WHY FELT SAFETY IS CRUCIAL IN THE CLASSROOM

Is your classroom a safe place for your students? You’ve probably done all of these:

• Worked to keep dangerous materials where children can’t get them 
• Planned a fire escape route 
• Learned procedures in case of an intruder in the building 
• Prepared to prevent bullying 
• Developed an effective behavior management plan 

If so, you’ve worked hard to provide a safe environment! But you will likely have students who don’t feel safe. 

Felt safety is different from actual safety. Even though you take many steps to keep your students safe and are determined to protect them while they are in your care, students who have experienced traumatic events will often continue to feel unsafe. This is due to the effects of trauma on the brain. 

Children who experience early or abuse or neglect—or repeated, complex developmental trauma—tend to live through those times with heightened levels of cortisol, the body’s stress hormone. Their experiences placed them in “survival mode,” which means the amygdala (the brain’s warning system) was in overdrive, making the child hyper-vigilant, always on the lookout for danger. This causes profound changes in the brain that can even been seen through brain imaging. Children with complex developmental trauma will have enlarged amygdalas, easily triggered into warning them of impending danger. They will also have less activity in the prefrontal cortex—the “thinking center” of the brain—because when the amygdala is activated, the prefrontal cortex no longer processes information in a rational, logical way. 

When children’s amygdalas are in overdrive, their brains’ early warning systems can be triggered by many unexpected things: a loud or harsh voice from an adult or another child; a difficult school assignment, a test, or a bad grade; someone looking at the child in a way that seems unkind; an unexpected event or transition; certain smells, tastes, or textures; and countless other things. Once triggered, the amygdala tells the brain to combat the danger by going into fight, flight, or freeze mode. Here is how each of these would look in the classroom:

Fight

• Yelling  
• Being physically aggressive (hitting, kicking, biting, spitting, pushing) 
• Throwing objects 
• Destroying property 
• Glaring 
• Clasping fists as if ready to fight 

Flight

• Running from the classroom or the school 
• Appearing restless 
• Eyes darting 
• Making excuses to get away 
• Avoiding school 
• Locking themselves in the bathroom 

Freeze

• Withdrawing from others 
• Not speaking 
• Covering their face 
• Hiding 
• Shutting down 
• Escaping into their own thoughts 
• Feeling numb 
• Refusing to attempt schoolwork 

Students who are not feeling safe are not ready to learn. My next post will cover specific ways to help your students achieve felt safety. It can take time to students with over-active amygdalas feel safe, but working on this will be time well-spent.