Thread: El Paso: Mexico Trauma Students Attending U.S. Schools

Mexican Students Cope With Trauma Of Drug War.

Borderland Beat Reporter Ovemex:

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Dario Lopez-Mills/APThe owner of this once-popular nightclub in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, said he closed the bar after his business was set on fire three times for refusing to pay extortion fees to drug cartel enforcers. The violence has forced many families to move out of the country, and some students are entering U.S. classrooms dealing with traumas that schools have never seen before.

By: Monica Ortiz Uribe NPR:

Standing in the main foyer of Burges High School in El Paso, Texas, it's easy to think you had accidentally crossed the border into Mexico. Left and right, students are greeting each other in Spanish and kissing each other's cheeks, as they would in Mexico.

Drug violence has forced thousands of Mexican families to seek refuge in the U.S. As a result, some students are entering U.S. classrooms along the Southwest border with traumas that schools have never seen before.

And with so few people willing to talk about it, many aren't getting the help they need.

An 'Atrocious' Experience:

In border cities, it's common for students from Mexico to go to school in the U.S. Some were born in the U.S. but raised in Mexico, and their families feel they'll have better opportunities if they go to an American school.

But in recent years, motivation to cross the border has changed. Horrific drug-related violence in Mexico is forcing some families to flee, often in a hurry.

Susan Crews, lead counselor for the El Paso Independent School District, has seen what witnessing that violence can do to a child.

"I have students whose mothers have been decapitated," Crews says. "I have a student in one of the middle schools — when he visited his family in Juarez there were three heads on sticks along the path were he goes."

Crews is a grandmotherly figure who wears her hair in a bow-shaped bun atop her head. She says never in her 43 years as a counselor has she encountered such hellish stories.

"The counselor had contacted me because this eighth-grader was having a trauma reaction," Crews says. "He was not able to control his bladder; he was not sleeping at night.

Crews is the woman the district sends when there's a major trauma at a school. In the past two years, she's responded to the deaths of four students — all killed in Mexico.

"My experience has been atrocious," she says. "I mean it's just been overwhelming in my opinion."

The Effects Of Baring Witness:

Most school counselors are not trained to handle the psychological needs of these new students, and many students are fearful about sharing their stories and don't ask for help. So they often suffer in silence.

Burges student Jorge Esquivel is from Ciudad Juarez, where four months ago his uncle was murdered for refusing to pay criminals an extortion fee to keep his business open. His uncle was like a father to him, so the loss cut deep.

"I couldn't concentrate at school," Esquivel says. "It's something I couldn't control. I can't just say, 'I'm not gonna think about it anymore.' You just feel so bad."

To make matters worse, when Esquivel first enrolled at Burges High School, most of his credits didn't transfer. At 18, he had to enroll as a sophomore.

Burges High School counselor Michelle Barron says that's happening a lot.

"That used to be a very rare occasion," Barron says. "If you had a student who was 17 years old and was about to graduate high school in Mexico, usually they would keep them there. Now, it doesn't seem to matter. It could be midyear; it could be during their senior year. Families are bringing over their kids and saying, 'Well, you know, whatever it is that we have to do; we're not going [to stay] there.' "

Dealing With Trauma Right Now:

Because El Paso is home to the Army's Fort Bliss, local school districts offer counselor training in post-traumatic stress disorder for children of military families. Some school counselors are applying that training to students from Mexico, but counselor Crews thinks the district needs programs designed specifically for survivors of Mexican violence.

"If you don't deal with trauma right away, it's going to come back," Crews says. "You're going to have more violence; you're going to have children repeating the violence that they've seen."

As long as the violence in Mexico persists, Crews says, schools will continue to see students with related trauma — ignoring the problem, she says, won't make it go away.

Monica Ortiz Uribe/For NPR

Lead counselor Susan Crews speaks with children at an elementary school in El Paso.

by Monica Ortiz Uribe | April 9, 2011 — 4:53 AM

http://www.kqed.org/news/story/2011/04/ ... =education

Drug violence has forced thousands of Mexican families to seek refuge in the U.S. As a result, some students are entering U.S. classrooms along the Southwest border with traumas that schools have never seen before.

I wonder how many "traumas" students are crossing the border into Texas attending schools per year? Mexico should pay for the students medical treatments from being traumatized, due to drug wars. The crimes are sending the children across the border to receive medical treatments and education, therefore the U.S. should be paid for the services.

Mexico is a pretty big country,why aren't they moving to another area in mexico? Why does the mexican government fail it's own citizens, over and over again?

Originally Posted by miguelina

Mexico is a pretty big country,why aren't they moving to another area in mexico? Why does the mexican government fail it's own citizens, over and over again?

Pretty much. Look at where the violence is and why. The vast majority is along the border fighting for routes to carry drugs into the US. That fairly simply puts it the safer places are NOT along the US Border and if one simply moved inland out of the major drug flow the violence would be much much less.

Its like living in the worst Ghetto in Chicago and then saying its all over Chiacgo or living in the most dangerous city in the US and saying the entire US is dangerous because of one city. Hell, if its to dangerous MOVE OUT.

That is why I would NEVER accept a single refugee from Mexico as there is TONS of safe places for someone to live and you can be any refugee from a real dangerous area is living along the border or the major drug route.

Originally Posted by miguelina

Mexico is a pretty big country,why aren't they moving to another area in mexico? Why does the mexican government fail it's own citizens, over and over again?

Because they know there are "IDIOTS" in the U.S. government who will step up to the plate and do what they actually refuse to do for their own citizens "THATS IT IN A NUTSHELL PLAIN AND SIMPLE.

This is so horrible that these innocent people have to put up with what is happening in Mexico. But where is the Mexican government? Why are they not taking care of their own. Why is it American taxpayers have to take on the burden? Why doesn't Obama's UN step up and do something about this?

why are they allowed here in the US?
i agree that they should go to another part of Mexico, too.

The Mexican children are not walking into U.S. border States, someone has to transport the children to Texas and other States.

I think it is a Governor responsibility to speak up and request increased laws to prevent illegal invasions of his or her State. Because, if they sit back and say nothing States budgets will go over limits and crime will increase as well.

Gov. Jan Brewer saw the State of Arizona being over burden with illegal aliens is reason she had steeper laws enacted against undocumented immigrants. However, Brewer is the only Governor being sued, although many other States have put into law much tougher laws to combat illegal immigration. Something seems strange and confusing