More and more school aged children walk into school, having suffered trauma. This site explains the necessity of trauma-informed education that helps these students learn, while helping them process their experiences. It also gives solutions, resources, and an ideal course of action to make trauma-informed a whole-school effort.

One piece of the source that I found valuable was about the "Four Perspectives" that surround trauma. It quotes a student, parent, teacher, and principal. The student feels frustrated and discouraged, saying: "I really try to listen to what the teacher is saying. Sometimes I can see her mouth moving but can’t hear a thing." The parent expresses that, "
The teacher told me my six year old, Tyrone, is the terror of his first grade class." followed by her sobering truth: "Tyrone fled with me and his sister from a father who abused us." Meanwhile, the teacher is feeling frustrated and helpless, saying "Every year, there are a few students in my 6^th grade class I just can’t reach no matter what I try." They do however, come around to state that: "After learning about trauma’s impact at school, these behaviors began to make sense to me." Lastly, the administrator's input is that they started out by noticing that "We had dedicated teachers at our school, but we couldn’t make gains in academic achievement.", and are now in a place where their school has recognized: "We are an urban school and our students deal with a great deal of adversity—from gun shots in the neighborhood to home invasions to homelessness and foster care." My takeaway from this is that becoming trauma-informed is a learning process which involves effort from everyone involved.

In this article about a football player suffering from mental illness, NBC reports that Eagles offensive lineman Brandon Brooks could not play due to anxiety. Brooks made a statement on Twitter detailing the physical symptoms of anxiety, such as nausea and vomiting that prevented him from playing in the game against the Seahawks. In his statement, the 6-foot-5 athlete clarified that he is neither ashamed nor embarrassed about his condition. Eagles coach Doug Pederson commented that he and his players love and support Brooks. Brooks joins athletes Kevin Love and Michael Phelps, who, among others, have openly discussed mental health. This article is important for students in the preK-4 classroom because some of them see athletes, especially Eagles players, as heroes, and the epitome of toughness. Hearing a professional football player discuss his mental health struggles helps to de-stigmatize it. Students may have a characterization or stereotype of an anxious person in their head, and this story may help to break that stereotype, showing that mental illness does not discriminate. The article can also be used as a talking point to illustrate how mental health issues can manifest in physical symptoms and prevent someone from doing their job.