“‘Acting Out’ or Suffering from Trauma?”

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Eve Troeh and Mallory Falk explore the use of trauma informed curriculum in the New Orleans school system following Hurricane Katrina. “Consider the everyday stresses of children living in poverty: not enough food to eat, a lack of stable, safe housing, the threat of gun violence that plagues poor neighborhoods, picking up on the stress of adults facing job insecurity or without a living wage,” they write. “We are learning more about how these ‘toxic stress’ factors affect children’s brain development and limit their ability to learn, not to mention their basic ability to show up to school every day.”

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NEW ORLEANS - AUGUST 24: Kindergarten students gather their belongings on their third day of school in the Benjamin Franklin Elementary Mathematics and Science School August 24, 2006 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Fall classes have already begun in certain parts of the city. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
NEW ORLEANS – AUGUST 24: Kindergarten students gather their belongings on their third day of school in the Benjamin Franklin Elementary Mathematics and Science School August 24, 2006 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Fall classes have already begun in certain parts of the city. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

2 COMMENTS

  1. It would be so clarify and truly accurate and a meaningful act of resistance to be specific about the root cause of the trauma written about in this article. Your title should be….”Suffering from the trauma caused by white supremacy”.

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    • Exactly! I lived for 18 years in and around New Orleans and I have to say that racism is alive and very well in the city that time forgot. After Katrina some of the politicians of New Orleans got up in a city council meeting and stated that Katrina and God did a great favor for the city. It removed the “less desirable” people and got them out of the way. You see, many of the projects were destroyed by the floods. These projects were home to large numbers of poor African Americans. Most of the people who were trapped by Katrina in the city were not the middle and upper class residents since they fled in their cars long before the problems set in. It was the poor of New Orleans, both White and African American who were trapped since they had no transportation out of the path of the hurricane. These were the ones sitting on the I-10 overpass without water and food and medical supplies. These were the people who ended up in the Superdome and the Rivergate without water and bathroom facilities. Those people were bussed out of New Orleans, eventually ending up in communities in neighboring states. The politicians of New Orleans took the land that the projects once sat on and sold it to developers. It is one of the most disgusting things that politicians have ever done in New Orleans and let me tell you, lots of disgusting things have been done in that city by politicians.

      You are correct. This program should explore the trauma caused by the white supremacy that rules New Orleans and most of South Louisiana.

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