Adverse Childhood Experiences Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Despite Legislative Action Last Year, Discipline Continues To Be Focus Of Session

Discipline has always been a part of a school education. But in recent years, concerns over student and teacher safety have elevated discipline to be the school issue of the day. The West Virginia Legislature has attempted to address the matter, and has indicated it will continue to do so this year.

This story originally appeared as a video package on the Jan. 24, 2024 episode of The Legislature Today.

Discipline has always been a part of a school education. But in recent years, concerns over student and teacher safety have elevated discipline to be the school issue of the day. The West Virginia Legislature has attempted to address the matter and has indicated it will continue to do so this year.

Last year, state education groups told legislators that school discipline was at a near crisis level. Since then, the West Virginia Department of Education has analyzed discipline data that shows it is a multifaceted, complex issue.

Adam Henkins, director of Safe Schools, Athletics and Title IX for Monongalia County Schools, said things have changed a lot for students in recent years, including the pervasiveness of vaping and cellphones. But another big factor is that the environment outside of the classroom, at home and beyond, has changed.

“Maybe 15 years ago, a student misbehaved and a parent was called home or a student was suspended from school for a day,” Henkins said. “The outside environment, the home environment would take care of that behavior, we’d come back to school and we’d see a different child. That’s not the case anymore.”

He said suspension could now mean giving a student exactly what they want because they don’t want to be in school in the first place. In more serious cases, it could mean sending a student away from caring educators and back to an unsafe home environment. Henkins believes that keeping a student in school provides the opportunity not only to, in many cases, meet their basic needs, but also teach correct behavior.

“Behavior is nothing different than teaching math or English,” he said. “They need to know what they don’t know, and it’s our job to teach them. If you don’t know addition or subtraction, we don’t discipline a child, right?”

Behavioral issues were only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Younger students in particular returned to classrooms without the social conditioning of previous generations.

State education officials are hopeful that identifying these trends is the first step towards correcting them, but what the legislature’s role is in the process remains to be seen.

The legislature attempted to address discipline issues last year with House Bill 2890. It was written to give school teachers and administrators more leeway in school discipline that results from a personality clash between teacher and student. The intent is to allow a teacher to remove a disruptive student to a different environment to protect the integrity of the class for the duration of that class period.

Henkins said he appreciates the flexibility HB 2890 has provided educators, while recognizing that the law could use some clarification in certain areas, such as in cases of special education students.

“It basically gives you an opportunity to sit down with the principal as the teacher, sit down with the parent as the teacher, and express what is going on,” he said. “So now the principal has had a chance to correct the behavior. Now you’re bringing the family in, you’re bringing the teacher in, you’re bringing the principal in to try to correct the behavior.”

Teachers and educational leaders say the law has been implemented inconsistently, and with potentially serious consequences. For example, statute mandates that students be suspended if removed from a classroom three times in one month.

Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, is the chair of the Senate Education Committee. She is also a third grade teacher and said she has heard from other teachers around the state that HB 2890 is only being implemented intermittently.

“It baffles me, it baffles me that you have a state law and people just decide that they don’t want to do it, or you know, that they don’t have to follow it,” Grady said.

Grady said once the law is passed, it is out of the hands of legislators, and it needs buy-in from everyone in the system. Not only are students being disrupted, she said school discipline is contributing to teachers leaving the profession.

“This is the number one thing that they have brought to me and said, ‘This is our number one issue,’” she said. “This is the problem that we think is facing education today, whether it’s learning, affects the learning of others, or whether it affects any other part of the school. It’s driving teachers away.”

Grady said she has spent the months between sessions listening to educators across the state, from teachers in classrooms to administrators and board of education members. She’s also spoken to parents and even companies involved in alternative education solutions to ensure she’s considering all of the state’s various needs.

As for a specific legislative solution, Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, indicated during a legislative lookahead event that alternative education for disruptive students will be a focus for lawmakers this session.

“What we need to do in the classroom is be able to take that disruptive student out, move them to a classroom where there’s cameras, behavior specialists, and allow those teachers to do their jobs without the disruption,” he said.

Grady said whether it be a clarification of HB 2890 or a new approach to alternative education, the legislature needs to take action. But she said part of what makes legislating the issue so difficult is schools are still dealing with the fallout of the state’s addiction crisis, leading to students with a lot of adverse childhood experiences.

“We have to find that balance of meeting the emotional needs of the traumatized child, but also making sure that that child’s trauma does not inflict trauma on somebody else,” Grady said. “And that’s the hardest part is it’s, you know, it’s not as cut and dry as saying, well, one way is great for everybody, because it’s not.”

Raleigh County Schools Embrace Alternative Approach To School Discipline Issues

An increase in disciplinary issues in schools is leading to a new approach in elementary schools across the state.

Rather than send students with the most serious disciplinary issues to a virtual learning or traditional Homebound program, Raleigh County has implemented an intensive academy that aims to address the traumas and triggers that are the core cause of the students’ behaviors.

Allen Sexton, director of special education for Raleigh County Schools, told the interim meeting of the Joint Standing Committee on Education Sunday, Jan. 7 about the county’s alternative education program for elementary schools.

He said it was developed after observing similar existing programs in other counties such as Monongalia County and adapting it to fit Raleigh’s needs. Named the RCSD Four Academy, Sexton called it the fourth tier of academic support for the county’s elementary school students with severe disciplinary issues.

“We call it ‘T-4’ because we know that next layer of support that teachers are expecting, they know we can’t provide it at the school level,” he said. “Administrators at the school level and teachers are saying ‘Please help. We don’t know what to do next.’”

Sexton walked the legislators through the support process, starting with teaching students how to behave, observation of disciplinary issues in the classroom and finally to determining whether students have a disability or a conduct disorder.

“The labeling of a student with a disability is not a benign act, that is a label that follows them lifelong,” he said. “A lot of conduct disorders mirror a disability. My job as the special education director is to protect IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act) and make sure that we provide supports to students with disabilities, but I also am to make sure we’re not over-identifying. We don’t want to mislabel someone that will follow them the rest of their life.”

Many of the students that have been identified by the new program have high Adverse Childhood Experience scores, Sexton said, meaning they have had childhood trauma that manifests in negative behavior in the classroom. He said that data from traditional, exclusionary alternative education, such as virtual learning or Homeward Bound programs, showed behaviors did not improve when students returned to the classroom.

“When they come back, they often have the same or worse behaviors than what they did previously, so we’re dealing with those again,” Sexton said. “That’s what our board recognized in 2016, 17 is that we’re seeing the same behaviors.”

In comparison, Sexton said that only two of the 35 students that have gone through the new program since its implementation in 2019 have repeated high-level behaviors. He attributes that success to low student to teacher ratios – there are currently only eight students in the program – as well as specialized support.

“Those educators collaborate together with three aides…because as you can imagine, when you’re working with students that have the most challenging or difficult behaviors, you can reach your saturation point as well, you need a break,” he said.

The extra help ensures that everyone can maintain a very high level of professionalism and support for students. Sexton said students tend to participate in the program for six to nine months before being transitioned back to school with support, which includes teaching the teachers about the students’ needs and best practices.

“We’ve had a very high success rate, only having one student ever pulled back from the school setting, back to the T4 setting to provide additional support because the transition didn’t go well,” he said.

Del. Heather Tully, R-Nicholas, asked about the involvement of the families of disruptive students in the program. Sexton replied that families must agree to the terms of the program before a student is involved in the program, which includes a weekly family engagement day.

“Those days, sometimes families visit the center, they receive parent education, sometimes they perform tasks with their children,” he said. “Other times they report to our Community Health Agency, and they receive their family therapy or their individual therapies as well.”
Senate President Craig Blair indicated during a legislative lookahead event Friday that alternative education for disruptive students will be a focus for lawmakers in the upcoming regular session which begins Wednesday, Jan. 10.

Can Early Trauma Last A Lifetime?

A social movement has been gaining steam in the past decade as we’ve learned more about the way trauma can affect our physical and psychological health.

A study more than twenty years ago, first came up with a way to assess the impact of childhood neglect, abuse and family dysfunction. Now, advocates are getting traction with “trauma-aware” campaigns and coalitions. School districts, communities, states and even countries are investing in trauma awareness, training and screening.

Nearly half the kids under 18 in the U.S. have had an adverse experience or serious trauma. The original study concluded that the more traumas early in life… lead to poor health outcomes later on. That research got almost no attention when it was published in 1998, however today, its findings are considered ground-breaking.

But some say using such a rubric to assess a person’s experience won’t work for everyone and may simply label and limit their future potential.

If you are in West Virginia and learn more about Adverse Childhood Trauma or “ACEs,” contact the West Virginia ACEs Coalition.

If you are anywhere else in the world and would like to know more about “ACEs,” reach out to PACEs Connection.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and CRC Foundation.

This program is made possible by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 through the West Virginia Humanities Council. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations do not necessarily represent those of the West Virginia Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond. You also can listen to Us & Them on WVPB Radio — tune in Thursday, Jan. 27, at 8 p.m., or listen to the encore presentation on Saturday, Jan. 29, at 3 p.m.

Returning Home: Berkeley County Special Education Teacher Lifts Up Students With Disabilities

As part of our “Returning Home” series, education reporter Liz McCormick sat down with Berkeley County resident and educator Elizabeth Anne Greer Mobley.

Mobley moved from Maryland to Martinsburg with her family when she was 14. The now 30-year-old mother of three is passionate about improving special education for K-12 students in West Virginia.

Today, she’s the Parent Engagement Resource Center Coordinator for Berkeley County Schools, but there was a time when she took her talents and expertise outside the Mountain State.

We talk with Mobley about what brought her back home.

The transcript below is from the original broadcast. It has been lightly edited for clarity.

Listen to the extended version of the interview for more of the conversation.

Extended: Berkeley County Special Education Teacher Lifts Up Students With Disabilities

McCormick: What ultimately brought you to leave West Virginia?

Mobley: After attending Shepherd University and getting my [undergraduate] degree, I graduated in the spring of 2013, [and] I was a special education teacher at a middle school in Berkeley County. I was a teacher for children who were a part of our IEP special education system, and they had Autism, other health impairments, which we call OHI, and then some were classified as having behavioral and emotional disorders.

I wasn’t planning to leave [West Virginia], but a friend reached out to me and asked me to send my resume to him. And he was like, ‘We have positions open in Virginia. Why don’t you just come and give it a chance?’ And I was like, I love where I work. I don’t want to do that. And he was like, ‘But you want to start a family, and unfortunately, financially, this might be a better option for you.’

I applied, I interviewed, and I got the job and for financial reasons and wanting to buy a home, my husband and I decided, maybe that was the right choice to make at that time.

McCormick: So, Elizabeth, how long did you end up living outside of West Virginia and working in Loudoun County, Virginia?

Mobley: So we made the decision to not move from West Virginia. We wanted to stay close to my family, but what I decided to do was commute every day.

I constantly looked for opportunities to move though, because I became a teacher there, there were teacher grant programs for down payments on homes. There were a lot of programs that were available to people in my type of situation. But still financially, we couldn’t afford that.

So I sacrificed a lot of sleep and a lot of time making that decision to drive back and forth.

McCormick: Special education is an area that is in a critical shortage in West Virginia and across the nation. Why was that a field that you felt compelled to get into?

Mobley: My youngest sister – there’s four of us, and I’m the eldest – the third girl has Down syndrome. Watching and going through school with her, I had one of those beautifully intense experiences where I witnessed everything my parents went through with her both medically and with her experience in the education system. And I always knew that, that was a population of underserved people that I wanted to be involved with.

My whole life, I was standing up for my little sister when people were trying to bully her or bully me and my other siblings, because we had a sister with special needs. And I just could not stand the fact that there weren’t more people standing up for those that are differently abled. And that was my first piquing interest. But I thought I was going to be a lawyer, so at Shepherd I studied political science.

But right after I graduated, it just hit me that no, that’s not what I was put here to do. I was put here to serve and serve the differently abled and support their families. And so I got my master’s in special education. And it’s just been like, the most beautiful decision I’ve ever made. Because now I’m a mom of a kid with special needs, who has an IEP in West Virginia.

McCormick: What was the impetus that made you think, ‘I really want to bring my work and my passion for special education back to West Virginia?’

Mobley: I was stewing in my commute, there and back, and the more I was driving back and forth, the more I realized that I’m quality. I love these children. I treat them with such care and respect, and they are deserving of as much opportunity and adult stakeholders and persons who care about their individualized successes and growth.

So if I care that much, why am I taking all this care to another state and giving it to children whom my child won’t interact with? And so it dawned on me that it’s not fair to my community that I’m choosing the money. I had a talk with myself, and I was choosing money over the opportunity to improve the area that I live in.

McCormick: What were some of the challenges that you faced coming back to West Virginia? I know you mentioned there were some financial differences based on when you worked in Loudoun County versus coming back to Berkeley County. But were there any other challenges?

Mobley: So, I have my master’s degree, and going from teaching in Loudoun County back to Berkeley County, I lost more than $25,000 in yearly salary, which for some people in West Virginia, that is their yearly salary. For me that made a difference between us being able to buy a house, so adjusting to that huge, new deficit [was challenging], and in addition, I’m a person of color.

Berkeley County is very diverse, and we’re growing exponentially in the diversity in this area, but there are only a few handful of educators who are people of color who are considered a part of that BIPOC educator community. BIPOC, meaning Black and indigenous people of color, so if you fall anywhere in that realm. I identify as Black. So to go into the buildings where I work and be one of, or maybe the only one, or one of two, one of three, you know, Black or persons of color educators, that was a bit challenging. But it was also challenging for my students who are not students of color, because I could have very well been their first, or one of their first experiences with a person of color as their educator.

It was challenging because even with the rate in which [Berkeley County is] growing in diversity, a lot of the parents still did not have a lot of interactions or engagements with people of color. And that was challenging for me learning how to navigate this system as not only having to educate my students, but also gently educate their parents and families on what it is to have this cultural competency and diversity and community in the education system.

I have found that I have had to navigate very delicately. And sometimes that hurts and other times, it’s like, I’m digging my heels in, because I know I’m making a positive impact.

McCormick: Three years ago, you were working in Loudoun County, Virginia. You were getting paid more there, and there are other states that may have more opportunity for you and your family. Why come back to West Virginia, and do you want to stay?

Mobley: My husband and I have talked about it many times, and because he’s working in this community, and I work in his community, we know that there are at least two of us who are trying to give back. I plan to stay. We at this point in time don’t see ourselves anywhere else. We’re licensed foster and adoptive parents, too, and so any way that we can give back and love on this area that we now call home, we do. And it was the best decision that I have made.

My life is in this work, and West Virginia is a state of high need in so many different areas. Disability support services are one of them. I know I am only one person, but if I can use my education and talents to help cultivate a culture of love and acceptance and responsibility to be change makers, especially within this world of special needs and special education, the differently abled and disability support services, that’s what I’m going to do. For as long as God allows me, I’m going to do it, and I’m going to do it starting here.

Teaching Teachers About Trauma Helps Kids Learn

Liam Rusmisel is a different kid this year. On the first day of kindergarten he walked into the classroom, head held high, according to his teachers. This is no small feat for a kid who had a bit of a rough start to last year.

When Liam started preschool in 2016, he was antisocial, hyperactive and had very poor speech acquisition.

“Even I had trouble understanding him and I lived with him!” said Pam Riggs, Rusmisel’s grandmother and guardian.

Even though Liam lives with both his grandmother and mother, his grandmother has been his primary caregiver for the past three years.

“Because his mother was on drugs and she suffers from you know, probably because of drugs she goes into depressions, she lays around a lot, she didn’t really play, except for really being in the household, any role in his education, his upbringing,” Riggs explained.

But Liam’s introduction to school couldn’t have come at a better time. Last year, Madison Elementary was in their second year of participating in the Critten Services-backed program called Trauma Informed Elementary Schools, or TIES. The program was initially funded by the Benedum Foundation, which also funds Appalachia Health News, and grants from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.

The program is now in 11 West Virginia elementary schools and focuses on kids in pre-K through 1stgrade. The aim is to train teachers to recognize signs of developmental trauma and work around barriers to learning that trauma can pose for children.

“At Madison Elementary, we serve many students that come from homes where a trauma has occurred,” Madison school counselor Jessica Watt said.

“And that can be a whole gamut of things from neglect and abuse to hunger, and incarceration of family, domestic violence and things of that nature,” she said.

Watts said about 50 percent of Madison Elementary School students come from an unstable or traumatic home environment.

“And when they come to school with brains that have been exposed to traumas like that, it often interferes with their ability to learn in a traditional way,” she said.

Watt said it also helps with early identification of students with special needs and hooks them and their families up to community resources and mental health services so any issues that are present can be addressed.

For Liam, that meant connecting him and his grandmother to a child psychiatrist who could prescribe him medication to assist with the hyperactivity.

Lisa Armstrong, his preschool teacher, said after connecting the family to resources, the change was almost immediate.

“Once Liam had seen the doctor and the appropriate measures were taken, Liam’s behavior not only improved, but his social interactions were so much more positive with the other children and he was so excited to be at school. But more than anything, learning truly began to take place, where before he was frustrated in his own skin,” Armstrong said.

School teachers and administrators say TIES isn’t just about referring students and caregivers to community services, but also working with the TIES liaison, a masters level clinician, to help the children learn better emotional and behavioral coping mechanisms.

“In West Virginia, we do see a lot of intergenerational traumas, we see a lot of adverse childhood experiences, that a lot of people are coming from,” program director Joe King said. Adverse Childhood Experiences is the theory that experiences like physical, sexual or emotional abuse can have lifelong health implications.

“You know, when I’m learning about how trauma affects people across the lifespan, you kind of have this aha moment…you realize that a large portion of the clients you’ve been working with throughout your whole career have had a lot of these adverse experiences and not only that, but the families have gone through intergenerational traumas,” King said.

He said people are starting to realize that trauma is cyclical and a pattern exists. The hope with TIES is if they can disrupt the pattern, they might not only help this generation, but generations to come.

School counselor Watt said due to the training teachers received on how to recognize trauma in kids, they began to request safe spaces in their classrooms for kids to calm themselves down and self-regulate when they are coming into the building with rough starts.

“And it’s because of the training in trauma that they realized that oftentimes when kids are in bad moods and not able to learn, or what appears to be daydreaming and not paying attention that there is really something deeper going on in their little minds and little hearts,” Watts said.

King said early data shows promise as to how well the program is actually working, but that the numbers from the first two years are still getting crunched by social work students at West Virginia University. For people like Armstrong, Watts and Riggs, though, the value is indisputable.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.