California University of PA professor introduces new program about violence for teachers

CALIFORNIA, Pa. — When you enter a school as a teacher in 2022, your job encompasses more than education.

“Educators can’t do it all and that’s why you see so many less people going into education because people know you can’t do it all,” said Nina Esposito-Visgitis.

She’s the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers union president and told Channel 11 from violence in the communities to school shootings making headlines, teachers need more help to handle these situations.

“I can’t tell you how often our teachers and educators are asking for trauma informed instruction because that’s what our kids need. Our students are changing, and our family structures are changing,” Esposito-Visgitis said.

Now last week’s school shooting in Texas is at the front of teachers’ minds.

“Violence in schools has been going on for years but it’s becoming much more frequent,” said Dr. John Cencich, a professor at California University of Pennsylvania.

This California University of Pennsylvania professor is sharing a local three-course certification program that offers extra training into violence and threat assessments.

“This is not active shooter training this is behavioral assessment of the potential threats to the community and how to have the proper interventions to prevent that before it even happens,” Cencich said.

That’s just on the graduate level. On the undergraduate side, a four-class certification is encouraged for aspiring educators to learn how to handle trauma response and violence prevention.

A change in curriculums to show the changing times.

“We never had those the biggest thing we did was tornado drills never did we think of active shooters,” said Esposito-Visgitis.

Dr. Cencich said while the threat assessment program was designed for schools and educations, the tools in the course can work for any workplace or worship center.

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