Aug 15, 2018, Roanoke (VA) Times: Roanoke schools sharpen focus on trauma in new school year https://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke-schools-SHARPEN-focus-on-trauma-in-new-school-year/article_b997aa49-a774-53b5-9a4a-4a4115db2fc8.html Training all Roanoke school staff members to recognize trauma in the lives of students could help “change this district forever,” Superintendent Rita Bishop told hundreds of educators Wednesday. Bishop pledged that Roanoke City Public Schools will “become a trauma-informed school district” during her opening remarks at the division’s annual convocation at the Berglund Center, calling the initiative “one of the most important things” the division will ever undertake. A movement to educate communities on how traumatic childhood experiences can influence future behavior has been prevalent for years throughout the nation, including in the Roanoke Valley. Now more school divisions are focusing on the effects of adverse childhood experiences on learning. In Roanoke, that means all school staff members, including bus drivers, cafeteria workers and aides, will be trained to identify signs of trauma in students, said Taisha Steele, the division’s director of school counseling…. The division has worked closely with Carilion Clinic professionals, including mental health specialist Laurie Seidel, to develop its mindfulness program starting at the elementary level this year. …
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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