Moving Policy Toward a Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Approach to Support Children Who Have Experienced Trauma

BACKGROUND

As attention to the potential negative outcomes of childhood trauma has grown, so have calls for schools to take an active role in supporting students experiencing trauma. These calls extend beyond efforts initiated by individual schools to include those mandated by state law, which largely focus on teacher training and on screening for adversity.

METHODS

This article explores the evidence base and limitations for current approaches in state law and explores how policies to address other student health, safety, and wellness issues can help either ameliorate or exacerbate students' experiences with trauma.

RESULTS

Few trainings for nonclinical staff have rigorous evidence of effectiveness, and based on evidence of teacher trainings on other topics, cannot work in environments that do not actively reinforce and encourage the application of that knowledge. Trainings also largely do not acknowledge the structures and systems, including systemic racism within schools, that may contribute to disparate rates of adversity for black and American Indian and Alaskan Native children. Screening carries several risks, including confounding adversity with experiencing trauma, missing broader contextual adversity, and potentially retraumatizing children.

CONCLUSIONS

State policymakers need to take a more holistic approach in creating policies to support students experiencing trauma.

Amperometric biosensors based on microflow injection system

Novel electrochemical cells based on a microflow system combined with amperometric enzyme electrodes were developed and served for quantitative determination of various compounds, such as organophosphates and lactose. The resulting biosensors are selective and efficient owing to immobilization of the sensing elements on the electrodes. The sensors are easy to operate, and the procedures are rapid, accurate, reproducible, and inexpensive, requiring neither special skills and training nor complicated instrumentation. The use of a microflow cell ensures the continuous flux of a new substrate, thus preventing the accumulation or adsorption of products to the electrode. Miniaturization of the sensor has two main advantages: (1) it is easy to carry and therefore can be used outdoors as well, and (2) it allows working with low volumes of compounds and reagents, which is highly important when dealing with hazardous compounds.

Immobilized parathion hydrolase: an amperometric sensor for parathion

An amperometric enzyme biosensor for the direct measurement of parathion was developed. The biosensor is based on parathion hydrolase from Pseudomonas sp. isolated from contaminated soil. The enzyme, which was immobilized on a carbon electrode, catalyzes the hydrolysis of parathion to form p-nitrophenol, which was detected by its anodic oxidation. The enzymatic and electrochemical reactions were examined and optimized. Screen-printed electrodes and a microflow injection system provide the means to significantly reduce the volume of the detected samples. Pulsed techniques further increased the sensitivity of the measurement. The current signal was linearly related to the parathion concentration, and the detection limit was less than 1 ng/mL. The biosensor is rapid as well and can be used outdoors and indoors by a nonqualified person.

Women and AIDS: an analysis of media misrepresentations

A close reading of popular discourses on women and the AIDS epidemic reveals the ways in which such depictions produce and reiterate power-laden notions of normative sexuality. Prostitutes, one frequently depicted 'kind' of woman, are presented as indiscriminate, polluting to men and categorically different from 'normal' women. Other women depicted in AIDS discourses are almost always HIV-positive mothers or pregnant women; these women are usually only of concern insofar as they may infect their babies. The themes of self-control, self-discipline and personal responsibility may also stigmatize women. Such discourses suggest that those who have AIDS are responsible for their own illness. They also deflect attention away from the socioeconomic contexts that may make it more difficult for some to avoid infection, away from the connections between poverty, illness and disempowerment, and away from systematic inequalities that characterize U.S. society.