ACEs, The Unseen Super Villain in Every School

You really don’t want to know what happened!

In my opinion, our leaders have not done such a great job giving us a rating scale for “ACEs.” (Adverse Childhood Experiences)The numbering system only goes to ten, and while a young boy whose father left marks when he corrected his son’s behavior receives an ACE score of one, so does the child who was repeatedly raped for a year. The scale only goes to ten, and we live in a crazy world with lots of bad things that happen to children. These bad experiences destroy trust and have a profound effect on our youth’s ability to learn.

In my state, every adult is a mandated reporter. We have a responsibility to report child abuse when we suspect it. The sad reality is these wounds are hidden like an iceberg underwater. The best thing we can do for the child is report their plight, even in a world where they may be deported to their home country. The purpose of this article is to expose the iceberg of trauma underneath the proverbial waters of classroom apathy and provide a few tips on how to navigate the choppy waters of their destruction.

Five years ago, those who are ninth graders now were in the fourth grade when schools were shut down, and everyone was forced to wear a mask and social distance. Fear, uncertainty over a rogue virus, and doubt threw us all into a tailspin. Families were forced to stay at home and isolate; businesses were closed.