REDMOND, OR -- The job of local educators is getting increasingly more difficult, as more students experience traumatic family events. Desiree Margo, Principal of Redmond’s Early Learning Center, says trauma can often lead to behavior problems in school.

"Trauma is an exceptional experience in which a powerful and dangerous event overwhelms a person’s capacity to cope. We’re working with children from zero to five and so trauma can look very different in a variety of ways." She says for some, it’s disruptive classroom behavior; others may show signs of learning disabilities because they lack appropriate communication skills, "Because trauma affects the brain and it affects behavior; it can," Margo tells KBND News, "And the questions we’re asking are, ‘what’s changed in society? In our community? In our own lives?’ And then the next question we ask is, ‘what can we do? What can educators do? What do we have control over?’ and, ‘What can our parents do?’"

She believes the problem is getting worse, "What is the change? What’s happening before they come to us? And, one of the things I’d just like to throw out there is ‘distraction by device.’ And, I think we really have to start talking about this as a society an as a community." Margo wants to see more parents and educators talking about trauma and how it affects kids, and to partner to find solutions.