NAMPA - In the case of Parkland, Florida, the shooter was described as a loner, outsider, and troubled student by his fellow peers. Here in Idaho, the Nampa School District is working on a framework to help identify those students who may feel invisible.
“If they're learning that they're not wanted. If they are learning that they're unseen. If they are learning that they're not loved, that will carry through with them,” said Central Elementary 5th grade teacher Kaylee Verstoppen.
Faculty, like Verstoppen, at Central Elementary School are working to ensure that doesn’t happen.
“We're hoping through this program and through making those identifications of those students that might have slipped under the cracks a little that we can build that relationship with them,” said Verstoppen.
The framework is called Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports, also known as PBIS. The schoolwide approach teaches students how to be kind, respectful, and responsible.
“How to act. How to sit. How to look people in the eye. How to talk kindly. How to be respectful,” said Verstoppen.
Every morning, classrooms hold morning meetings where students greet each other, share stories, and play a few games. The framework looks to help students build relationships with not only each other, but their teachers.
“They have just seen a huge change in the relationship building between students,” said Verstoppen.
Central Elementary Principal Tami Vandeventer says her school also saw a need to help address those students dealing with trauma.
“We've done some activities around finding our invisible kids, the kids that we need to reach out to and bring to the forefront so that they do feel included,” said Vandeventer.
One of those activities, included writing every students name on a piece of paper and asking teachers if they could say something about every student.
“We could see who those kids were that maybe got pushed under the rug a little or were just sitting back a little timidly and not being brought out, and we really are going to start focusing on them, and now these teachers are aware and we can start bringing them out of the shadows,” said Verstoppen.
The framework is helping to identify why those students are in the background and why they’ve gone unnoticed.
“What we're trying to do is bring them back out so that we're not having these traumatized students go through school, sliding through the cracks, to where when they do act out, it's in a big way. We're helping them feel good about themselves and be productive citizens,” said Vendeventer.
Currently, there are 15 schools within the Nampa School District that work under the PBIS framework; three of those schools are doing trauma sensitive training. However, the district is hoping to expand.