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Lawsuit against Compton Unified School District poses question: Can trauma be a disability?

Kimberly Cervantes is one of five students in Compton suing the school district, alleging school administrators refused to provide help to address trauma physical and emotional trauma they'd suffered and that hurt their education.
Kimberly Cervantes is one of five students in Compton suing the school district, alleging school administrators refused to provide help to address trauma physical and emotional trauma they'd suffered and that hurt their education.
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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/KPCC
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Lawsuit against Compton Unified School District poses question: Can trauma be a disability?

(Files from NPR) - The defendants may be one Southern California school district and its top officials, but an unprecedented, class action lawsuit could have a big impact on schools across the country.

Thursday in Los Angeles, a U.S. District Court judge will preside over the first hearing in the suit against the Compton Unified School District alleging that CUSD didn’t provide adequate support to students who had experienced severe trauma, and often reacted by punishing instead of helping.

For more on the story and to read the full complaint, click HERE.

Guests:

Susan Ko, co-managing director at the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress and a clinical psychologist

Kelly Vaillancourt Strobach, a school psychologist and director of government relations for the National Association of School Psychologists based in Maryland