The Scoop with Tanya Flanagan

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This is a k u NBC Studios original program.

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The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

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Good morning and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Tanya Flanagan. I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me. Here on the scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started.

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Good morning Las Vegas. So welcome to the scoop. Thank you for getting up on another Sunday morning. We are in the month of August. It is amazing how quickly time flies. I cannot believe we are in the homestretch of summer. It is my absolute favorite season. Some people probably think I'm crazy because it's so hot. But it is something about summer nights. I've always loved summer nights even as a young girl. So I do enjoy living here. And I hope that you guys are getting up early in the morning as well and just enjoying a beautiful sunrise when it's cool enough outside to do some yard work or have coffee on your patio or take your pet out for a walk. This morning. We have a great conversation. I have two wonderful women dynamic women in the studio with me today. I'm very pleased to welcome back to the scope. Camila Bywater.

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Thank you for having me.

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Thank you for coming.

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I love being in the space.

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I love talking with you. And I also have Miss Robin Turner.

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Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for having me.

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Thank you. And before we jump into what we're talking about, which is going to be education, trauma, it's we're going to come from a really interesting space of looking at the societal pressures, and how they're affecting family, children in a space of education and how childhood trauma impacts your progress, your growth in what you accomplish throughout life and as you become an adult, and we're talking about it, because it's just a really relevant and necessary conversation during these times as life presents many pressures. And we become more sensitive to how to deal with the issues that we're facing. But also because the two, these two dynamic women do such great work in the community, I thought it was overdue and more than worthwhile to put a spotlight on them, and to have this conversation and share it with the community. So let's roll out why you are qualified to have this conversation and circle back and have Camila and Robin introduce themselves. And basically, I don't want to butcher your extensive list of accolades. I'm going to allow you to share them with the listener. So Camila. Sure.

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My name is Camila bywaters. I am in the realm of education. And I am an educational consultant. And Robin asked me to join her team to really focus in on education I have I'm a licensed special education teacher. I have a master's in special education, and I'm currently completing my PhD in special education. So my work is round, grounded in research, providing effective evidence based strategies to help our our young ones to improve their academics.

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And I am Robin Turner and I am a licensed clinical alcohol and drug counselor, and a Licensed Marriage Family and Child therapist state intern. My background is trauma. I've been working in the nonprofit and for profit field in substance abuse family and the impact of childhood trauma for probably over 20 years right now. I'm a mental health counselor at a school but I also contract with schools and providing those mental health mentorship services. Well,

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the two of you have extensive backgrounds and it's almost like I get tired of listening because it's based on what you list is on your plate. It's like where do they find the time to do anything else. But I know that on yesterday, there was the healing her conference in you to support it that and danisha manga, who's also been on the show in the past was part of that event over at the College of Southern Nevada, Cheyenne campus and so just always delighted to see people doing good for the community and giving back and making a difference in the lives of others. So I'm sure yesterday I didn't always have it was just a dynamic experience. Yeah,

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it's a adverse childhood trauma is what healing her is all about. Going back to what you experienced in your childhood definitely follows you throughout your life into adulthood. it. So the healing her was about bringing awareness, more dialogue to adverse childhood trauma and its impact and the journey in the process of healing. So I was Grace with community partners. Dinesh Domingo, as you mentioned, she has MHS behavioral health services, and also the founder of solutions for change. And then I've had Shamika, Green from Emma's house come and join, who actually shared her personal experience with trauma. So how great is that community partners that are actually sharing personal experiences. I had Brittany soul who is amazing, she does spoken word she does. Singing a lot of events within the community. Who else was there I've had Brie Lord, she's actually a teacher. She talked a little bit about her experience as a parent and prevention. So just a lot of community partners serais with women of leadership, who are willing to be vulnerable, and transparent, and give real live testimony of their experiences, their journey and their process of healing.

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It's so necessary for us to do that. So again, thank you, because we're all facing something in a different way. And I think it is super powerful when you start to tap into and I want to this morning, we're gonna talk more about adverse childhood experiences and, and trauma, education, how that is all related and roll together and what that means, and how one should think about it. But I oftentimes don't think we realized as much as we should, how the experiences that we've gone through in our childhood impact your adult life, and someone said that to me, something was happening, I was heading up organization, and the President, this CEO, whatever of this company was just a trigger for me, right? And a friend of mine said to me, why is this bothering you? So, and the more I thought about it, and more, I've sat there and took the time and pack and I realized it was because when I was, you know, younger, I was studious, I was obedient, I did what I was supposed to do. But there was always the affection of kids that picked because I was on task. And I felt like he was a reminder, I don't know, somehow, there was a correlation between the feeling and the emotion of this picking while on task. And he said to me, there's something that happened to you, before I put my finger on it. He said, something happened to you, when you were a kid, he's triggering something that you just didn't do. What are you don't realize where this energy is coming from. And I was like, what? You know, because I was much younger. So I'm in the phase. It's like pre therapy is needed. So I'm like, What are you talking about? And the more I sat there and thought about it, I said, Okay, reminds me when I was younger, and people bullied in they picked me they poked, and because you had the ability to press against, and he was pressing against me, and so I was pushing back. Absolutely, that energy is necessary to watch because I felt like that time in my life, which was a lot of stress related to this situation, was part of my second diagnosis of breast cancer. Oh, wow. Because I could feel the stir like the unsettling because you can. People don't, you have to be really in tune, I always say to people, you have to be in tune to yourself,

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you really do. Because when you experience, childhood trauma are those things that happened back as a child like to say your inner self, your inner child is still there. And trauma gets stored in the body. What happens is it gets stored in a part of your nervous system. So we call it the amygdala amygdala in the brain is where all that memory is stored. So your little cell says, Wait a minute, I remember that and, and it begins to send sensations to the brain and say, Hey, that didn't make me feel good. And remember how my body felt when I experienced it back there. Always like to when I'm talking to kids, I tell them your brain is like a computer. That data is stored. That also data in the brain gets stored in the actual physical body. So your body, you may not remember what that specifically was. But if it was somewhat unresolved, then what happens is when you are in that situation, it's like your body's sending sensations to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, I remember that. I don't remember where it came from. But I absolutely remember my body is saying, hey, something happened. And it is our responsibility to say what what is that? Why is that there? And as we become adults, we tend to get busy. We're busy. We're going on with our day to day life. Let me you know, we'll deal with that later. And let me keep moving. And it's so important because what we found are what's been evidence based when you go back to the adverse Childhood Trauma is that it's been scientifically proven to cause learn long term physical health, meaning Heart disease has been connected to kidney failure has been connected to it. People with COPD, you can trace back to trauma. What the research started with Kaiser Permanente and the CDC, I think the Kaiser Permanente, which is a medical group, the what they were really doing is doing tests and doing research on a lot of patients who were having weight gain significant weight gain, and they're wanting to do some weight loss program. What they found is every single individual that came in, when they did the the background, they all had some level of traumatic experience. So they're like, this isn't this is the problem. We're we're there's some correlation here between weight gain some healthy things, and trauma. So connected with the CDC, because again, it's really an epidemic, right? I think it's an epidemic. Connecting with the CDC, hey, we need to do a little bit more research behind this. Now, I will say this when Kaiser permanent permanent, they started this restart, it was significantly with white professionals.

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I was just about to ask you that question. Had they taken a look at it from a standpoint of race? And was it affecting one community more so than another? And how do people of color to all people? Because we know everyone goes through trauma? And we all have different walks of life? Right? And our experiences, maybe not personally, but the familiarity of it, right, is that the experiences are more difficult for people of color, often? Absolutely. That's not the standard case, right? Well, everybody has something that they're going through,

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everybody has something but what they did identify is specifics of trauma. And what they are finding in doing actually more research is, of course, is going to be higher in minorities. Matter of fact, I think if you go to the CDC, I think 64% of minorities compared to our other population, have it have some form of of adverse childhood trauma, we are actually the highest and I think under that is about 50% is Hispanic. I think the lowest racist Asian, the Asian community. So

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doesn't say anything in terms of like, male to female. It does.

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I can't remember offhand. But actually, I think more women experiences high level of adverse drop trauma than males. Yes, it does. But I, but I think the reasoning behind that too, when I think about women compared to men is because women we talk about it more men actually keep it secret. So I think that's probably if we were to look a little bit more societal

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pressures, we give women the permission to be identified as weak or, you know, more fragile, absolutely, we call it more fragile. And in that space, there's an expectation of men to exhibit strength all the time. And in doing so, you therefore must shield a guard or disguise whatever you want to call a mask, masking your pain. And so therefore, you can't always put it out there that you're going through this. And so that's why I think, in a trending topic, space, the television show The shy. And what Lena wait has done in the last season, where she introduced the men's discussion group, and the Southside of Chicago fictional show. But it is such a touch point to me, in reality, how she has grown and evolved it to, in some ways deal with issues that are affecting people. And identifying solutions through this show this letting you hear messages, that it was like, if you can see it, if you can see it, you can believe it, if you can see it, you can realize it, you can become it, you can do it. And so us having more people having more conversations that are necessary. I

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seen that episode, too. It was so powerful, just to have that circle of men coming and talking about real issues supporting each other. I think we're starting to see a little bit of that in the Las Vegas community. I'm seeing some men's groups starting to happen. But I think the more we, the more we create safe spaces. For men. I think the more and more we'll have them start to expose or take off that mask and share what's really going on because it's important for the next generation.

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It is Do you see that the development of the creation of these safe spaces coming to the school districts mean to our school district where we have these children they have the trauma we know that many of them within the student population have gone through something. Do you see us getting to the point where we create safe spaces for them to have conversation

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Yeah, So I do actually shout out to Sean Tory, I think he has king of jewels. And he does some things with the city, where he does what we call restorative circles, where he creates space for young boys get together with adult males to really talk about and process some of the things that they are experiencing. Shout out to Robert twigs out there. And no, he does some things in the community. So there are some that are leading the path, and are creating those safe spaces. So I think we'll begin to see more and more and more of those come about for because I think men need to lead means men sometimes in those spaces. Now the

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work that you do, are you focused on families are you focused on that particular segment of the population in the work that you're doing?

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Actually, I in the school system, I work with any family that's experienced some form of trauma. What I do, and I love the school that I'm at, I'm like on blast them out there. But the school that I'm with, really values, mental health, and social emotional learning, I think that's a big thing that needs to take some presidents in the school district, because right now we're able to be preventative, but also create some support for kids that are experiencing trauma. I tell parents all the time, when you carry weight. So as your child, a lot of times, it's not always you know, as parents, we're doing our thing we're working, we're providing, or when there's conflict in the home, that's the focus, and we're trying to take care of the kids are protecting them, but they already see it, they already know it. And when you don't provide them the safe space to talk about it with you, then they're internalizing it. So when I see kiddos, I probably last year got about 60 referrals. I'm the only counselor there, I got about 60 referrals. And a lot of those referrals were correlated to a witnessing domestic violence, sexual abuse, sexual abuse, which is a big one, bullying, bullying, on social media, bullying on campus. What else parents will separation, you know, parents are separating, they're being impacted, kids have big feelings about that. So those are substance abuse, or for simply just trying to find out where we gonna live. Those were some of the major ones that I can think out, think of immediately right off top the head that a lot of my kids were carrying.

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So as you guys are seeing these problems and these challenges, and Camila, you're in the classroom, so or consulting or kind of helping, or how do I guess more? So my question is how to YouTube work together? Great

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question. And so as a licensed teacher, not all teachers are trained in trauma informed care, or have the ability or have been trained or have the knowledge to understand the adverse traumas that children bring to the classroom. And what Robin and I are doing together is we're showing the professional relationship that schools should have with teachers, and mental health professionals, psychologists, sociologists, therapists, were showing and modeling what this relationship should look like in schools because teachers need support. And I'm sure there's teachers out there who have other certifications in mental health arenas. But most teachers do not know how to deal with students who have these types of behaviors that are showing up in classes because of the experiences that they're having.

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Do you think that we're moving into a space because I had a conversation the other day, centered around youth, homelessness, youth mental health issues, right. And the need for teachers to have additional training the support spaces to create the resources and the access to the tools that would enable teachers and families then to better work together because they're better equipped to be successful? Because they identify it because I think it was really why Londa while on the Dickerson who does a nonprofit called Valley View Community Care in North Las Vegas, and really Las Vegas and in the urban areas, and a few years ago, and she just really alerted me to these babies are like zombies, she said, and it was such a strong, you know, descriptive, she said people don't realize it. She said you can drive past them downstream. And if you really stop and look and pay attention, the kids are spaced like they're not focused. They're going through so much. And the resources and the help isn't there. They're emotionally and mentally and physically challenged. And I said Well, because the average person, like you said earlier, we're busy their families, right. So people moving through their busy lives are going to work, you're driving down the street to grabbing lunch, you're doing whatever you're doing. And you say, this kid. And because the kid is putting one foot in front of the other and walking down the street, to you to see a kid. But she saw it through a different lens and said, people are missing that the babies are in danger. And they're really crying out for help. And what needs to happen is there needs to be more resources that address the needs and the challenges that the kids are facing.

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I do I believe that I believe education and resources. I think the more we educate families, and the more we educate, the more we educate families, and then connect them to the resources. Because what I'm finding in school is you're absolutely right, kids are like zombies. Part of that problem is we're an overstimulated population of people. When we look at our kiddos, a lot of them are glued to technology. Enter the internet, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, they know the latest technology, I'll be like, what is that, who, I don't even know what that is, they'll know it before an adult knows it. And so they're glued to technology. And what that does is really over stimulate the brain. So I'm not a psychiatrist. But what happens is it's releasing over dopamine and all that, but it's not doing it naturally, we're producing more than we should, which puts us in a place our kids in the place where all they they look for is pleasure. So when it comes to sitting down in the classroom, focusing, being still in really being cognitive and present is a struggle.

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I keep hearing that and experiencing it too, right? Because I know, we probably all have someone in our family, a kid that the report we're getting is he this child has a really difficult time focusing on their work. Yep. And you've now made it so much potentially plainer to me what the challenge is, because then you sit back and you look at the kid and you think, what I play this video game, or they do this whatever, for forever, right or endlessly? And why can't they pay attention in class? And so that's the question, right? That's the first thing. What's it? What is the problem with paying attention in class, you are glued to your phone, you're doing whatever, not understanding that it's the quickness of the engagement with the digital device? That is not happening in the classroom, and learning the learning process is not the same? Absolutely. So to that point. Okay, so let's meet the generation where that generation is right? Do we modify our teaching tactics? And is there a success in that? Or is that detrimental? Health wise, because just like adverse childhood trauma has been studied and proven to lead to a variety of diseases that you noted earlier in the conversation? If we teach children in this digital space, the way they they move? Are we then triggering some long term effect that we don't even know what it is? Because it's not healthy? You just said it's not healthy for the brain to be stimulated at that pace? For a long time? Yeah,

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I think there has to be a balance. Right? Technology is amazing. Do we need to eliminate technology? Absolutely not. Because what we need, we can't. So I think we need to balance. And what that looks like, again, is the communication between family and school needs to be married.

Unknown Speaker 23:31
And how early do we start that balance? Because let's say kids start with all this, like, think about it, baby's sitting in your lap. And before you know it, here's your phone, here's the phone, your phone is a toy to this child, and they just grow up with this toy. And then they learned this toy before they learn how to read half of it. I mean, I'm maybe exaggerating. But you know what I'm saying? Right? They learn this toy before they learn lots of other things.

Unknown Speaker 23:57
I think it's so here's the thing. Kids are like sponges, so things like that, that are educational. It's good because it does stimulate like the brain and it gets them learning, right? But should they be on there? Three, four or five hours at a time, though, are you been on there for two hours looking at this game, that's where we're now overstimulating this baby's poor brain. So to sit there and to get to a process where I can just learn pick up a book and read which is gone now. I'm struggling, I'm having a hard time. So there needs to be a balance of here, you got 30 minutes on this tablet, something educational. So if your brain has been stimulated, you're learning something healthy. Half the time they're learning and picking up on things that they don't even need to know and see. And I tell parents all the time, it is so important to be mindful and monitor what also is being watched. Because then kids come to school, and they're modeling, joking and laughing about these behaviors. Okay? I give an example really quick. I had a little boy in class and he was doing some inappropriate behaviors. We have the comment, the teacher had the conversation once had the conversation with the parent next day and appropriate behaviors. So of course, we asked something going on at home. No, that's going on at home monitoring. So the referral then comes to me. And so I spent a little time with a kiddo and you just ask the right questions gauge the right question. What are you watching? Where did you get that from? It's how you ask the question. This is a little kid. I think he's probably eight. I think he was about eight. So you asked the right questions. So he told me he was watching this cartoon thing online. Okay, here, go pull it up for me. Oh, my goodness, he pulls it up. He pulls it up. It's a cartoon image. But the everything about it, it's a song in the cartoon. And when you first look at it, it's like, this is nothing. When you start hearing the song, everything in the first two lines of the song and I'm not even gonna say it was very inappropriate sexual. Then you go down, and it's calling women out their name. It's talking about inappropriate touching, Wallah. This is what you've been looking at. How many times are you looking at this? Every day? You're looking at this a couple times a day, aren't you? Yeah. So call mom mom comes in. And we say, you know, this is coming up, I want you to pull this up again for mom, because I want mom to see you know how to access, pull it up, Mom looks at it. And at mom's like, I've taken away these things. I don't know how, and come to find out, you know, you go to another family member you have access. So it is so important to monitor what's being watched, because what looks like it's supposed to be for kids these days.

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I mean, what we're talking about this morning is just so powerful, but and our time is ticking. And it's always when we get into these really good conversations about community issues, family issues, education, planning, preparation, but before too much takes that I want to make sure in case anyone is intrigued by how much you know, and they want to know more about what you're doing and how they can access, social media website, anything you want to share. And they can be the same for you. You can look

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us up@www.so You coach.com And I'll repeat that's www.so you coach.com If you look if you can look us up on Instagram and Facebook under so you coach, but if you go to the website, you can see all the services there. It has our contact information and email so you can reach out if you want any additional information.

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And that's literally so why oh, you right. So you

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so while you coach?

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Yes. What is so you mean? So

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So you mean simply owning your own uniqueness? Oh, I love

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that. I knew that. But I love that we shared it. Thank you, Camille. Yes, thank you.

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And you can find me at so you coach.com Robin gave all the information beautifully. There too.

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And here's the thing, any questions even about education, you have myself you have Camila both been in the field for a long time. So anything you need, even if resources we can assist you. I

Unknown Speaker 28:30
think that is just great. And so anytime someone wants to have a conversation or do a workshop or invite you too, to talk with them, our women's group, children's group families, you guys are a great resource, absolutely dynamic duo in this space. So I want to say thank you for spending some time with me to have a really valuable conversation around childhood experiences that we often don't talk about. We treat them as taboo in some cases, and then how they're affecting us but also just unwrapping so much unpacking education and children and youth and just everything so it's been a really awesome morning.

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Thank you.

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Thank you for spending early but I appreciate it. And I hope that Las Vegas you have enjoyed this conversation to the listening audience out there. Thank you for tuning in once again and joining me here for the scoop here on 91.5k u and v jazz and more. Have a great week I want to thank you for tuning into the scoop with me Tony Flanagan and I want to invite you to get social with me I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle ta NYFLA na GA N You can also find me on Instagram at Tanya almond eyes Flanagan and if you have a thought and opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to Tanya dad flanagan@unlv.edu. Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week.

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