Trauma and Learning: Creating a Culture of Educational Access for Inner City Communities Comments 53 University of San Francisco Law Review 2019

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53 U.S.F. L. Rev. 77 (2019)
Trauma and Learning: Creating a Culture of Educational Access for Inner City Communities

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Comments

Trauma and Learning: Creating a

Culture of Educational Access for Inner

City Communities

By MARSHAL ARNWINE JR.*

How CAN SOCIETY EXPECT children to focus on performing well
in school when they are worried about making it home safely due to
gang violence and negative encounters with law enforcement? The sit-
uations mentioned above describe daily traumatic experiences for
some of the youth in America. Trauma serves as a detriment to a stu-
dent's ability to learn by altering the physiology of a child's develop-
ing brain and creating a neurobiological response that impairs the
performance of daily activities, especially educationally relevant skills
like thinking, reading, concentrating, learning, and regulating emo-
tions.' Studies have shown, for example, that when children are ex-
posed to violence they have decreased reading ability, lower grade
point averages, more school absences, and are less likely to obtain a
high school diploma.2 Unaddressed trauma is a powerful predictor of
academic failure.3

* J.D., University of San Francisco School of Law (2018); B.A., University of
California, Santa Cruz (2015). The author is a man of Christian faith who is passionately
pursuing a career as a Public Defender. He dedicates this Comment to every traumatic
childhood story that goes untold. The author battles daily to cope with childhood trauma
he experienced while being raised in Compton, California and wants inner-city youth to
know they are not alone. He wants them to know that.there are healthy avenues to address
trauma and live victorious lives. The author thanks his late beloved grandmother Annie
Arnwine, whose legacy inspired him to write this Comment. He also would like to thank
the following community for their support in his research and writing phases: Luke Boso,
Amy Wright, Christina Chong, LaTasha Hill, and Keani Christian.
1. Complaint at 2, Peter P. v. Compton Unified Sch. Dist., 135 F. Supp. 3d 1126
(C.D. Cal. 2015) (No. LA CV 15-3726-MWF (PLAx)), 2015 WL 2393294.
2. Id.
3. Id.

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