She was an advocate for distressed students in the early days of the school's six-year trauma-sensitive schooling initiative, and has developed a course that pairs math instruction and social skills development. Her former students often drop in to tell her how much their time with her has helped them academically and emotionally in high school.

But every year, there comes a point when she "hits [her] max," and her work triggers social anxiety.

"I get burnt out pretty easily because, you know, the more you're around people, the more they tap you out," Lyon said. When it happens, "I wake up in the morning and I feel a sense of dread, like waking from a nightmare, but I didn't have a nightmare. And I'm like, oh no, here it comes."

Teachers can make or break efforts to create trauma-sensitive schools. Yet in the rising number of schools adopting these initiatives, both administrators and educators often underestimate the support teachers themselves need to cope with the emotional weight of helping students in distress.

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