Janet Damon is a 9th-12th grade history/social studies educator at DELTA High School in Denver, CO. She is also one of the five educators receiving the 2026 Horace Mann Awards for Teaching Excellence.
“I don’t know how you are doing it.” My friend and fellow educator asked me as we walked on an indoor track after school. “I don’t think I can go back to my school. The needs are so high it’s just overwhelming and it feels like there is nothing I can do to change anything.” We met because I sensed that she was starting to experience burnout. We both served students from similar backgrounds, many are immigrants with mixed-status families sometimes the students were born in the U.S. but their parents were more vulnerable.
One of my students is on track to be the first in her family to earn a high school diploma and her family is so proud. But unexpectedly her mother was pulled over for a traffic violation, and the officer gave her a handwritten note telling her to turn herself in to ICE as well as a citation with a court date. My student was inconsolable at the thought of her mother being deported. And with so many videos of parents being arrested near courthouses, her fears were not without valid reason.
As we spoke, I realized how connected these two trauma states are, the trauma that many students are facing as they watch immigrants harassed, arrested, and detained without a transparent process and the mental health of teachers who care deeply about students and families. This is also compounded by students facing increasing food insecurity, housing insecurity, and heartbreaking decisions that come with economic inequality.
Vicarious trauma was coined in the 1980s as the “cost of caring” by Charles Figley, and it is sometimes referred to as secondary traumatic stress or insidious trauma. It happens when people are repeatedly exposed to others’ suffering and can impact many of the helping professions. The high rate of empathy that makes teachers so effective at building relationships can also put them at risk for emotionally absorbing the traumatic experiences of their beloved students. It can present as exhaustion, negative beliefs about others and or the world, and physical symptoms like chronic fatigue, low quality sleep, and a weakened immune system. It also transforms our schools into high-stress environments for teachers working with the most impacted communities and while it differs from burnout, vicarious trauma can have the same result, teachers leaving the profession due to stress and feeling overwhelmed.
As two incredibly caring teachers, we were both struggling with the same worries and concerns, but our schools were approaching the issue in very different ways. Her school pushed the work onto teachers to simply preserve while my school was intentionally designed to support students and teachers.
At my school we work with students who are at-risk of dropping out due to challenges that many did not choose, but that impact their educational journey nonetheless, and put them at risk of dropping out. Issues ranging from the death of a caregiver, housing insecurity, food insecurity, incarceration of a parent or caregiver, anxiety, or having to work to provide additional income for one’s family.
Teachers and staff learn how to be trauma informed but also healing enhanced. I have learned that by creating a culture of care for both students and teachers we can cultivate spaces that are primed for healing, resilience, and collective joy. School can and must become containers for wellbeing that helps us to resist, restore, and reinvigorate ourselves for the world outside of our school doors.
- Cultivate a culture of consistency: Our support begins on day one with our principal, dean of culture, and assistant principal. Our school culture is designed to have consistency and regular routines that help students and staff regulate our nervous systems. Change can be exhausting, especially when rapid changes are happening on a national level without regard to the impact on communities. Our school leaders protect our daily routines, inform students and teachers of changes weeks in advance, and ask for feedback.
- Cultivating joy spaces: Teachers receiving coaching and professional learning about ways to manage our stress and our workloads with our Ms. Paxton, our wellness ambassador and school social worker. We have teacher-led professional learning that always begins with warm welcomes, laughter, and time to reconnect as friends and colleagues. I host a student-led club with mindfulness games and activities. I also lead mini-yoga sessions for teachers to practice somatic self-care during the workday. Our students are engaged in advocacy through fun. Recently they created Tik Toks to support state-wide attendance by working with the social media team at state level.
- Cultivating community: Our family liaison, Ms Chan connects with food banks and will take students to shop for their family and deliver gift baskets and cards so they can be well-resourced. At our Back-to-School night barbershops came to provide free haircuts, we played games with parents and families, building relationships that made parents give a sigh of relief that the teachers and school staff care about them as much as we care about their children.
When students feel safe and families feel supported, we can help to meet their needs. A teacher was able to connect my student with a family friend who is also an immigration lawyer. Through student advocacy and community voice our city has voted to ensure all students have free breakfast and lunch every day.
My school might be unique, but I believe we can create caring spaces that are actively engaged in resisting misguided policies that harm students and families. I believe that every school can be part of the invisible mending of our communities. In time we can replace vicarious trauma with collective healing through community, connection, and a spirit of collaboration.
THE NEA FOUNDATION IS COMMITTED TO FEATURING DIVERSE VOICES AND PERSPECTIVES ABOUT CRITICAL ISSUES FACING PUBLIC EDUCATION, STUDENTS, AND EDUCATORS. THESE VIEWS DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THOSE OF THE NEA FOUNDATION.
