A student does something wrong.

Instead of thinking, “What is wrong with you?” think, “What happened to you?” Kory Kutzler of Colonial Intermediate Unit 20 told Pleasant Valley School District staff at a trauma awareness training session Friday afternoon.

It’s a mindset change that teachers and staff can make when they become aware that students often act out of unseen hurts.

This was the first of four sessions that the educational services provider will conduct for the school district this school year. Presenters Kutzler and Brigid Messa gave the same training twice, once for Pleasant Valley High School and Middle School staff, and again for the intermediate school and elementary school staff.

The training is for everyone who comes into contact with students, including bus drivers, cafeteria workers and administrators, Director of Pupil Services A.J. Kise, who coordinated the training, said afterward.

Building a relationship with hurting students is a primary way to help them heal, Kutzler said during the training.

“Every one of you has the ability to impact a student far beyond what you’ll ever realize or ever know,” he said.

The first session, Trauma 101, focused on understanding what trauma, such as abuse or neglect, does to a child.

The training drew on the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study conducted in the 1990s that found that people who experienced childhood trauma are more likely to have major health and lifestyle problems throughout their lives.

Further, one in every four schoolchildren has been exposed to a traumatic event that can affect their learning and behavior, according to the NCTSN Child Trauma Toolkit for Educators.

Even families that seem put together can actually be struggling with traumatic issues, Kutzler said.

“We need to get to the place where we’re OK talking about that and accepting that.”

The other three sessions will help staff identify symptoms of trauma in students and in themselves and teach them how to deal with it.

Tools include getting professional help for students, creating a culture in which a child feels safe to speak about problems in his or her life, and being honest with the child about what steps are going to be taken, Kise said.

Trauma-informed training is mandated by the state as of 2018 under Act 44.

Kise is passionate about this issue.

A high number of students at Pleasant Valley need mental health support and services, Kise said.

“These are students, and these are our families. They’re not an ID number,” Kise said. “They are a person, and they are our future. So we need to do whatever we can to support them and have them be successful.”

Kise plans to start holding monthly seminars to provide students’ families information about trauma and other issues such as internet safety and nutrition starting in November.