During school hours “Raymond”, age 6, worried a lot about his mother. They had moved to the shelter to leave his abusive father who terrified and traumatized Raymond by beating his mother right in front of his eyes. . .

     Although it is not uncommon for children to worry about an abused parent when separated from her during the school day, Raymond’s school had no understanding of what was going on and lost sympathy for his constant crying. He was in kindergarten and after all, a little crying was okay, but this was too much. School staff would call his mother and simply ask her to take Raymond home. Over time Raymond realized that he could get to go home earlier if he kicked or punched other children. When asked to stop, Raymond would fall into great emotional outbursts and the school would then call his parent to bring him home. 

     By the time MAC was asked to represent Raymond, he had been sent home or suspended from kindergarten almost 80 days--about as much time as he had actually been there. The school and the parent were at loggerheads. The school was insensitive to Raymond’s mother’s trauma, and Raymond had not learned to identify letters or numbers. MAC represented Raymond’s mom and worked with the school to help them understand Raymond’s behavior was not that of a “bad kid.” but rather the outbursts and aggression of a very vulnerable child. 

     MAC brought in trauma experts to help staff understand how to address Raymond’s needs and provided up-to-date research in readable form for the school staff to understand the ways that trauma affects learning. Bringing the impact of trauma to his team meeting created silence, apologies, and with strong advocacy, placement in an appropriate program, with compensatory services. 

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