Kids, Trauma and New Orleans Schools

This past winter WWNO’s education desk looked at how local schools are dealing with trauma in their classrooms. To wrap up their series they collaborated with The Listening Post to bring their questions to Carver Collegiate Academy in New Orleans East. Reporter Mallory Falk and producer Claudia Lopez take a listen to the results.

WWNO’s series Kids, Trauma and New Orleans Schools looks at how trauma shows up in the classroom. Our reporting has focused on one New Orleans pre-K through 8th grade school, Crocker College Prep, as it makes changes to account for high levels of trauma in the city’s children. New Orleans kids screen positive for PTSD at rates three times higher than the national average. Our final story in the series takes a closer look at what it takes to run a trauma-informed school.

New Orleans kids show up to school having experienced trauma at rates several times higher than the national average. For the series “Kids, Trauma and New Orleans Schools” WWNO’s Eve Troeh and Mallory Falk spent time at one school making changes to account for high levels of trauma: Crocker College Prep. Eve Troeh shares this profile of Nicole Boykins, the school's new principal.

WWNO’s Education reporting continues to explore the theme: “Kids, Trauma and New Orleans Schools.”

Dr. Denese Shervington is CEO of the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies. You may have seen the group’s billboards or social media posts on how New Orleans kids are “Sad, Not Bad.”

WWNO’s Eve Troeh and Mallory Falk talked to the mental health expert about how trauma in the city’s children not only goes unrecognized – it’s misdiagnosed.

In our series “Kids, Trauma and New Orleans Schools,” we’ve been reporting about New Orleans kids, how they deal with levels of trauma many times higher the national average, and how schools respond to that.

In New Orleans, children screen positive for post-traumatic stress disorder at three times the national average. There are many sources: experiences around Hurricane Katrina, exposure to violent crime, the buildup of family stress due to high poverty.

WWNO’s Mallory Falk and Eve Troeh have teamed up to report on the ways New Orleans schools have dealt with that trauma.