Pro/con: Teachers should provide trigger warnings

Teachers should provide trigger warnings

PRO

Ellie Fischman Incoming Opinion Editor

CESJDS prioritizes instilling the Jewish values of empathy and gemilut chasadim, acts of loving-kindness, in its students. From the time that I was in elementary school, I have distinct memories of teachers instructing us on ways to be conscientious of the people around us. Now, I propose that JDS teachers take another tangible action to practice empathy and gemilut chasadim.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, more than twothirds of children reported at least one traumatic event by the age of 16. This statistic is overwhelming. As students, although we exist in an isolated environment for five days a week, many of us have real-life experiences that affect our mental state every day.

A trigger warning, which Oxford defines as a statement at the start of a piece of writing, video, etc. alerting that it contains potentially distressing material, is an easy way to mitigate the possibility that a student may experience a physical response to upsetting material. Most students can ignore a trigger warning. They can shrug it off and continue with the material. However, for students with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other anxiety-related disorders, triggering topics can induce physical symptoms like dizziness, shortness of breath, flashbacks, troubled sleep or panic attacks. A simple trigger warning can give students a chance to mentally prepare themselves in order to prevent a lesson from causing these reactions.

This isn’t meant to be a copout of the material. In fact, it is often counterproductive for people with trauma to entirely avoid topics that remind them of that trauma. However, the trigger warning shouldn’t be for the purpose of avoiding the topic; it is more to give people time to mentally prepare themselves. According to the American Psychological Association, reminders of trauma are more anxiety-inducing when they occur without warning. Therefore, trigger warnings can make reminders of trauma less anxiety-inducing. For instance, in one class, we were discussing suicide and the teacher did not provide a trigger warning. For context, I have been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and this topic can be triggering to me. During this discussion, I found myself stuttering every time I tried to speak and my heart was pounding. With a trigger warning, I could “Trigger warnings will help the JDS community foster a safer learning environment for students who have mental health conditions. Anxiety can make people feel powerless and trigger warnings help us get that power back.”

have prepared myself and powered through, but I felt completely blindsided. I left the class and hyperventilated for roughly five minutes before I could return. I chose to not discuss it with the teacher afterward because I wanted to avoid having another anxiety attack. Although this is my personal experience, I think that other students can relate. According to the National Institute of Health, nearly one-third of children ages 13-18 experience an anxiety disorder.

Teachers do not have to provide a trigger warning for every piece of reading material or discussion. It doesn’t have to be a long conversation. They can just say, “By the way, this discusses [relevant issue] in case that is triggering to you,” especially for material discussing topics like domestic abuse, suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, sexual assault, etc. It’s that simple.

In the end, trigger warnings will help the JDS community foster a safer learning environment for students who have mental health conditions. Anxiety can make people feel powerless and trigger warnings help us get that power back.

Should trigger warnings be used in classrooms?

Yes

No

I’m not sure

46.8% 19.4%%

33.9%

Data from JDS survey of 62 high school students

Daniela Abrams Incoming Editor-in-Chief

The last thing I want is for students to be put in triggering situations. Many think the best way to avoid intensely negative emotional reactions is by providing trigger warnings in classroom settings. However, requiring teachers to provide trigger warnings will further sensitize students to certain subjects, making them less prepared for future life events, therefore, weakening their ability to deal with difficult situations. Trigger warnings further stigmatize topics that can sometimes be considered taboo. For example, if a teacher provides a trigger warning stating that a character in a book shows signs of a mental illness such as depression, it creates this stigma around the character signifying that depression is a dangerous or touchy subject. But stigmas are precisely the opposite of our goal. We want to normalize discussions about these uncomfortable topics, instead of disconnecting them from everyday conversations. In addition, if teachers provide trigger warnings, they are only

CON

given a couple of seconds before the topic is mentioned, an ineffective amount of time to mentally prepare if one feels affected by the mention of a particular topic. If students are unable to mentally prepare themselves in time, they may choose to leave the classroom in response to a trigger warning. However, this is an ineffective strategy as it isolates students from their class and prevents them from engaging in what could be a meaningful discussion. Throughout high school, many classes cover difficult topics, ranging from mental illnesses to the Holocaust. Upon beginning a course, students are given a syllabus to make them aware of the material that will be covered. Therefore, it should not be expected for a teacher to provide a trigger warning at the start of each lesson that covers a difficult topic.

Furthermore, trigger warnings foster unrealistic expectations about the world, lessening resilience among younger children. Throughout the teenage years and early adulthood, everybody encounters uncomfortable situations. These may range from a difficult conversation with a boss or the mention of trauma in the form of movies, casual conversations or books. The expectation to always have a warning before an uncomfortable situation takes place leaves students unprepared to deal with these types of circumstances. We should be properly teaching our youth how to navigate these uncomfortable situations, rather than avoid or stigmatize them.

According to a study conducted by the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, “trigger warnings might iatrogenically (induced by medical treatment) reinforce the importance of past traumatic events for the very people they were originally designed to help.” A different study conducted by Benjamin W. Bellet, Richard J. Mcnally and Payton J. Jones at Harvard University found that trigger warnings undermined patients’ understanding of their resilience to potential future traumatic events, leading to increased anxiety reactions to the material.

Trigger warnings are proving to accomplish the exact opposite of what they aim to do, which is to protect trauma survivors from experiencing anxiety at the mention of uncomfortable subjects. We cannot let them spread into the classroom.

BY THE NUMBERS

58.6%

of CESJDS students have heard a trigger warning from a teacher at least once.

42.1%

of JDS students find at least one topic to be triggering.

21

topics were identifed by students to be particularly triggering.

What topics do JDS students find to be the most triggering?

1. Suicide/death 6. Shootings 2. Hate crimes 7. Blood/gore 3. Sexual assault 8. Rape 4. Eating disorders 9. Drug overdoses 5. Self harm 10. Bodily injury