Chapter 10: Mercy Me: Recognizing and Responding to Student Trauma Using Culturally Responsive Trauma-Informed Pedagogy

Mercy is no different from many of the students that enter urban classrooms every day. Students, like Mercy, do not abandon the realities of their home life once they enter a school building. They bring with them the daily stresses and traumas of their living conditions. Rather than focusing on their school work—which seems mundane in comparison to their existing reality; their mind is eclipsed by more serious thoughts connected to their survival and well-being outside the school walls.

Teachers, distracted by the busyness of their job, sometimes—intentionally or not—ignore, or even misinterpret, signs of trauma in their students. In turn, the Mercys in our classrooms are overlooked as they fall behind the backdrop of endless emails and a pile of worksheets. Teachers’ inability to be responsive to a student’s cry for help becomes a missed opportunity. In urban classrooms, this can sometimes be the difference between life and death.