Crisis in the Classroom: Educators examine intervention training processes after two Corsicana, Texas teachers injured by students at same school

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - More than half of our teachers say they’ve witnessed, or been the target of, physical violence at the hands of their students. That’s according to a 2022 American Psychological Association study that’s hitting close to home in Central Texas.

In less than a year, two local educators were injured in student violence that landed them in the hospital, with scars that could keep them from ever returning to the classroom.

“He found a hanger and he threw that and I couldn’t block that fast enough and it caught me in my eye and knocked it out,” Candra Rogers, who was the Assistant Principal of Collins Intermediate School in Corsicana ISD, said during a press conference in August, after the student attack left her blinded in one eye.

And it was a matter of weeks before we were outside the same school after yet another educator was attacked.

“The chair hit the floor, and it came rolling at me, and I went a little bit faster. I tripped, broke my left arm, my wrist,” said Carol Tidwell, a former paraprofessional at Collins Intermediate School, who was hurt during a student outburst.

Two cases, one school where teachers were working with special needs students who turned violent.

Chris Griffin in the Director of special education at Region 12, a non-profit that aims to work with educators to improve student outcomes, and his department focuses solely on improving the lives of students in special education and with emotional disabilities.

“We have 15 people on our staff that help provide special education technical assistance, training, professional development, and instructional coaching to a broad range of educators who work with students with disabilities,” Griffin explains.

Not all training offered through Region 12 is required by the state, the non-profit uses guidance from the state to provide an extra opportunity for educators to learn tactics that are specific to their classroom’s different needs. And in some cases, how to reduce potential violent outcomes.

“Trainings that are specific around autism, intellectual disabilities, emotional disabilities. We do de-escalation training for instances where students do start to have an issue,” Griffin says.

Region 12 offers the De-escalation in the Classroom training once a month, which zones in on how to handle students in distress.

“Our de-escalation training is really focused on what we can do as educators to help de-escalate a situation before it gets to a point that it might become physical. And what can we do with a student to help them cope and even help educators cope in that situation so they kind of prevent that from happening,” Griffin says.

Over at the Heart of Texas Cooperative, they provide special education services to six smaller districts in McLennan and Coryell counties. Kevin Harrington, the Director of Special Education there, says that the news out of Corsicana ISD sent shockwaves through every district.

“That brings it back home to us because. We want to make sure we are taking care of our people and our staff, too,” Griffin explains. “What we try to do here is to be proactive with that as well, and when we hear those stories we think ‘Okay, what else do we need to be looking at?’ so that we can provide that extra training and provide extra support for our students, teachers and staff.”

Region 12 also offers a Nonviolent Crisis Intervention training, designed to help teachers respond to defensive behavior and teach them physical disengagement skills.

It’s a training that districts under the Heart of Texas Co-op take part in every year for special education teachers.

“It is a restraint training, if students here are harming themselves or others. A big part of that training is what’s called post intervention and what happens after an incident and how we take care of our staff, and how we take care of our students,” Harrington explains.

Taylor Hill is the Behavior Intervention Coordinator at the Co-op who works through the de-escalation process with teachers in her districts.

“That de-escalation process, having a plan, having a plan for yourself and the whole team who interacts with the student to be on the same page and have the same language,” she says. “Kind of script through this is what we are going to do next, would like to have and then give them options. Not saying it works for every kid, it’s not black and white, it’s very grey.”

Hill says on a day to day basis, they really work on interpersonal relationships with students who need extra attention and the staff members who work with these kids the most.

“Making sure that we’re using the right interventions to address each behavior, that’s hard. It’s really difficult to do so I hope I help give them those tools. I call them tools for their toolbox, but interventions to help them throughout the day with that kiddo,” Hill says.

Back at Region 12, Griffin agrees that it’s a grey area as every students responds differently to authority which is why they continue to alter their training services as they learn more about what students need.

“The state helps provide some guidance and resources that we use to help make our training, to help bolster our training, to help make sure that what we’re providing is evolving with time as we learn more about student behaviors and the circumstances behind them,” Griffin says.

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