14
schools
october4
2018
Vernonia’s New Caring Culture
School District embraces
behavior program to help
students, and staff, deal with
childhood traumas
By Scott Laird
The Vernonia School District
has embarked on a new program that
takes into account childhood trauma and
the roll it plays in students’ daily behav-
ior.
The District is calling the pro-
gram “Vernonia Caring Culture” but it is
based on a now well known and studied
process called Trauma Informed Care,
which uses multiple approaches to treat
people and their behavior issues from
a more caring point of view, while rec-
ognizing that if someone is struggling,
there is a reason behind it.
“Most of us have experienced
some type of trauma in our lives, and we
know many of our students have, which
may be contributing to what we see in
our school building,” says Peter Weisel,
a guidance councilor for high school and
middle school students in the Vernonia
School District. “We have kids walking
in our doors at 8:00 am who are way out
of control for no apparent reason. There
are reasons but we might not know what
they are. This program has increased our
awareness about our emotional state as
staff, and about learning how to manage
those emotional states, and then helping
our students manage themselves.”
Vernonia staff members have
been learning about Trauma Informed
Care for the past three years, through
training programs, guest speakers, and
films. At the heart of the training are
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
which are identified as stressful or trau-
matic events that happen during child-
hood and effect people into adulthood.
ACES can include, physical or emotion-
al abuse, neglect, witnessing domestic
violence, substance abuse in the home,
parental separation or divorce, and a
family member suffering from mental
illness.
ACEs have been linked to a va-
riety of risk factors for disease and early
mortality. They have been shown to
cause social, emotional, and cognitive
impairment and the adoption of health-
risk behaviors including drug and alco-
hol abuse and suicide.
A landmark study from 1995
to 1997, conducted by the Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) in partnership
with Kaiser Permanente with more than
17,000 participants, found that 28% of
participants reported physical abuse and
21% reported sexual abuse. Almost 40%
from the Kaiser study reported two or
more ACEs and 12.5% experienced four
or more. The study concluded that ACEs
tend to cluster - someone who has expe-
rienced some type of childhood trauma
is likely to have experienced other types
of trauma as well - so many subsequent
studies now study the cumulative effect
of ACEs instead of looking at the effect
of each individually.
Vernonia Superintendent Aaron
Miller notes that the Kaiser study in-
volved participants who were enrolled
in a health insurance plan, who most
likely had jobs, and have advantages in
life. “It doesn’t say anything about the
people who are struggling because they
don’t have jobs, that are behind the eight
ball because they don’t have insurance
and they can’t take care of their health
or themselves,” explains Miller. “I think
the impacts of the study are far under-
represented, just because of the clients
that took part in the study. I think the
actual implications are much more far
reaching and intense.”
In fact, Miller adds that scien-
tific studies are now showing that child-
hood traumatic impacts are starting to be
passed down through genetics to succes-
sive generations through DNA. “This
is not just a social impact, but it’s now
becoming a physical trait that is passed
on,” he explains.
Trauma Informed Care training
has shown that people often have dif-
ferent types of trauma in their lives, and
react to them in different ways. People
who have been traumatized need support
and compassion. Understanding the im-
pact of trauma is an important first step,
and early intervention can be key to re-
ducing the impact of those traumas.
“A caring culture is what we
want to have for our students, for our
staff, and for our community,” says Ra-
chel Wilcoxen, Vice Principal for Disci-
pline for grades K-12, discussing how
the Vernonia School District will be im-
plementing these new practices to help
with behavior issues. She says Verno-
nia’s school staff are being trained to use
understanding and treatment rather than
judgement and suspension when dealing
with the disciplining of students.
“It really matters little what kind
of trauma people are coming to us with,
but if we start treating everyone with a
more caring culture, we think we’ll be
successful,” says Wilcoxen.
“We’re looking at what is going
on in our school building from the point
of view that, if we’re not managing our-
selves well, both kids and adults, then
there is probably some emotional back-
ground to that,” says Weisel. “We don’t
spend a lot of time focused on what the
trauma was, but more about how we can
learn to regulate ourselves and about
how we can respond to kids who may
come across as breaking school rules or
having disciplinary issues. We’re look-
ing at it deeper and finding that these
kids are trying to tell us that things are
not right in their life through their be-
havior.”
Vice Principal Wilcoxen clari-
fies a point here. “This does not mean
that students will not be disciplined for
their behavior,” she explains. “It’s just
coming at it with the awareness and the
intent of teaching them to make the right
choices the next time. It’s not a ‘get out
of jail free card.’”
Wilcoxen adds that Vernonia
and other schools are not the only insti-
tutions using these methods to deal with
people who may be seen as “acting out.”
“This is a nationwide shift. Police De-
partments are using it, hospitals are us-
ing it, and so are mental health organiza-
tions. They’re all getting into this mind-
set that, what people are coming with is
affecting their behavior.”
Weisel also wanted to clarify
some things about the program. “Ev-
erything we’re doing, we’re borrowing
from several different national models
and finding what works best for our kids.
Nothing in here is religious or spiritual
in nature and the community is always
welcome to come in and review the ma-
terials we’re using.”
“We want the community to
know that we’re not compromising aca-
demics in any way,” adds Elementary
guidance councilor David Spackman.
“We’re addressing what our students
need to reach their full academic poten-
tial.”
One form of discipline that Wil-
coxen and the District are using is some
form of restitution as a consequence.
“Whatever they have done wrong might
have to be repaid in some way that will
help them improve their behavior,” ex-
plains Elementary Vice Principal Mi-
chelle Eagleson. “It might take the form
of making an apology or working out the
issue with the adult, or if they scribble
all over the wall then they would have to
clean it up. So the consequence relates to
the behavior, rather than something like
a suspension. And we’re seeing results.
Some of our kids that were really strug-
gling in the classroom last year are doing
so much better this year.”
Staff training has been ongo-
ing. An initial core group of administra-
tors and guidance councilors were first
trained in the ACEs concept, and that
training is now being passed on to the
rest of the staff.
Training resources being utilized
by staff include several powerful films
that have captured the use of Trauma
Informed Care in real schools, including
the film, Paper Tigers, which documents
the experiences of six students and the
staff at Lincoln High School, an alterna-
tive school in Walla Walla, Washington.
After first using Trauma Informed Care
practices to reinforce the idea that, “a
stressed brain can’t learn,” the school
has seen dramatic results, with a 75% re-
duction in fights in the school and gradu-
ation rates have increased five fold.
Another film, Resilience, exam-
ines the science behind what is called
“Toxic Stress,” a biological syndrome
caused by childhood neglect and abuse,
and how it manifests itself in disease,
homelessness, addiction, and prison
time.
Superintendent Miller, a mem-
ber of the original training group from
Vernonia, says the training the District
is implementing has been diverse and
focuses on both the science of how the
brain works, and the social aspects of re-
lationships, emotions, and coping skills.
Staff has traveled to numerous schools
who are already using pieces of the pro-
gram and had a chance to observe and
talk with instructors about their out-
comes.
“It’s really been inspiring and
hopeful,” says councilor Weisel. “We
had a chance to talk with some students
at those schools and it really seems like
it has been impactful and that it really
matters to those communities.”
Miller agrees with Weisel.
“Those schools are noticing that their at-
tendance rates are rising, test scores are
rising, and discipline numbers are de-
creasing. So the impacts are real.”
Weisel says the District will
have an opportunity to pick and choose
what techniques and methods they think
will work the best here in Vernonia, and
what students will respond to the best.
“Our ultimate outcome, that we are
working towards, is better performance
in school, whether it’s academic or so-
cial,” says Weisel.
Wilcoxen says the District isn’t
using a “canned” program or system as
they introduce these new techniques and
disciplinary procedures. “This is more
of a cultural shift for us,” she says.
One tool that is being utilized
are called “Fast Passes” which allow
a student to step out of the classroom
environment for a short period of time,
(sometimes just for a few minutes) to re-
group, and then return to class and con-
tinue learning without causing a major
disruption to other students.
Kendra Schlegel is a kindergar-
ten teacher in Vernonia who is starting to
implement parts of the program with her
students. She is using “Zones of Regula-
tion” which teaches kids about the four
different ways their bodies can respond
during their day in school, identifying
feelings like tired and run down, focused
and ready to learn, nervous or excited,
and out of control. “They learn to iden-
tify which zone they are in and then we
talk about how they can regulate them-
selves and get to where they are ready to
learn. We do work with calming breath-
ing, safe ways to move to burn off excit-
ed energy, and how to handle frustration
with other students. We also use Mind
Up, which is a form of meditation, by
breathing and focusing.”
“One of the biggest shifts for
us as instructors in the classroom is
that we’re looking at behavior as a set
of skills,” says Schlegel. “Just like if a
kid comes in and they don’t know how
to read, we’re going to focus on teaching
them to read. If they come in and they
can’t regulate their emotions, or can’t
calm down, or can’t deal with their frus-
trations, then those are the skills we need
to teach them.”
Councilor David Spackman
adds that part of the curriculum has stu-
dents as young as kindergarten begin-
ning to learn the brain science behind
these techniques. “They learn and un-
derstand what part of their brain is at
work or active when they are getting
disregulated,” says Spackman. “Which
part is the thinking part of their brain and
can help them get back under control.”
“We have five and six year olds
that are having to take time to get back
under control and they will tell you, ‘My
amygdala was making choices, and my
prefrontal cortex needs to be what is lis-
tening,’” says Schlegel.
Miller says that Maslow’s Hi-
erarchy, which proposed the theory of
needs for human motivation – physiolog-
ical, safety, belonging and love, esteem,
and self-actualization – play a huge role
in student learning. “These pieces are
critical for us to work on with our kids
so they are able to utilize their brains to
their full potential, and not be hampered
by these trauma inducing events that
have happened in their lives and impact
them every day. We still have expecta-
tions and standards for our kids but we
all know they come with some very dif-
ferent backgrounds and some very real
skill deficits in academics and behavior.
So, it’s our job to help them gain and
build those skills so they aren’t impacted
by that trauma nearly as much and so
they can be resilient, break that cycle of
trauma, and move forward and have a
positive life for themselves.”