By teaching teachers how to bond with students, Trauma Informed Care seeks to address behavior issues and help students that have had difficult challenges in their lives. A recent article discussed how this can lead to the education institutions usurping the role of the parent. Perhaps a much bigger issue with Trauma Informed Care is the way the techniques mirror those used by sexual predators.
Developmental Enhancement Behavioral Health, located in Holland, MI, gave a training session to Byron Center Public School teachers entitled “Creating and Supporting a Trauma Informed School.” The video of this training was linked to a previous version of this article and has since been removed from Youtube. They have also provided professional development on trauma training to teachers at Grand Haven Area Public Schools and the Ottawa Area Intermediate School District.
By no means does this imply teachers who have been through Trauma Training are pedophiles. I believe the vast majority of teachers chose the teaching profession because they care deeply about children and want the best for them. Unfortunately, pedophiles are also attracted to the teaching profession for the simple reason that schools is where children spend their time. Here is the result of a web search for teacher arrests (search executed on May 6, 2023):
Here is a video of a parent speaking to a school board regarding a teacher giving inappropriate assignments. Dad Calls Out Pervert Teacher
Based on the results of the quick web search, it’s clear that there are more predatory teachers in the profession than we’d like. However, expecting teachers to implement the tools of Trauma Informed Care may increase the occurrences of devastating unintended consequences.
Because the techniques for bonding with students taught as part of Trauma Informed Care are similar to techniques used by child predators, then it will be easier for pedophiles to go undetected through school facilities. A pedophile will also be viewed as behaving normally rather than oddly for using these techniques.
Behaviors of Sexual Predators: Grooming comes from the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault. It describes six behaviors sexual predators use for grooming.
1. Targeting the victim
2. Gaining the child’s trust
3. Filling a need
4. Isolating the child
5. Sexualizing the interaction
6. Maintaining control
Children who are vulnerable are the targets of both pedophiles and teachers who want to help them overcome traumatic events. According to the Behaviors of Sexual Predators document attached above, “Child sexual offenders test for vulnerability and look for emotional neediness, isolation, and low self-confidence, as well as less parental attention.”
Both sexual predators and teachers hoping to help a trauma suffering child seek to gain the child’s trust. According to the Behaviors of Sexual Predators document attached above, “The predator may introduce secrecy to build trust with the child.” Unfortunately, we are increasingly seeing schools tell children they don’t need to let their parents know about specific events that take place at school. In addition, the State of Michigan has held suicide prevention courses that encourage participants to keep secrets from parents. This philosophy allows pedophiles to more easily infiltrate schools and remain undetected. Again, I believe the vast majority of teachers have good intentions, but the overlap between pedophile grooming behaviors and Trauma Informed Care is troubling.
“Filling a need” is the next pedophile behavior. To a child sexual predator this often consists of providing gifts, affection or attention, and may appear to a normal trauma-trained teacher as caring support. The isolation phase involves forming a relationship. During the school day, there is usually one adult and a room full of children, but it isn’t uncommon for a teacher to have moments of alone time with a student. In the case of most teachers this is healthy and helpful for the development of the child, but in the case of a sexual predator the opposite is true.
Once trust and a relationship has been established, then both the sexual predator and child begin to relax. This is when the sexual predator begins nonsexual touching that desensitizes the child and slowly moves into more sexualized touch. This is often disguised within playful interactions. Trauma Informed Techniques instruct teachers to use play, humor, distraction, and silliness to enhance their relationships with troubled students. A Trauma Trained Teacher with good intentions of helping a child, and a pedophile with evil intentions, shockingly use many of the exact same techniques.
The final behavior is to maintain control. This is desirable for the pedophile in order to continue abuse, while it helps the well-intentioned teacher to continue helping the child. Unfortunately, for an observer witnessing similar behavior, it may be difficult to distinguish intention. Hence, a major problem with Trauma Training.
As a parent, I ask, aren’t teachers supposed to be trained in teaching, and counselors trained in counseling? Maybe we should train teachers to recognize these grooming behaviors and then alert social workers when they are spotted? Instead of Trauma Training we should focus on the following:
A. Make sure that the classroom is a safe environment
B. Promote safe practices with colleagues
C. Report Concerns
D. Get kids help
E. Communicate with parents
F. Build a healthy community around vulnerable kids
a. With their peers
b. With other adults who respect safe boundaries
G. Encourage development of and understanding of value and resilience
If teachers are trained to exhibit the same techniques as pedophiles, children will be at an elevated risk and even more will be abused. We must quit expecting our teachers to be counselors and let them return to academics. Troubled children who need counseling need to receive help from a counselor, not from a teacher whose profession is education.