Nixa Public Schools and the Nixa Police Department are working together to help kids who might have experienced trauma.
Through a statewide program, if law enforcement encounters a child during a call, the child’s name and three words “Handle with Care” are sent to the child’s school before the first bell rings the next day. The district isn’t given details – just that a child was present during law enforcement contact.
The message is sent to the counselor, the principal and nurse at the school, and they send the message to the classroom teacher, “so they know when the child comes to school that next morning or the morning of, depending on the time that law enforcement arrived, the kids are just handled with care,” said Ashley Copley, director of student services at Nixa Public Schools. “They’re treated a little bit differently. They’re given a little bit of grace. So, if you have a younger child who is sleeping, we know that something happened. We don’t know the details, nor do we want to know the details. We’re just going to have eyes on that child to make sur that they’re okay and that we’re treating them through those trauma-informed lens.”…