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Students traumatized by loss and violence get a fighting chance to learn [LATimes.com]

 

The teacher asked her fourth-graders to sit in a circle and rate their feelings from one to 10.

Christopher Bland clenched his fists. He ripped a piece of paper to shreds. As his classmates spoke, he rocked back and forth.

Tonia Rowe-Russell made a mental note: Keep an eye on this one, usually so smiley, eager to please.

He stopped writing during writing time. She asked what was on his mind. His baby sister died that summer, he told her. She hadn’t known.

Her mom had passed away, she said. She shared a silly memory and asked if he could think of one. He drew himself and his sister atop a colorful castle, surrounded by trees.

They put that picture — and one of her mother — on an “In Loving Memory” wall next to his desk. It seemed to calm him.

But Rowe-Russell knew from 19 years of teaching at South L.A.’s West Athens Elementary School that when her students experience trauma, it needs to be addressed before they can concentrate and learn. She also realized that as a teacher with about 30 kids in her class, she couldn’t provide all the necessary emotional support.

So she turned to Jonathan Vickburg, the therapist who has come to West Athens twice a week for about six years, to provide art-based group counseling through a program called Share and Care, funded and run by the Cedars-Sinai Psychological Trauma Center.

The teacher hoped that the 45 minutes each week -- talking about coping mechanisms, drawing out feelings -- could help Christopher regain confidence and focus. She hoped he could learn a few tools and in some way come to terms with his sister’s death — so that as he grew up and other bad things happened, he wouldn’t have to resort to anger.



[For more of this story, written by Sonali Kohli, go to http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-edu-share-care/]

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