BETHLEHEM, PA - For many students, the classroom is their safe place. But a traumatic event at home can make school days difficult.
"We’ve been doing a lot of work learning about trauma and the impact of trauma on the development of students," explains Bethlehem Area Public Schools' Superintendent, Dr. Joseph Roy, "and a key is to understand what’s behind the way the student might be presenting that day."
As students head back to class, an ongoing public health crisis is proving emotional support is more important than ever.
"For sure this year with the pandemic, there is increased stress, increased depression [and] anxiety across society," Dr. Roy explains, "and that can manifest itself at home with potential domestic violence or it might just be the stress of getting evicted, or whatever might be going on at home."
Through the ‘Handle with Care’ initiative, law enforcement across Northampton and Lehigh counties notify schools when police are called to a home and of children present who may have experienced trauma the night before. To maintain privacy, no specific details are revealed; simply a message saying ‘handle with care.’
"The police department responds to a lot of calls where children are involved. Unfortunately, domestic violence calls a whole matter of things that police respond to and will note that there are children present, in the household or in the family. They then just pass along the information that there has been an incident without divulging what exactly occurred," explains Lehigh County District Attorney, James Martin, "I believe they pass that along to the Attorney General’s Office in the ‘Safe to Say’ program. That then gets relayed to the school so that the people in the school can watch the children for any adverse reactions that they might have because of the trauma they’ve experienced."
If a student is demonstrating difficulty coping with a traumatic event or processing tough emotions, ‘Handle with Care’ can then connect them to useful resources provided by United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley and Resilient Lehigh Valley.
"When traumatic experiences happen during childhood it can really reshape the brain and create neurological, cognitive, emotional, social delays that can harm us into adulthood," says Beth Tomlinson of the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley and Resilient Lehigh Valley, "Similarly, when children experience trauma, it affects them physiologically. It actually affects their body and constant exposure to stress hormones really hurts the autoimmune system; it can weaken us at a cellular level and make it harder for us to heal [and] fight infections."
Tomlinson tells PBS39 News that research shows about half of Pennsylvanias reported experiencing some form of childhood trauma and 1 in 5 have experienced toxic levels of traumatic stress. In the Lehigh Valley, 1 in 3 4th graders were not reading at grade level while one third of middle and high school students reported feeling depressed in the last year.
"Pre-COVID, we were already with our youth in a state of crisis. Both with our academic performance as well as the emotional and mental health of our kids," says Tomlinson, "So because that was the condition we were in and that really is a driving community need, Our United Way founded Resilient Lehigh Valley which is focused on creating a trauma informed, culturally responsive and resilient community."
Educators and law enforcement agree, the best way to help students succeed is to address trauma before it takes a toll on their education. More information on the resources United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley and Resilient Lehigh Valley provides can be found at on their websites.