Content Warning: discussion of abuse (mainly emotional abuse)
By Eryn Star, NCIL Summer Policy Intern
In Spring 2018, the first known survey on the prevalence of k-12 teachers abusing students (all kinds of students, not just disabled) was released. It was an online survey from Northern Michigan University directed at a little over 1,000 teachers who were asked about the kinds of abusive behavior they have observed from the teachers around them. The results are important for everyone to see and validate what many education trauma survivors have been saying for years.
When asked how often they have seen teachers yelling at a student and embarrassing them publicly, most of the teachers responded 1-2 times with some responding 3-4 times or even 10 or more times. Never seeing those acts from teachers was rare. When the teachers were asked how many teachers in their school emotionally abuse students, only 14% said none. Furthermore, one in five teachers said that more than 10% of the teachers in their schools regularly target students. As much as we want to believe that educators would never do this to children and teens, teacher abuse of students happens much more often than society is ready to acknowledge and address. What resonated with me and confirmed what I’ve suspected for a long time is that the students targeted most by teachers were those with cognitive impairments with “other” a close second. When “other” respondents were asked to expand on who they witnessed being targeted, 1/3 said students of color, queer students, and English language learners. As an autistic queer student, it reminds me of my own experiences with education trauma.
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Centers for Independent Living (CILs) are required to support young people with disabilities as they transition to adulthood. This “new” core service is hardly new anymore, but many of us are still trying to figure out the best ways to address it. Join us in September to learn how one CIL has built excellent youth transition services for young people in their community – and turned them into revenue generators for their CIL. LVCIL (Lehigh Valley Center for Independent Living) has spent a decade building programs for young people with disabilities, and getting paid by VR, schools, and other funding sources to do it. Our presenters will share the details of their programs, lessons learned along the way, and how you can get started or expand this work in your area.
Two years ago, your support made it possible for me to attend the NCIL conference. Now, I’m asking for your support again, to enable other young people to attend our conference. Times are hard and budgets are tight for everyone. Unfortunately, we simply don’t have the funds to extend scholarships to all the deserving youth that have applied.
