Unburdened by false humility, postmodern trauma activists claim to have understood for the first time what drives all of human suffering
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CATEGORY: GOVERNMENT PROJECTS: STATE  Bill sponsors, clockwise from top left: Dafna Michaelson Jenet (D), Brianna Titone (D), Nancy Todd (D), and Dennis Hisey (R) Source: 9News Denver and Colorado H.B.20-1312 Read time: 2.7 minutes plus video This Happened Denver’s 9News outlet ran a story April 4, 2024 on the implementation of Colorado’s new mandate for training of teachers in trauma-informed practices (TIP). The law was passed and took effect in 2020. Who Did This? Sponsors of the bill were Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet (D) (now a state senator), Rep. Brianna Titone (D), Sen. Dennis Hisey (R) (served one term before losing reelection in 2022), and Sen. Nancy Todd (D) (left office in 2021 after a sixteen-year career). Titone, born a biological male, was the first openly transgender person elected to the Colorado legislature. The Premise The theory of TIP is that trauma-exposed individuals ought to be sensitively handled by professionals in many spheres to both prevent worsening through re-traumatization and promote healing through new knowledge and skills. The mandate comes from Colorado Statute § 22-60.5-110, Section 3.f., which dictates conditions for renewal of professional teacher licenses. It includes the following:
The text of the bill did not provide a rationale as to why this type of training would facilitate teachers’ skills and competence in the delivery of academic instruction. While the law covers teachers in all grades, the 9News story focused on the launch of the mandate within Colorado’s universal pre-K program. Anchor Corey Rose chatted with Dr. Rosemarie Allen, the station’s “race and equity expert.” Allen’s doctorate is in Equity and Leadership in Education; she is the president and CEO for the nonprofit Institute for Racial Equity and Excellence which licenses child care providers in Colorado. In the 1.3-minute video below, Dr. Allen asserted that trauma impacts child development, and this new training will give teachers “amazing strategies.” Analysis The premise of TIP is based on several controversial assertions. (1) It is based on the ideology that trauma permanently damages the brain and derails child development, neither of which are proven. (2) The concept of TIP is not a clear or testable theory. TIP can be any or all of the following: train professionals, professional self-care, educate victims, teach coping skills, tweak customer service to avoid retraumatizing victims, arrange environments to make people feel safer, include trauma victims in advisory roles, track customer satisfaction outcomes, communicate between service areas, allow drop-in service, change hiring practices, create women-only environments, and, of course, direct clinical care to treat trauma symptoms. Many of these do not represent evident mechanisms or effective paths to improve victim outcomes. (3) Besides direct clinical care, the interventions by themselves or in combination have not been shown to consistently improve mental health or learning outcomes. Nearly all the non-clinical studies on TIP have measured perceptions of professionals on whether they believe they and/or their workplace are better informed or more competent. (4) In regards to school settings, it is controversial whether teachers ought to be assuming responsibilities that have previously belonged only to parents to intervene in social and emotional issues outside their scope of expertise. The Colorado legislature estimated the cost of this program to the state to be between $8,000 to $600,000. Why Is This Happening? Despite assertions by supporters, TIP is not an empirically-driven scientific model. It is an ideological-based movement consistent with progressive leftist ideas that humans are highly malleable. Statutes like this have been adopted in a growing number of states and cities to authorize government interventions in a wide range of environments. Direct clinical trauma care, based on evidence, and delivered with common sense of sensitive and empathic professionals, has been commonly available for over three decades. What’s new in TIP is the mandate to train non-clinical professionals and trauma victims on an ideology, embed this model into statute, and create new administrative agencies and infrastructures that will inevitably increase in size and cost over time. Like Trauma Dispatch? You can subscribe to our email notices of new posts on this page. Comments are closed.
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