Thousands of educators from across the state gathered in Oklahoma City on Tuesday for a sold-out conference about trauma and how it affects children in school.
Stephanie Young, a teacher in Norman Public Schools, says a lot of her students have experienced trauma. She says it’s common for these kids to behave poorly, and when they do, she usually asks them to sit in the hall.
STEPHANIE YOUNG: If you’re not going to listen or you’re not going to work, we’ll just set you somewhere else. Or just sit there and sleep.
But at the conference, Young and other teachers learned more about the connection between trauma and behavior, and new tools for responding to traumatized students — which she plans to share with other teachers at her school.
Many schools across the nation are embracing research that shows disciplining children with trauma can actually do more harm than good.