Educational Trauma: Examples From Testing to the School-to-Prison Pipeline

By Lee-Anne Gray

This book deconstructs and analyzes the impact of education-based trauma. Drawing on wisdom from the fields of education, psychology, neuroscience, history, political science, social justice, and philosophy, Gray connects the dots across different forms of education trauma that can occur throughout a student’s life: from bullying and anxiety to social inequity and the school-to-prison pipeline. With respect to learning, memory, social group dynamics, democracy, and mental health, this book serves as a call-to-arms, demanding civil rights for all students and for education to fulfill its ultimate duty as a force for the common good.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Release date: Oct 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9783030280833

Book preview

© The Author(s) 2019

L.-A. GrayEducational Trauma https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28083-3_1

1. Introduction

Lee-Anne Gray¹  

(1)

The Connect Group, Toluca Lake, CA, USA

Lee-Anne Gray

Educational Trauma is the inadvertent and unintentional perpetration and perpetuation of harm in schools. The use of standards and the normal distribution or the bell curve to rank students and identify those at risk of developing problems later is born in the same theories and practices as eugenics. Eugenics practices thrive in schools and feed the school-to-prison pipeline, which is the most extreme example of Educational Trauma.

This book ambitiously aims to open a field of inquiry into Educational Traumas by describing this phenomenon in education that perpetuates abuse, discrimination, oppression, and marginalization, while inadvertently involving good people in acts of harm that violate the rights of children. It is grounded in feminist theory, trauma theory, Ecological Systems theory, mindful awareness and neuroscience research, along with Pedagogies of Kindness and Respect (  Thomas, Gorlewski, Carr, & Porfilio, 2015). A qualitative approach to research was taken in developing the concept of Educational Trauma. There are case studies throughout the book, as a means of heightening empathy in areas where it has become collectively blunted. For the most part, the arguments contained herein stand on the research conducted by other people. For this reason, there isn’t very much news in this book, just a comprehensive sociological, historical, political, psychological, medical, and developmental review of over a century of research. The limitations of this book include the fact that there isn’t, as of yet, a field of Educational Trauma to look toward for research and development. While the conclusions drawn are based on existing and respected data, the information is not specific to this study. It is my hope that this book opens that area of inquiry, and that future researchers glean details and nuances not yet available to the public.

Overview

This is the very first volume to fully explore the definition and spectrum of Educational Trauma. It is divided into three parts. The first part demonstrates what Educational Trauma is and how it gets transmitted from generation to generation despite the numerous harms and negative effects. The second part describes examples of Educational Trauma, along the spectrum from mildest to most severe. Part Three of this book focuses on solutions to the problem. Educational Trauma can be mitigated through efforts large and small. No action, thought, or change is too minimal to have an effect. In fact, it could mean the difference between healing and harm. There are three levels of solutions offered in Part Three; Mild, Moderate, and Major Strategies too. They increase in demand and commitment from the person enacting the strategies, and the number of people affected increases too, when moving from Mild to Major Strategies.

Every chapter is set up with three distinct sections:

1.

State of Educational Affairs: A case study or brief description of the instance of Educational Trauma explored in the chapter.

2.

Analysis: A study of the example of Educational Trauma illustrated in the State of Educational Affairs section. This section includes a review of the pertinent literature, theory, pedagogy, and research.

3.

State of Art and Practice: Each chapter concludes with a section exploring a possible solution or practice currently in place in schools that ameliorates the example of Educational Trauma highlighted in the chapter. This section also includes quoted interview material from experts currently leading the way of change in each instance of Educational Trauma.

Some chapters begin with a section titled, State of Being, instead of or in addition to the State of Educational Affairs section. This section brings the reader closer to the individual, their dignity and humanity, the precision of their suffering, and the nature of the cause.

In this chapter, we explore the definition and spectrum of Educational Trauma, beginning with the toxic stress levied upon young people in the name of learning. It continues with the subtypes of Educational Trauma that specify the place where it happens and how. These include: Spectral , In-Situ , Ex-Situ , and Social-Ecological Educational Traumas . It reviews the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) that happen inside and outside of school and impact learning. This chapter centers the analysis of trauma in learning through a social-ecological lens (Bronfenbrenner , 1979), with an intersectional focus and sensitivity to eugenics practices. This chapter concludes by demonstrating that

Educational Trauma is not only a mental health issue, but a major social justice concern too.

In Chapter 2, the interplay of trauma, learning, and the different layers of society are explored. Miller’s (1983) poisonous pedagogies frames the concept of doing harm to children in the name of education, laying a deeper foundation of what Educational Trauma is. Moreover, it begins to look at how Educational Trauma varies according to intersectional identities such as: race, religion, ethnicity, language, socioeconomic status, and ability—to name a few.

Chapter 3 examines the influence of trauma on memory and the collective. It seeks to highlight the repetitive nature of fear-based behaviors and the way such patterns manifest in education policy/practice. Their interplay with memory is explored through the work of Francine Shapiro. Here, the reader learns more about trauma and just how prevalent it is. Furthermore, the signs and symptoms of Educational Trauma are presented here.

In Chapter 4, the clinical examples of traumatic effects of learning and memory at the individual and collective levels coalesce. They are systematically applied to education through the lens of existing pedagogies. The offerings of Lisa Goldstein and Alice Miller frame such a lens. The evolution of social psychology, as a discipline, seems to be following a similar trajectory as education. Where classic studies once explained human behavior around authority and obedience, they are now subject to intense criticism and standards of experimental design and replication. This chapter seeks to explore the history and changes in social psychology; the theories we have about human behavior that explain the perpetuation of Educational Trauma; as well as empathy for those dedicated to and deeply involved in educational systems.

Chapter 5 aims to explore the interconnected nature of suffering students and poisonous pedagogies. When ages-old educational practices, such as testing, take on paramount importance in education, we need to analyze the impact this has on society and future generations.

When it comes to testing and standards, eugenics and racial purity practices are involved. For Gillborn ( 2007 ), education policy is an act of white supremacy . Gillborn wrote: …the most dangerous form of white supremacy is not the obvious and extreme fascistic posturing of small neo-Nazi groups, but rather the taken for granted routine privileging of white interests that goes unremarked in political mainstream.

In reality, white supremacy, implicit bias, bigotry, and the teaching of false information about minorities are all carried out in schools, by law-abiding professionals often informed by eugenics studies of the past that positioned Latinx and Black students in a disadvantage compared to white students (Alexander, 2016; Rios, 2011; Stern, 2016).

The use of tests to segregate students and carry out eugenic practices is identified herein as examples of Educational Trauma damaging individuals, families, and communities.

Racialized Educational Inequality (Vaught, 2011) is examined as a product of the testing movement, even the standardized tests used in special and gifted education. Moreover, we will examine how Identity Leadership is used to promote standardized testing in education and used in the Youth Control Complex (Rios, 2011).

Chapter 6 demonstrates how bullying drives every level of education, and not just the interactions among students. It focuses on the systemic effects of poisonous pedagogies, affirming the toxicity of American educational practices. The racial variable associated with education is also analyzed with respect to white supremacy and multigenerational transmission.

Part II begins with Chapter 7 and explores the actual spectrum of Educational Trauma. Each chapter explores a different example of Educational Trauma, beginning with the decline of PLAY in childhood. Chapter 7 takes a multidisciplinary look at the value of PLAY and how the decline has affected youth, families, and communities.

Chapter 8 examines the kinds of sexuality, gender, puberty, and health education students receive. It examines the research on sex education and how it influences/neglects gender identity development in youth. Moreover, the chapter offers first-hand perspectives of people in the LGBTQ+ community as a means of creating a human connection with diverse people in the world. It demonstrates how severely affected LGBTQ+ youth are by educational policies and practices.

The focus shifts to homework in Chapter 9, exposing the extracurricular control schools hold over families and communities. The Homework Discrepancy is analyzed, along with cultural components that establish homework as a weapon.

Chapter 10 looks at standardized testing as an example of Spectral Educational Trauma . It establishes the connection between the rise in importance of testing and the rise in youth anxiety and depression. Moreover, this chapter demonstrates how testing stifles creativity and other academic skills students need.

In Chapter 11, the reader learns about the use of value-added measures in education, and how student test scores are used to abuse teachers. Interviews of career educators demonstrate how little is known about the abuse of teachers, and how easy it is to misapply empathy for teachers.

Special and gifted education are explored in Chapter 12. They are mandated with the intention of creating equity among students with diverse abilities. The intention is not actualized in reality, and moreover the programs themselves are modeled after eugenics practices. This is one place where the nexus between education and white supremacy deepens. In modern America, there is a multifaceted set of programs aimed at better breeding that have straddled many social, spatial, and temporal divides (Stern, 2016, p. 18). These programs are active in America, and education serves this very end through ranking students for selective treatment.

Special and gifted education programs euphemistically designed to serve the needs of students inherently support eugenics while emanating from the very same place.

The relationship between special/gifted education and eugenics practices are explored in depth in Chapter 12.

Chapter 13 explores an epidemic killing students. Bullying is a major problem in the United States, and is a source of trauma to students , teachers , parents , administrators , and communities. Moreover, bullying is the only example where students can be both the perpetrator and victim. The interplay between bullying at different levels of social ecology is analyzed with respect to how it may contribute to school shootings. This chapter also identifies the epidemic of bullying traumas LGBTQ+ students face at all educational levels (Mayo, 2014).

Where Chapter 13 expands bullying to the collective level, rather than exclusively a student problem, Chapter 14 looks at corporal punishment in schools. Corporal punishment is still legal in 19 states in the United States, despite being banned globally. It is seen as physical abuse and bullying aggression against students by educators, in the name of education. That it is still legal demonstrates where white supremacy exerts pressures in education.

Higher education drives education at lower levels (i.e., K12). In Chapter 15, the reader can learn about how deeply entrenched bullying is at every level of higher education and how it trickles downward.

Chapter 16 takes examines the use of pharmaceutical drugs in educational settings. The negative effects of special education worsens with low-income students, especially when stimulant medication is involved in behavior management (Breggin , 2000). ADD/ADHD diagnosis, treatment, research, and training are long tied to the pharmaceutical industry with severe and long-standing implications for students, especially poor, Black, and/or Latinx students (Schrag & Divoky, 1975).

There are many issues that arise with this particular diagnosis and treatment, not the least of which is the referral system generated through professional development trainings provided to educators by pharmaceutical companies .

The ethical dilemma in the pharmaceutical industry delivering training to educators exists in the conflicts of interest, multiple roles, and identification of symptoms beyond the scope of licensure, training, and education. Chapter 16 brings this together as an example of how our collective sprang to medicate students, which is another form of Educational Trauma.

The spectrum of Educational Trauma culminates in Chapter 17 with the school-to-prison pipeline. While each school, family, community may look narrowly upon its own needs and problems, the greater result of schools using law enforcement on campus, and using chemical restraints to control student behavior are a plethora of people become available to serve the prison-industrial complex. Implicit bias, bigotry, and white supremacy cocreate expectations of Black and Brown students. These expectations are criminalized and restrict the options, opportunities, and aspirations young people have for themselves (Rios, 2011).

By calling out the school-to-prison pipeline as the most severe form of Educational Trauma, we can see how smaller and milder traumas accumulate to near-genocidal proportion with this one example.

The net result of Educational Trauma is best seen through the lens of intersectionality. Kimberle Williams Crenshaw (1989) coined the term intersectionality to identify the interplay of cultural, biological, racial, religious, and ethnic identities. Essentially, it highlights the way discrimination and oppression increase with the number of identities attributed to/taken by an individual. Students in high wealth neighborhoods are struggling with enormous levels of stress. For example, Palo Alto, CA is one of the highest income communities in the United States, and also has a very high rate of suicidal ideation, attempts, and completions by high school students (Knapp, 2015). The social pressure to perform well in school, and be accepted to an Ivy League school is particularly high in Palo Alto. However, the stress and pressure leading to suicidality in students is nothing compared to the harmful effects of Educational Trauma on students with more intersections than wealth alone. For example, Snapp, Hoenig, Fields, and Russell (2015) revealed that

LGBTQ+ youth experience severely harsher treatment than their peers in school, and are at specifically high risk for entering the school - to - prison pipeline due to criminal sanctions as discipline.

They are twice as likely to be detained by police for nonviolent offenses such as running away, prostitution, and truancy (Snapp et al., 2015). Routinely punished in school for displays of affection that are tolerated among straight peers, LGBTQ+ students are at greater risk of homelessness and parental rejection. These variables combine to increase the risk of entering and staying in the prison-industrial complex.

When LGBTQ+ youth are also Latinx or Black, the risk of entering the school-to-prison pipeline is even higher. In charter schools, Black girls were also approximately twice as likely as White girls to be arrested and restrained in schools (Inniss-Thompson, 2017). Black girls in high school were nearly four times more likely to be arrested than White females (Inniss-Thompson, 2017). Black female students were also nearly two and half times more likely to be restrained and referred to law enforcement than White female students. These findings demonstrate the intersection between race and gender where the school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) is concerned. Crenshaw’s work implores us to see that the intersection of various biological, cultural, racial, ethnic, and/or religious identities leads to greater discrimination. Though scant studies exist to prove this point, one is mentioned in Snapp et al. (2015) and attributed to Himmelstein and Bruckner (2011). It offered that:

LGBTQ youth, particularly girls and youth of color are more likely to be expelled from school than heterosexual youth for similar infractions. There is evidence that LGBTQ youth are overrepresented in juvenile justice systems (Snapp et al., 2015 ). Taken together, these studies build a picture of vulnerability to the STPP that is higher for LGBTQ+ youth of color than other students.

Introducing this book on Educational Trauma, you’re being asked to do your part every single day to dismantle the Youth Control Complex; to eliminate school police officers; to call out racism and implicit bias in schools, and to become trauma sensitive especially where trauma and learning intersect.

References

Alexander, M. (2016). New Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York, NY: New Press.

Breggin, P. R. (2000). Talking back to Ritalin: What doctors aren’t telling you about stimulants for children. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press.

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). Ecology of human development (1st ed.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989(1), Article 8. https://​chicagounbound.​uchicago.​edu/​cgi/​viewcontent.​cgi?​article=​1052&​context=​uclf.

Gillborn*, D. (2007). Education policy as an act of white supremacy: Whiteness, critical race theory and education reform. Journal of Education Policy,20(4), 485–505. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1080/​0268093050013234​6.

Himmelstein, K., & Bruckner, H. (2011). Criminal justice and school sanctions against nonheterosexual youth: A national longitudinal study. Pediatrics, 127, 49–57. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1542/​peds.​2009-2306.

Inniss-Thompson, M. N. (2017). Summary of discipline data for girls in U.S. public schools: An analysis from the 2013–14 U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights Data Collection. Berkeley, CA: National Black Women’s Justice Institute. https://​docs.​wixstatic.​com/​ugd/​0c71ee_​e008841ccc434f08​ac76d59199a0c2dc​.​pdf.

Knapp, D. (2015, May 25). Why are Palo Alto’s kids killing themselves? SFGate. Retrieved October 15, 2018, from https://​www.​sfgate.​com/​bayarea/​article/​Why-are-Palo-Alto-s-kids-killing-themselves-6270854.​php.

Mayo, C. (2014). LGBTQ youth and education: Policies and practices. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Miller, A. (1983). For your own good: Hidden cruelty in child-rearing and the roots of violence. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Rios, V. M. (2011). Punished: Policing the lives of Black and Latino boys. New York, NY: New York University Press.

Schrag, P., & Divoky, D. (1975). The myth of the hyperactive child: And other means of child control. New York, NY: Dell.

Snapp, S. D., Hoenig, J. M., Fields, A., & Russell, S. T. (2015). Messy, butch, and queer. Journal of Adolescent Research,30(1), 57–82. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1177/​0743558414557625​.

Stern, A. M. (2016). Eugenic nation: Faults and frontiers of better breeding in modern America (2nd ed.). Oakland: University of California Press.

Thomas, P. L., Gorlewski, J. A., Carr, P. R., & Porfilio, B. J. (Eds.). (2015). Pedagogies of kindness and respect: On the lives and education of children. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Vaught, S. E. (2011). Racism, public schooling, and the entrenchment of White supremacy: A critical race ethnography. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Part IThe Foundation of Educational Trauma

© The Author(s) 2019

L.-A. GrayEducational Trauma https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28083-3_2

2. Educational Trauma

Lee-Anne Gray¹  

(1)

The Connect Group, Toluca Lake, CA, USA

Lee-Anne Gray

State of Educational Affairs

There are many different forms of trauma in education. Most of them are minimized and/or ignored. In the foregoing chapters, you’ll catch a glimpse of the state of educational affairs. It’s generally the way schools are places where students feel shame, unsafe, unable to manage stress, and at worst medicated, abused, and sent to prison. The state of educational affairs is one that creates trauma and then looks away.

Analysis

Definition of Educational Trauma

Educational Trauma is the cyclical and systemic harm inadvertently perpetrated and perpetuated in educational settings. Students, parents, families, teachers, staff, administrators, and communities are affected at every socioeconomic, racial, gender, and ethnic level. It exists on a spectrum where the milder examples include: testing, standardized curricula, and expectations that are developmentally inappropriate cause anxiety.

Stress and anxiety are not part of life required for growing children to become functional. Logic is faulty and absent when young people are trained in stress at young ages so they learn to tolerate it as adults.

On the most extreme end of the spectrum lies the school-to-prison pipeline (STPP). It’s one way that white supremacy maintains racial segregation and forced labor of Black and Latinx people.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Research by Felitti (2009) suggests that toxic stress, or Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s), lead to problems in adulthood. For example, abuse, poverty, hunger, discrimination, systemic oppression are examples of ACE’s that leave lasting positive significant impact on people, families, and communities. Felitti found that these kinds of experiences lead to health problems (obesity, diabetes, depression, suicide attempts, sexually transmitted diseases, heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorders, and broken bones); maladaptive behaviors (smoking, alcoholism, and drug use); and reduced self-actualization (low graduation rates, lost time form work, failure to meet personal and professional goals). Ultimately, Felitti showed that ACE’s lead to early death by way of disrupted interpersonal neurobiological development, social/emotional/cognitive impairment, high-risk behaviors, disease, and disability.

The current state of education is suffering; it is broken and lodged in a cycle of the past repeating itself over and over again. Technology is advancing rapidly and yet education remains rather unchanged. Some technologies have been added to facilitate testing and data collection however the overall models of the past predominate, especially in public education. Unfortunately, the traditional model of education where students remain seated for most of the day, listen to lectures, and prove knowledge acquisition through testing—negatively affects neural connections and skill development. For example, young people benefit from moving about as a form of learning in the present moment with embodied awareness. When movement is restricted this pathway in the brain doesn’t receive as much stimulation and may fail to develop. Symptoms of this phenomenon can look like inattention, hyperactivity, fidgetiness, and difficulty learning. Restricted movement constitutes a mild trauma that impairs the developing nervous system.

This is but one example on the mildest end of the traumas students endure in schools. On the most extreme end, they are systematically sent off to modern-day concentration camps, also known as the prison-industrial complex. In studying the intersection of trauma and education.

Four points of inflection are identified as places where Educational Trauma can manifest:

1.

Spectral Educational Trauma: This form of Educational Trauma is described in detail in this book. It’s any one of the Educational Traumas described in Chapters 7–17: From the decline of play, anxiety over testing/standards/curricular expectations and related funding quotas, to value-added models and other forms of teacher abuse; bullying; special and gifted education; problems with higher education; the use of stimulant medication to control atypical student behavior, and culminating in the STPP. These traumas are specifically a result of pedagogical practices that endure over time.

2.

In-Situ Educational Trauma: Trauma that happens on-site, at school, but is not related to educational practice is termed—In-SituEducational Trauma. An example would be the abuse or maltreatment that happens on school property by staff or peers. This may include sexual, physical, mental, emotional abuse that is not specifically categorized as bullying. This could also include unintentional/unpreventable accidents and tragedies.

3.

Ex-Situ Educational Trauma: Many students come to school with trauma histories known/unknown to their teachers and school staff. These traumas result from poverty, marginalization, food insecurity, malnutrition, and other forms of toxic stress. Instances of stress and trauma are ACE’s, such as: parental unemployment, abuse, medical illness/injury, and/or neglect (educational, mental, emotional, physical, social, dental, and medical). Ex-Situ Educational Traumas happen outside of school, but impact learning and behavior in school environments.

4.

Social-Ecological Educational Trauma: Bronfenbrenner’s Social-Ecological Theory opens our eyes to the complex interconnectedness of various systems, people, and layers of society, and Social-EcologicalEducational Trauma reflects these many layers of harm all at once. Social-Ecological Educational Trauma is a form of trauma/harm/punishment/exclusion/abuse that crosses multiple systems and people at once. An example of this type of Educational Trauma is testing. Testing starts off by examining the acquired learning of students. But wait—it doesn’t end there! The data obtained from students (which is highly flawed, variable, and difficult to replicate), is then used to determine teacher efficacy, bonus, tenure, advance, etc.… With one fell swoop, testing becomes a tool of the oppressor by not only segregating and sorting students, but then through punishing and rewarding teachers who do so most effectively. In this example, multiple systems of Bronfenbrenner’s Social-Ecological Theory are effected, manipulated, and positioned against one another.

Each instance of Educational Trauma can also be an example of some other horror people endure: abuse, criminalization, marginalization, discrimination, etc.… Schools and their policies, practices, and related legislation are systematically repeating problematic patterns that incur, perpetuate, and reify trauma. For these reasons, Educational Trauma is hereby distinguished as a specific subset of trauma.

Reference

Felitti, V. J. (2009). Adverse childhood experiences and adult health. Academic Pediatrics,9(3), 131–132. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1016/​j.​acap.​2009.​03.​001.Crossref

© The Author(s) 2019

L.-A. GrayEducational Trauma https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28083-3_3

3. The State of Educational Affairs

Lee-Anne Gray¹  

(1)

The Connect Group, Toluca Lake, CA, USA

Lee-Anne Gray

State of Being

Case Study: One Student

Jesus¹ was 11 years old when I assessed him. He was one of several children born to his low-income yet very smart and savvy Latina mother. She made certain her kids went to school every single day, and that any special needs they had were served. One reason all kids went to school every single day was because they received two meals on school days; breakfast and lunch. For this mother, serving all her children three meals 7 days a week posed a challenge; the free meals at school helped a lot. It was truly remarkable that her son Jesus received the advocacy and special education services he received; a testament to her strength in parenting despite being poor.

Even though Jesus received special education services, there was a dispute between the school, and Jesus’ mother about which services he needed and where they should be delivered. As an independent psychologist, I often conducted assessments when such disputes arose in the state of California. Jesus, and his mother, struck me then and have stayed with me since.

Perhaps it was the complexity of traumas Jesus had sustained since age 15 months, perhaps the strength and power his mother wielded. It was clear to me then, and now, that assessing Jesus and meeting his mother changed my view of education and increased my sensitivity to the effects of trauma on learning.

Jesus sustained a traumatic brain injury at 15 months of age. A bookcase fell on him at his babysitter’s house. Despite this history, he was diagnosed with autism, and treated with applied behavioral analysis (ABA). ABA is an evidenced-based approach to reducing complex stereotypic mannerisms (stims) often seen in people with autism. It is also used to increase pro-social interactions. Jesus had one particular complex stereotypic mannerism that did not resemble any I had seen in any others with autism. Complex stims tend to be self-stimulatory or self-soothing in nature, and Jesus’ were not. His teacher described it as an attention seeking behavior, which is also atypical for people with autism. When I witnessed it myself, I noted that Jesus fell to the floor, as if his knees and all the muscles in his body gave out all