Q&A Teaching after Columbine: Columbine High School sign - cement center with red brick pillars - in 2012, on grass slope with evergreen trees in background.

Q&A: This Colorado teacher survived Columbine. Here’s how she prioritizes trauma-informed practices.

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When Heather Martin was a senior in high school, she survived the Columbine High School shooting that killed 12 students and one teacher in Littleton, Colorado. Even as she tried to move on with her life, she carried the trauma of that day inside her — often in ways that surprised her.

The following year, during a community college class, she burst into tears during a routine fire drill, confused and embarrassed by her emotional reaction.

“I hadn’t remembered, until that very moment, that the fire alarm had been going off while I was barricaded for three hours before the SWAT team came,” she said.

She also struggled with panic attacks, an eating disorder, and insensitive comments from instructors. Eventually, Martin dropped out of college.

Today, Martin is a high school English teacher who prioritizes making her students feel safe and giving them the tools to understand and cope with trauma. She’s also the executive director of The Rebels Project, a nonprofit that supports survivors of mass tragedy.

No school suspension: Two rows of many empty, long tables on pale blue or bright orange with attached benches are in a covered cemented area, with several people lined up single file in aisle between them

What happens when suspensions get suspended?

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The Los Angeles school district’s decade-old ban on suspensions for ‘willful defiance’ has benefited students — but also required a major investment in less punitive discipline methods.

With the increase in student misbehavior after the pandemic, LAUSD’s experience offers insight into whether banning suspensions is effective. The district’s results have been positive: Data suggests that schools didn’t become less safe, more chaotic or less effective, as critics had warned.

Parents of teen charged in school shooting to stand trial: middle-aged white man and woman in facemasks sit at hearing

The parents paying for their children’s crimes

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In separate trials earlier this year, Jennifer and James Crumbley became the first parents in U.S. history to be convicted of involuntary manslaughter for a mass shooting committed by their child. They were each sentenced to 10–15 years in prison, the maximum penalty for the crime. Prosecutors argued the Crumbleys ignored urgent warning signs that their son Ethan was having violent thoughts, and that the parents provided access to the gun he used to kill four classmates and injure seven other people at his school in November 2021.

Prison No Education: Black man in dark winter jacket, hat and pants stands leaning against front of bright red semi-truck parked next to a white semi-truck on asphalt parking lot under gray, rainy sky

Many states don’t educate people sentenced to life. Now some are coming home.

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When Yusef Qualls-El was 17, a judge sentenced him to life behind bars. It was the mid-1990s, an era when the U.S. prison population exploded. Thousands of minors like Qualls-El received sentences of life without parole and entered prison at an age when their peers were going to college or starting their careers. But inside, education is often reserved for those who will soon return to society. As a result, those who were seen as the least likely to get out had the fewest opportunities.

Tennessee arms teachers: Several adults stand and sit in balcony gallery area, many holding signs with language protesting arming teachers in schools

Amid clamor from protesters, Tennessee Senate passes bill to arm some teachers

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Amid outbursts from gun control advocates in the spectator gallery, Tennessee’s GOP-dominated Senate passed a bill Tuesday to allow some teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns in public schools. The vote was 26-5 vote along partisan lines. Lt. Gov. McNally ordered the gallery cleared after issuing several warnings to protestors before the vote, but many refused to leave, despite the urging of state troopers and warnings that they could be arrested.

Restorative justice: Several high school students sit in a circle of chairs having a discussion

Breaking walls, building bridges: A call for restorative justice in school discipline

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Imagine waking up each morning with no hope for the day ahead, navigating a minefield of potential conflicts with your body on high alert. That was my reality as a marginalized youth — misunderstood, labeled as a troublemaker and cast out without a chance to reconcile and evolve. Growing up with anxiety in school is an all-too-common experience that perpetuates a cycle of fear and resentment. It’s time to acknowledge and address this narrative that adversely affects our youth’s learning experiences and the education system. Restorative justice programs are part of the solution.

Juvenile detention populations low: Young black teen lies on bed with legs propped up on wall on cot in empty room with grey cement floor and white walls

Tennessee lawmakers want more oversight of juvenile detention. The Department of Children’s Services is pushing back.

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The commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services publicly said this month that the agency was working with lawmakers to address oversight gaps at juvenile detention facilities across the state. But behind the scenes, the department is working to water down a bill that would do just that, according to one of the bill’s sponsors and others working on the legislation.

Ryan Gainer - When police encounters with autistic people turn fatal: a police officer walks away from a San Bernardino sheriff's car with gun in hand

When police encounters with autistic people turn fatal

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Last Saturday, a San Bernardino sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Ryan Gainer, an autistic Black 15-year-old, outside his home in Apple Valley, California. The shooting, which is under investigation, came after Gainer chased the deputy with a large bladed garden tool, according to police and body camera footage released by the department. The teen’s family had called 911 when he became upset during a disagreement, broke a glass door and struck a relative. They told CNN that by the time deputies arrived, Ryan had calmed down and apologized.