Paper Tiger or Real Tiger?

DAYTON—On Monday evening, Jennie Dickinson, Media Chairperson for the Coalition for Youth and Families, and Sergio Hernandez, from the Walla Walla Valley Children’s Resilience Initiative, hosted a screening of the documentary film Paper Tigers at the Liberty Theater, with a question and answer session afterward.

Paper Tigers follows several students at Lincoln Alternative High School in Walla Walla for one year after a new model for approaching discipline was put into practice when LAHS Principal Jim Sporleder attended an educational conference in 2010 and learned that brains that are stressed can’t learn.

The term paper tiger refers to the “fight or flight” phenomenon where a person is in continuous fight or flight mode and can no longer tell the difference between a “paper tiger” and a real tiger.

Neuroscience has shown that students who experience long-term toxic stress, caused by adverse childhood experiences (ACES) such as poverty, parental substance abuse, sexual assault, and homelessness, can lead to a myriad of behavior and health problems for students and poor life outcomes over time.

With that in mind, Sporleder and his staff at LAHS instituted the new treatment approach for their students, predicated on the fact that one stable, caring person in a child’s life can offset the effects of ACES.

The staff at LAHS began to approach problematic behavior in a non-punitive, trauma-informed way, and began working with the students to help them develop resilience – the ability to bounce back from adverse childhood experiences.

Academics took a back seat on the list of priorities at LAHS while the staff concentrated on the individual health of each student.

The new model has shown great promise in breaking the cycles of poverty, drug abuse, violence and disease that affects students and their families. At the end of the 2013 school year at LAHS there were 60% fewer office referrals and a five-fold increase in graduation rates – a direct result of the new approach to discipline.

After viewing the film, audience members were asked about their experiences working with students. Many felt that identifying at-risk students before high school, and as early as the third grade, would be more beneficial.

Several suggestions were made about how to get the community involved in helping students. Mentoring programs such as 4-H, utilizing faith-based and other service organizations were proposed.

Co-host Hernandez suggested that priority could be given to asking school board members for direction, especially in light of the upcoming levy. Money could be set aside to develop programs incorporating ACES/Resilience, he said.

At the close of the evening co-host Dickinson challenged audience members to “be the one to make a difference”.

On Friday, Students Helping Each Other (SHEO) will host another screening of Paper Tigers for students and staff, at Dayton high school.

For more information about ACES/Resilience visit: http://www.resiliencetrumpsaces.org , http://www.cccyf.org, or call the Coalition for Youth and Families at (509) 382-1511

To access a panel discussion for Paper Tigers go to: http://livestream.com/TheNewSchool/paper-tigers-panel-discussion-with-the-filmmaker.