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The effects of childhood trauma can seep into adulthood. Educators are rallying to help.

Monterey County Weekly - 9/28/2017

Andrea Leon says her daughter, as a U.S. citizen, will have more freedom than she does. Leon has applied for an extension of her DACA protections, but worries about the uncertainty of what happens after that.

Janet Leon doesn't remember much of her childhood in Michoacan, Mexico, only what her mom told her. "We were dirt poor, that's all I knew and all she told me," Leon says. But there was a chance for a better life, over the border ? in California.

So at age 1, Leon and her mother moved to Salinas and began their new life. Leon thrived. She remembers being constantly surrounded by adults and educators who encouraged her to be positive and chase her dream of becoming a therapist.

But when it came time to raise her own daughter, who is now 2-and-a-half years old, things changed. She separated from her daughter's father about nine months ago, and her daughter now splits her time between her parents.

Then on Sept. 5, Donald Trump announced he would rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA. Leon relied on the protections from DACA to make a living and stay with her daughter, who is a U.S. citizen.

Leon has already reapplied for DACA ? an opportunity available to existing beneficiaries of the program through Oct. 5 ? which if granted, will last another two years. Beyond that, she worries about being deported, specifically because it could traumatize her daughter. "I don't want her to think I abandoned her," Leon says. "I don't want her to hate me because of something I couldn't control."

Real consequences of a rough childhood

Stories like Leon's and her daughter's ? those of hardships like divorced parents, domestic violence or neglect, which might be collectively referred to as a rough childhood ? have real consequences.

Researchers have documented what childhood trauma translates to later in life. Studies carried out by Kaiser Permanente call these incidences adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs. Like a scorecard for a patient's health history, the higher ACE score an individual has, the more health problems they're likely to develop as adults, with higher likelihood of everything from heart disease to chronic depression to attempting suicide.

According to nonprofit Youth Wellness Center, an estimated 62 to 65 percent of people in Monterey County have an ACE score of 1 or higher.

Those numbers are bad news according to Marni Sandoval, deputy director of the Monterey County Behavioral Health Department's childhood division. Repeated or prolonged adversities can create toxic stress, which can permanently alter a person's brain chemistry. Sandoval says some stress is normal: "When any mammal perceives that they could be in danger, the brain responds by shooting off certain chemicals so the body can react," she says. That mechanism is called the fight-or-flight response.

But when that mechanism is turned on too often, Sandoval says, "that's the real problem" ? especially in children, whose brains are still developing. "They're still learning how to respond when they're angry or sad. Sometimes they just don't have the vocabulary," she says.

"In perfect world my only job would be to teach - but it's so much more than that."

That means some behaviors in children ? withdrawing socially, acting out, throwing a violent fit ? aren't just kids being kids. They're signs kids lack a means of healthy emotional expression. If they don't, Sandoval says, those behaviors are likely to appear in different forms down the road during adulthood: self-medicating with alcohol, substance abuse or even repeating violent behaviors.

"This is why early intervention is crucial," Sandoval says.

Sandoval's Health Department division is a key player, providing in-school mental health services countywide.

Increasingly, teachers are asking that in addition to counselors on campus, that they themselves get training to help kids cope with traumatic stress.

Susan Midori Jones, a California Teachers Association labor representative and former Salinas elementary and high school teacher, noticed many students dealing with traumatic experiences. "Salinas is a community where some children are surrounded by gang violence, who have parents that are absent because of the demands of migratory work or who are incarcerated," Jones says.

She says teachers are finding that traditional methods of discipline ? like time-outs or taking away recess ? only reinforce feelings of abandonment and mistrust, which damages the bond between teachers and students.

"We need to build that trust, so children can come to us," Jones says. As for teachers: "They're hungry for training."

More socio-emotional training

Teacher Joshua Ezekiel remembers sitting in a classroom midday, when he heard a hammer in the distance. One of his fifth-graders spoke up: "That's a gun," the student said.

Ezekiel couldn't believe the student knew what a gun sounded like, and realization soon dawned on him: He was teaching students who were exposed to violence and other traumatic experiences in their lives outside the classroom, and he didn't know how to help them. "In a perfect world, my only job would be to teach kids lessons, but being a teacher is so much more than that," Ezekiel says.

Ezekiel is currently a fourth-grade teacher at Bardin Elementary School, and is one of many teachers in Alisal Union School District requesting more socio-emotional training.

District administrators are responding. In August, the board passed the Whole Child Resolution, expressing that student achievement is not just based on academic and behavioral success, but also socio-emotional success.

"It's not just symbolic," AUSD Superintendent Héctor Rico says. "We're going to make sure everyone from administrators down to our playground supervisors and janitors are trained to meet the emotional needs of our students."

It's part of what educators around California are calling a multi-tiered support system, a way of re-prioritizing school budgets based on supporting the "whole child" concept. Today, Rico has eight counselors on staff for 12 schools, and has contracts with other in-school counseling programs. AUSD will also partner with the Monterey County Office of Education's school climate coordinator to implement socio-emotional training for all its employees on professional development days.

Salinas City Elementary School District is also trying to reach beyond school walls to some of the most important influencers in their students' lives: their parents. SCESD parents are invited to family-building classes, which happen three days a week in the mornings and after school for 10 weeks, with multiple sessions a year.

Staying focused

For her part, Leon is trying to stay focused on finishing school at Hartnell College, and raising her daughter with as much normalcy as possible, despite the separation and uncertainty about her future immigration status. She also believes her daughter will find the same safety net in Salinas that she did: "I think she'll have the same support I had growing up."