PTSD

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is often associated with single, catastrophic events—but in school settings, it can emerge from repeated exposure to environments where a child feels unsafe, powerless, or misinterpreted. For neurodivergent students, especially those who are punished for behaviours rooted in distress, the classroom can become a chronic source of trauma.
PTSD may not look like what educators expect. It can show up as shutdown, school refusal, hypervigilance, aggression, masking, or emotional numbing. It can be misread as oppositional behaviour, poor attitude, or attention-seeking. And when the school is the source of the trauma, the very system causing harm is often the one documenting “noncompliance.”
This tag gathers writing about PTSD in children, especially as it relates to school-based harm: seclusion, restraint, coercive discipline, ableist gaslighting, and the retraumatising effects of behaviourist strategies. It also includes family trauma—what it means to send your child into a building that dismisses your expertise and ignores your warnings.
PTSD is not rare. It is not theoretical. And it cannot be addressed with stickers, scripts, or “calm corners.” It demands structural change—because no child should be traumatised by the place that claims to educate them.