FARMINGTON – Increasingly, school staff members are faced with students in crisis that display disruptive behaviors and sometimes engage in dangerous physical acts of violence to the detriment of a classroom’s learning environment.
To find an answer to the question of what to do when a student acts out, 60 staff members of the Mt. Blue Regional School District recently completed an intensive training session on the latest in crisis prevention and intervention methods.
Two of the district’s special education teachers, Patti Belanger and Eric Nichols, are certified Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) trainers who provided a full week of instruction and another refresher session for those who had already received training.
Refresher sessions are offered every six months in the district. Those attending sign up on their own accord. So far, 70 staff members, including administrators, teachers, and support staff members, have received training during the last school year.
Originally developed by Cornell University for residential child care facilities like Spurwink of Portland and now adapted for use in schools, the TCI system trains professionals working with children in methods toward averting a crisis situation and it also offers protocols on crisis intervention.
“It’s an effective system that proactively manages a crisis,” Nichols explained.
The training teaches how to effectively communicate, both verbally and non-verbally, on the advent of a crisis. It suggests several alternative measures with physical restraint being the last resort and used only when someone’s safety is in imminent danger.
“It’s a huge deal when you put your hands on a student,” he said. Belanger noted a lot of trauma goes with using a restraint.
Instead of the use of restraints, the training stresses the importance of building a solid relationship with the students that includes learning about their life outside the classroom, their personal interests like watching Red Sox games. Getting to know the student well means being able to connect feelings expressed to the behavior exhibited.
“You have to build a relationship, because the teacher may be the most consistent person in their lives,” Belanger said.
In that same vein, TCI teaches the importance of recognizing triggers a student may have that have led to a crisis in the past and uses intervention methods towards averting another crisis.
Instead of ordering a student to stop kicking others, ask them “what else can you do?” Coming up with their own solution acknowledges a student’s frustration and allows them control over an alternative behavior that is safe to perform.
“It’s important to work to establish a relationship with the student, to be an active listener,” Nichols said. Supportive teaching methods include managing the environment,” Belanger added. Making sure every student has a seat, no one is too cold or too hot, and so on may be trigger if not met.
It also means planning activities in which the teacher knows the student will want to engage in like a math problem that involves baseball scores for the avid Red Sox fan.
The overall objective is to move away from the use of restraints through use of proactive methods. Much of TCI teaches alternatives and the appropriate language for all ages of students.
“Kids aren’t just having crises in special education classes,” he noted. Nichols, who teaches in a K-2 special education classroom at W.G. Mallett School and Belanger, who is a day treatment teacher at Mt. Blue High School, both came to the district on 2011.
In those four years, the teachers have seen a marked increase in the number of students and frequencies of crisis episodes at their respective schools.
“Kids are coming in with less of everything,” Nichols said. “There are fewer math and language skills, zero social skills, zero self-awareness skills.” There’s been a leap each year in the number of incidents reported, that include injuries or unacceptable classroom behavior that requires a range of administrative action.
Both noted a difficult life at home or nobody at home as possible reasons for the escalation in behavioral issues seen at school. The six hours at school-only a quarter of each day- is spent with educational professionals who are now using TCI and positive behavioral techniques to train students to not only be better prepared educationally, but socially when they’re out in the community.
“There’s no reason every student can’t be successful,” Nichols said.
just curious how does this crisis training effect students who come in with a specialized crisis plan do the teachers use your techniques or are they taught to refer to the crisis plan
Therapeutic Crisis Intervention states that there must be three criteria met in order for a physical intervention to be implemented: Agency or state policies allow for the use of physical restraint, the young person’s Individual Crisis Management Plan indicates that physical restraint can be used, and there is an imminent risk of acute injury. In Maine, Chapter 33 guidelines allow for the use of physical restraint.
Teachers trained in T.C.I., are only allowed to use the interventions taught through Therapeutic Crisis Intervention. However, if a student comes to a school with an Individual Crisis Management Plan (or I.C.M.P), already in place the I.C.M.P must followed. If the I.C.M.P contains physical interventions that are not T.C.I certified, best practice would be for the child’s crisis management team to meet upon entry of school, or as soon as reasonably possible,and modify the plan. Individual Crisis Management Plans are meant to be revisited. Data collection should drive the interventions on the plan and therefore the plan should change to meet the needs of the student.
This sounds like a good program, but on the other hand parents still need to raise and teach respect and self-control at home. So many people depend on someone else to raise their children. Maybe parenting classes would be a plus also. Or maybe the children should take the parenting classes and raise their parents.
Thank you for answering me but curious yet again where can I get more info on this program
Mr. Dunham……I definitely agree with your comments about parents needing to teach their children respect and to not expect to have someone else RAISE their children. However, that’s not always where the issues lay. My child needed crisis intervention on a daily basis. It was not because of lack of caring and teaching at home. My child truly has some behavior problems. My child is behind in her academics because of some learning disabilities. One of them are not diagnosed as “lack of respect or bad parenting syndrome”. I am at the school every time my child has a problem. I have quit my job to be there for my child. I’m thinking that PROBABLY what you meant to say is SOME parents may need to work on their parenting skills.
@ MallettMom thats exactly what was meant by my comment,
Having been a teacher for over 40 years, I fully agree with your comment, Mr.Nichols, “There’s no reason every student can’t be successful.” Children in crisis require adults who are caring, have a vested interested in the success of the child, and exemplify professionalism at all times. If a child failed, I failed as his/her teacher. Many behaviors are NOT due to parenting skills. But it does take parents, teachers, and the student to remediate these behaviors and develop a plan and classroom environment conducive to learning.
I commend all who attended to work to make a difference in the lives of students.
Thank you Mr. Dunham. I’m very excited about the training the teachers have been able to attend to help these children. I would never think about having my child attend any other school for her special needs. I want her to learn and feel successful in what she is doing and WG Mallett is helping her achieve that. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication.
I think training in how to handle crises is great, though I think we should problem-solve around these questions: WHY are the students acting out? Or, HOW can we help them to manage their frustrations before they get to a crisis point?
Too often we blame the parents, with SOME of them being the cause if problematic behaviors. We demand “why don’t parents teach their kids respect, etc…?” Maybe they do. Maybe they try. But once students get to school, they’re under the influence of teachers and other peers, not their parents. Is there something happening at school that is creating, or exacerbating, a student’s struggles?
How about we teach kids how to cope, rather than having to wait until they’re in crisis? Let’s address the root of the problem rather than the outcome of it.
Every person a child has contact with is a guide, a teacher, an example. Children are taught by each one of us, not just their parents. How can we assist them in LEARNING the skills, rather than just demanding that the “be respectful, grow up, stop, etc.”?
I don’t think you can ever go wrong in investing in schools and teachers ability to help kids learn sustainable life skills and get a full education. Even if a kid has fabulous parenting, fact remains that their parent does not attend school with them! Let’s face it, kids spend 1/2 their day at school with groups of others kids …we all know even kids who know how to behave at home will try pushing boundaries with their pack of peers at school.
For kids with challenging home life, school can become their safe place, their place to learn life skills and make connections that may help them to a healthy life, work lifestyle in the future.
Investing in schools, teachers and kids is money well spent. It’s investing in the future of the community.
It would have been great when I was in 1st through 4th grade to have this kind of help 50 years ago or so. But it did not exist. No one knew what to do with me, so labeled me. It was a horrid home life but no one understood then. When my mother died, I was ten. I had a teacher who was fantastic, caring, strict but loving as well and disciplined without touching me. Talked to the people who were caring for me. Found out I was unable to hear well, could not see and needed glasses, teeth work and support. I was ten and I still could not read or write well or do math or tell time. I caught up in a year and a half. Mrs. Hinckley in Livermore was my teacher. I saw her a few years before she passed and thanked her for all she did and we cried together. I made it through two colleges and got my degrees and graduated high in my classes. That is only one teacher and back in 1962. I still have my issues but try to do my best, even with many disabilities. Thanks to teachers everywhere.