Castleton Center for Schools Course on Trauma-Informed Education Has National Reach

Castleton, VT (11/22/2021) — Author and educator Alex Shevrin Venet is passionate about creating a safe and caring school environment for students of all ages. Venet formerly worked as a school leader and teacher at a small, alternative therapeutic school in Winooski, Vermont. Now she's using the skills she has developed to teach other educators about issues like trauma-informed education, social/emotional learning, and educational equity.

Venet's course, Leadership for Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education, is being offered online this semester through the Castleton University Center for Schools. Students in the class are joining from across Vermont and throughout the country, including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin.

"I first got into trauma-informed education at an alternative school where a lot of our students had experienced trauma. Through expanded networks of talking to other teachers, I realized what we were doing in our little pockets was not really being talked about in the mainstream," she said. "I think trauma-informed education is being discussed in the mainstream today, which is exciting. We're looking at how teachers can use these concepts to work with students who have experienced trauma and are working to make sure school is not a traumatizing place."

Venet, who recently published a book titled "Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education," emphasizes in her class that intervention needs to occur within schools, too.

"This work is not theoretical in any way to these teachers. They are every day going into schools and experience great deals of stress and trauma, but they're also showing up for students dealing with trauma and equity issues at these schools," she said. "These teachers are doing the dreaming and imagining; In an ideal world, what would a school look like that was equity-centered and trauma-informed?"

This is the ninth course Venet has taught in conjunction with the Castleton Center for Schools. She found herself wanting to interact with a small cohort of educators, allowing them to go deeper into their learning and form more meaningful relationships. In 2017, she connected with the Center for Schools' Assistant Director Tara Lidstone to learn more about how she could share her expertise with practicing PreK-12 educators.

"Teaching courses through the Center for Schools is the perfect mix of support and freedom. The team is supportive and helpful," Venet said. "I also have a ton of freedom with course structure and content and design."

Janet Battaile is a special educator at Essex Middle School in Essex, Vermont. Battaile has previously taken courses with Venet and enrolled in this current class because of Venet's extensive experience working in trauma-informed schools.

"Alex is light years ahead of the curve in education. While most people are offering courses where you can learn the basics of trauma-informed practices or equity-centered learning, she has already worked in a school that was both trauma-informed and equity-centered, which allows her to be able to share her first-hand knowledge of the benefits and challenges of putting those theories into practice," Battaile said.

"There are so many things to be changed in schools and it can be overwhelming, but you can find your place within your realm of influence," Venet said. "Systems change isn't linear. Small shifts in the system can create big effects in places you may not even realize. Students come away from the class with one small thing that they really can do."