken.”
I’ve said all these lines hundreds of times. I mean them, and yet… We can’t delay this work, folks. Every human in our school communities is worthy of being and feeling safe—now. Every learner has a right to be nurtured and challenged to grow and learn—from day one and every day thereafter in our schools.
This can’t only be the goal for most kids or just the students who present without complex behavioral needs. It’s for every learner—every single one. Even if it’s uncomfortable, difficult, or seems impossible at times.
I worry that when I encourage educators to make meaningful, manageable change, that it may give folks permission to put the work off or perhaps even avoid it altogether. It’s not okay to lean into what’s more comfortable or easier if it’s at the expense of other humans in our care. This is especially true when many of these individuals are already made more vulnerable. That makes things worse. We have to quit making it worse. And, we must make it better.
Start with these three actions. 1) Recognize how building trauma-sensitive learning environments is a bit like flossing teeth. 2) Identify a harm and co-design an action plan to address it. 3) Step in to hold yourself and your team members accountable.
Recognize How This Work is a Bit Like Flossing Teeth
For years, my dentist displayed a poster that said, “You don’t have to floss all your teeth. Just the ones you want to keep.” That says it all doesn’t it? Becoming a trauma-sensitive educator who collaborates to build trauma-sensitive learning environments is comparable. We must prioritize safety, connection, regulation, and learning (otherwise known as my Four Essentials) in day-to-day actions that are both preventive and responsive—for every person we care about. That should be all of them so the work is not for some kids and adults but each one.
Let’s face it, we’re included in the priorities too.
Here are just a few examples.
- Changing school practices that harm the LGBTQIA+ community stop harms and celebrates diversity within groups. Creating safety for each person to be themselves matters—for all of us.
- Acknowledging discipline or advanced course placement disparities for youth of color, disabled people, students marginalized by poverty, or gender groups can inform school transformation. Just communities, once we get there, will actualize freedom for everyone.
- Tending to the needs of youth whose nervous systems are sensitized to respond to stress activators in ways that other folks may not be, whether due to trauma or not, results in teams who are equipped with the skills to prevent and respond to a wide array of learner needs but also supports compassionate care outside of our campuses. This is helpful for everybody.
"Recognizing that building trauma-sensitive schools is a bit like flossing teeth is the first way to quit making it worse."
Identify a Harm and Co-Design an Action Plan to Address it
Harm happens in every school board, county, district, and school. The second way to quit making it worse is to get honest about these harms, collect and use data to prioritize at least one harm to intentionally dismantle at a time, set a S. M. A. R. T. goal, and work together to co-design an action plan to meet it. Then identify a new priority. Throughout, be specific.
Here are two examples of possible harms and goals.
Harm 1: School adults rely on threats of punitive consequences in an attempt to address challenging behavior as evidenced by observation and educator survey results when presented with a scenario and asked to write how they would respond to the behavior in their classroom.
Goal 1: Referencing a sentence starter prompt card, educators will initiate a curious conversation with a student exhibiting concerning behavior at least three times per week by the end of the first quarter as evidenced by self-monitoring. Each staff member will come prepared to share one example of their curious conversations at staff meetings.
Harm 2: Reports of bullying and harassment related to gender and sexuality have increased by 25% across the districts as evidenced by counting formal reports.
Goal 2: By the end of the semester, the number of bullying and harassment reports related to gender and sexuality across the district will decrease by at least 10%.
Not sure where to start to identify a priority for stopping harm? Once felt safety has been established in your groups, facilitate a community brainstorming session about harms that happen at school with youth or adults. Let the priorities that surface inform your goals and action plans. Importantly, accept what’s shared in these discussions without getting defensive, especially when learners identify problematic adult behavior. We ask kids to listen to corrective feedback from us regularly. It’s not fair to ask learners to work on themselves if their educators aren’t actively working on themselves too.
"It's not fair to ask learners to work on themselves if their educators aren't actively working on themselves too."
Step in to Hold Yourself and Your Team Members Accountable
Educators, another way we can quit making it worse, is to own and work on our own stuff, including our biases. This requires holding ourselves and our team members accountable. Think of it as stepping in to make a difference instead of stepping out of your comfort zone (even though it may be uncomfortable). These risks are healthy after all and necessary, especially the closer we are to power.
Here are a few discussion prompts to help you.
- When do you tend to get dysregulated at school?
- Are there biases that could be contributing to these patterns?
- What cues signal your own dysregulation on the inside?
- What might be observed by others on the outside when you’re dysregulated?
- How can you meet your own needs for regulation while meeting your students where they are too?
- How can you talk with your team members about patterns of dysregulation that you each experience and how you might support one another? (Hint: Try to do this before there’s dysregulation).
In the moment, when dysregulation is becoming overwhelming, try these words.
- This is a lot for more than one of us; let’s slow this down or even pause for a few moments.
- I can tell you are getting heated (or shut down), what do you need to take good care of you right now?
- We’ve all felt this way before; let’s find another way to handle it.
"Educators, another way we can quit making it worse, is to own and work on our own stuff. This requires holding ourselves and our team members accountable. Think of it as stepping in to make a difference instead of stepping out of your comfort zone (even though it may be uncomfortable)."
To wrap up, remember that building trauma-sensitive schools is a lot like teeth brushing. We only need to meet the needs of the humans we care about, which should be all of them. To do that, we have to quit making things worse, and instead, help make things better. Identifying at least one harm at a time to work on dismantling together is a must. So is owning and working on our own stuff, which comes from stepping in to hold ourselves and our team members accountable. If adults don’t want to rock the boat or feel too leery to confront a difficult situation, they’re choosing adult comfort over children’s real or felt safety—that’s never okay. In Humans who Teach, Shamari Reid (2024) explained it this way. “Am I doing or saying XYZ because I am afraid of what might happen to a student if I don’t interrupt injustice, or am I concerned with what might happen to another adult if I do interrupt injustice? (p. 85). Adult comfort shouldn’t be prioritized over the humanity of youth—whether that comfort is for ourselves, other educators, or our relationships with them. Instead, trauma-sensitivity calls us to lean into brave action.
"If adults don’t want to rock the boat or feel too leery to confront a difficult situation, they’re choosing adult comfort over children’s real or felt safety—that’s never okay."
To Learn More...
- Learn more about trauma-sensitive leadership in my new quick guide about trauma-sensitive leadership. It’s free and available for download from Brookes Publishing on my spotlight page.
- I also have a brand new online course and workbook coming later this month that will help any school staff member become a trauma-sensitive educator. It’s called Becoming a Trauma-Sensitive Educator, and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out!
- Looking for free bite-sized trauma-sensitive suggestions? I’m now on TikTok. Each video is focused on one question and a brief trauma-sensitive answer to that question. Please connect over there!
Keep stepping in,
Reference
Reid, S. (2024). Human who teach: A guide for centering love, justice, and liberation in schools. Heinemann.
