The Courageous Classroom. Jed Dearybury

The Courageous Classroom - Jed Dearybury


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guidance counselor convinced her to walk back to the room fairly quickly, but as she approached for the second time, her tears continued to flood her face, her strawberry hair was matted to the side of her face because of the cry induced runny nose, and her body trembled as she neared.

      “Kimmie, this is Mr. Dearybury. He is your teacher, and he's the best,” said the guidance counselor. Kimmie wouldn't look at me. She buried her head into her own arms and clung to Paula as if her life depended on it.

      The administrative duo started to move her into the room and she stiffened like a board. She was not entering the room. I knelt down to be eye level with her and she screamed again. She became very combative and resisted all movement towards the classroom. She ran away down the hall for the second time.

      “She's been abused Jed,” the principal said. “Not physically, but sexually.”

      I stopped my principal from telling me more. I didn't need to know much more. The only question I had for her … “Why in the world would you put her in my class?” I was the only male classroom teacher in the building. Surely she would've felt safer in another space. All the men she had ever known had hurt her and now she had to come see a strange man at school every day? It just didn't make sense to me.

      “If anyone can help her, you can, Jed,” my principal told me.

      I had more than a few doubts in my ability. I had more than a few concerns about my emotional strength to meet the needs of this moment. I had more than one worry about how the arrival of Kimmie would have a ripple effect across the classroom. I had never been trained for this type of trauma. There were no professional development offerings in my district for these kinds of students. All I had was Google. I took a deep breath. I smiled at Kimmie. And eventually, she walked into my room.

      Trauma is real. Our students, whether we know every modicum of the details, come to us having had countless experiences that impact their learning. In order to teach these students, we must be informed of what they bring so that we do not add to their pain, but help. No, we are not their saviors. We are their teachers. But, in order to teach, we have to know about the whole child as best we can.

       Did I help?

       Did I hurt?

       Did I do enough?

       Did I do too much?

       Did I try as hard as I could?

       Did I try too hard?

       Was I over the top?

       Was I under the top?

      I am sure that educators reading this will relate to those questions. Our work is a constant circle of “do, reflect, do again, reflect again.” It's the nature of who we are and what drives us to be better each day we enter the school building.

      She arrived mid-October without notice, and she left the same way in mid- April. I have not seen or heard from her since. The only thing we were told by the Department of Social Services was that she was in a safe place.

      What is a safe place for someone like Kimmie? Certainly the absence of sexual abusers. But, what else does a student like Kimmie need to be safe? The basics for human life of course, but she also needs caregivers, educators, and community members who are trauma informed so that they nurture and love her where she is and help her find her way out of the hellish nightmare she had lived in her seven or so years of life.

      Kimmie needed a school with a program, organization, or system that was full of trauma-informed teachers who created courageous classrooms with these three key components.

      1 Realizes the widespread impact of trauma and understands potential paths for recovery.

      2 Recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma in clients, families, staff, and others involved with the system.

      3 Responds by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices; and seeks to actively resist re-traumatization. (SAMHSA 2012)

      Reflect for a moment before reading any further.

       Do you feel adequately trained as an educator for a student like Kimmie?

       Did your college coursework guide you to an understanding of this type of trauma and its effect on a student's ability to learn?

       Has your district provided ongoing professional development and guidance for faculty and staff who will serve as caretakers for students like her?

       Has your school administrator ever offered to send you to a conference or seminar where the focus of the work was educating students of trauma?

       Do you own an educational resource other than this book that has influenced your work with students of trauma?

       psychological, physical, or sexual abuse;

       community or school violence;

       witnessing or experiencing sexual violence;

       natural disasters;

       terrorism;

       commercial sexual exploitation;

       sudden or violent loss of a loved one;

       deployment, loss, or injury of parent due to military service;

       physical or sexual assault; and

       serious accident or life-threatening illness.

      When you read the list, thinking about students past, present, and future, it might feel overwhelming to consider how one might engage in teaching a student who has experienced any of these. It is likely that many students have experienced multiple such events. It is incomprehensible that there isn't more training offered to educators given the overwhelming weight of the task of caring for and teaching a child who has dealt with so much. So where do we begin to become a more trauma-informed educator? You


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