Duquesne professor helps educators understand how to help children with trauma

Blanket punishments and cookie cutter programs aren’t appropriate responses when children have experienced trauma, according to Duquesne University professor Tammy Hughes.

Hughes discussed the psychology and needs of such children at the Westmoreland Intermediate Unit’s 2022 School Safety and Security Symposium at Westmoreland County Community College.

“This isn’t about breaking systems; it’s about making systems easier to cope with,” Hughes said during the talk last week that was attended by school administrators and law enforcement officials from across the Pittsburgh region.

School systems are increasingly tasked with determining a response for those in crisis, said Lisa Maloney, supervisor of pupil services at Hempfield Area School District. Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Maloney said, more students have experienced trauma in the home, food insecurity, housing insecurity and educational difficulties.

According to Hughes, children’s physical, emotional, social and cognitive development is directly impacted by trauma that they or a loved one experiences. She defined trauma as a frightening, dangerous or violent event that threatens someone’s life or physical security.

As a result of trauma, these children struggle to trust adults, who they believe to be “exploitative, humiliating and punishing.” Trauma-impacted kids are frequently stressed, constantly in “survival mode” and at higher risk of experiencing dissociative episodes.

“For students who have trauma experiences, most of their energy (during school) is spent on survival, and very little is spent listening to their English lectures,” Hughes said.

School and court systems tend to put all struggling students in “one-size-fits-all” programs, Hughes said. However, such programs often fall short of addressing the root of a child’s problems, and, if a child has experienced trauma, the origin of their problems “matters first.”

Hughes pointed out that if a veteran returned from war with post-traumatic stress disorder and assaulted someone, the court system understands that something else drove that assault.

The system doesn’t extend the same consideration for kids with trauma.

“We run kids through programming without knowing the driver of their behavior,” Hughes said. “Understanding what causes the behavior gets us to the right treatment.”

To help trauma-impacted children, Hughes believes adults must work to create a safe environment and build positive relationships. Safety must be considered from the child’s perspective, not only an authority figure’s perspective.

“We spend a lot of time talking about what makes us feel good, and not a lot of time talking about how (kids) start feeling safe,” Hughes said.

John Tedorski, Kiski Area School District’s director of student information, transportation and safety services, said Hughes’ talk helped him understand how schools can help students before they become a safety risk.

Since 2019, every district in Pennsylvania has been required by law to include knowledge about trauma in relevant policies, procedures and practices. Tedorski said the presentation reiterated the trauma-informed training he has received.

“(Hughes’s) perspective was an excellent reinforcer to why trauma affects a student in a learning environment,” Tedorski said.

Hughes’ talk and the other presentations during the symposium helped educators learn the best ways to approach students, Hempfield Area’s Maloney said.

“It’s been a rough couple of years for everybody, and there have been different levels of issues for kids,” Maloney said. “(The symposium) gives me another understanding of ways we can approach those issues.”