Coming Back Together ( Without Falling Apart ):
Trauma-Informed School Re-entry
By Deborah Offner , Ph . D . Psychologist , Consultant
Part I • Collective Intersectional Crisis
If our distorted sense of time or the frequency and vividness of our anxiety dreams are
any indication , this is a disorienting , alarming moment . Whether Fall 2020 finds you teaching remotely , juggling hybrid instruction , or ensconced in a boarding bubble , you ’ re undoubtedly inhabiting an altered campus , and a shaken world . Our students and their families , as well as many of us , are facing burdens and pressures that were unimaginable — or at least unimagined — six months ago . In addition to the pandemic that closed our schools last spring , our country has entered a recession , with millions of jobs lost and economic security threatened for those still employed . And our country ’ s second major civil rights uprising has emerged in response to police killings of unarmed Black citizens : Ahmaud Arbery , George Floyd , Breonna Taylor , Daniel Prude ; and the police shooting of Jacob Blake . We may consider long-standing racial inequity and injustice “ the other public health crisis ” for young people of color and their families .
There ’ s never been a more important moment for your school to consider every participant in your community across multiple contexts — health status , family and economic circumstances , racial identity . Because of all that has happened , and all that remains unresolved , it ’ s critical right now to consider the role of trauma , broadly defined , in the lives and minds of many independent school students , as well as faculty and staff .
Page 2 Fall 2020 CSEE Connections