Shasta County health officials revealed a 5-year public health plan that focuses on prevention and fighting Adverse Childhood Experiences.

When Kaiser Permanente and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the study to measure Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) levels in Shasta County in 2012, the results they found were striking.

The ACE study examined categories of childhood physical and emotional abuse and neglect. It measured household dysfunction includingdomestic violence, mental illnessand substance abusethat create toxic stress leading to neuro-system changes during child development.

The higher the ACE score a child has, the higher the risk of developing chronic illnesses like heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), depression and cancer.

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Shasta Countys ACE score was found to be double the state average. Forty percent of the adults surveyed in Shasta County reported a score of 4 or higher.

Since the study published, schools, youth centersand even law enforcement officials have adopted trauma-sensitive methods to support youth trying to develop healthy coping mechanisms to overcome trauma.

Almost all Shasta County school districts have attended a trauma-informed training or received ACEs training with the Shasta County Office of Education.

The Happy Valley Primary School was able to overwhelmingly decrease bad behavior offenses in the last three years, Principal Shelly Craig said. The Shasta County Probation Department began tracking juvenile behavior patterns in order to reverse them as well, Chief Probation Officer Tracie Nealsaid viaemail.

Peer Court jury training by the Anderson Police in 2019.(Photo: Youth Options Shasta)

Susan Wilson, executive director of Youth Options Shasta and steering committee member of the Strengthening Families Collaborative, said the study was the confirmation of a problem that youth groups and health agency administrators knew had beenprevalent for a long time.

We have struggled in the northern part of California. We have struggled for a long time. We have struggled because we have low education levels. We have struggled because we have high poverty. We have high poor results in physical health. Statistics show that our kids are not learning at the same level as the kids typical in California, Wilson said.

Before the study published, Wilson and other community organizers were already putting together the Strengthening Families Collaborative curriculum, and introducing Protective Factors for Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders variables that promote developmental competencies in youth.

All these things happened together, not as a result of the ACEs study. The ACEs study was almost a confirmation of the problem that we knew we had. In other words, we knew kids were not doing well, Wilson said. But we didnt have the background of ACEs, the study, the data, to inform us. When we did the study and got the results we sat back like wow.

After the ACEs study, organizations like Youth Options Shasta, which connects youth to peer court and restorative justice practices, began to incorporate some additional screening when evaluating teenagers, an at-risk population with high ACE scores that the group works with.

Peer court youth jury deliberations in the jury room.(Photo: Youth Options Shasta)

ACEs are predictable and as a result, preventable, said Kelly Rizzi, director of School and District Support at Shasta County Office of Education. Rizzi joined the Shasta County Office of Education seven years ago to address the literacy issue in Shasta County, but learned the bleak literacy levels were related to trauma.

Many of the students who were struggling with literacy were living in toxic stress conditions and persistent fear, Rizzi said, damaging their amygdala the part of the brain that plays an importantrolesin the expression of emotion and behavior. That unrelenting stress can also shutoff the learning and growth that takes place in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which is linked to decision making andreasoning.

What we really have is a regulation gap, not an education gap, Rizzi said. What we learned is we can teach kids to self-regulate. Your ACE score doesnt define you; it informs you and empowers you to make different decisions for yourself, your family and community.

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In the last ten years a whole generation has come into adulthood but the population is changing slowly. To measure the effectiveness of the community's response to address high ACE scores in real time, it starts with the children, said Donnell Ewert, Director of the Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency.

Some experts question whether its wise to ask children about traumatic life events to generate a trend, out of concern that itll have an adverse effect on young people. Organizations and schools have begun efforts to respond to ACEs, but the challenge is measuring the effectiveness of the initiatives, Ewert said.

He said that the agency has frameworks in place to measure behavior shifts in people involved with the probation department, as well as the homeless populationand other high-risk populations.

But, Ewert said, the high ACE scores will not change dramatically in a short period of time.It will take years to see a difference.

Almost all Shasta County school districts have adopted a "social-emotional learning" program in the last fiveyears and noticed a reduction in bad behavior, Rizzi said. That is one way of tracking the effectiveness of ACEs reduction efforts.

Peer Court trial held in Shasta Lake City Council Chambers in 2016.(Photo: Youth Options Shasta)

The reality is, if youre not talking about it on a regular basis, it goes by the wayside, Rizzi said. Before COVID-19, schools began holding ACEs training for parents but now we cant hold gatherings. Our best bet is to teach the teachers and kids in classes.

At Happy Valley Primary School, Craig, the principal, began assessing the response to students basic needs by measuring daily and weekly data ranking bad behavior at a low level, medium level or high level.

Happy Valley has a total of about 490 students, with 240 primary students inpre-K through third grade. The trauma-informed practices, behavior dataand systems Craig adopted when she began working at the district three years ago have benefited the student body and decreased incidents of bad behavior significantly, she said.Students are taught to self-regulate by relating to issues and identifying coping methods so they can return to learning.

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The longevity data is going to be crucial moving forward, but in the first year as principal, I was spending 80% of my time focused on student discipline, and as Im transitioning out of this year (third year), I would say 7% of my time is spent on student discipline, Craig said. Its a significant culture change. It just looks different.

Reversing the risky effects of high ACE scores in the community is difficult but not impossible, Wilson said.

Youth advisory members attend the annual California Youth Court Summit trip in 2014.(Photo: Youth Options Shasta)

Another method of measuring the effectiveness of the community response can be tracking the number of toxicology screenings at birth whichcould indicate that mothers are paying attention to risks caused by ACEs, such as substance abuse.

People who successfully complete probation demonstrate an ability to overcome the high level of ACE scores and transform negative behavior patterns, she added.

At the Shasta County Probation Department, Neal collects data to include short, moderateand long term goals and analyzes the data every sixmonths. Staff is trained to develop cognitive skills and work with traumatized youth, she said.

Some key observation points include school graduation rates, employment, truancy, parental involvement and the level of conflict within the home. Success with mental health and substance abuse treatments are also considered.

"There is an emphasis on gender-specific trauma groups and exploring what trauma impacts people, developing awareness to triggers and healthy coping skills," Neal said in an email. "Being involved in the juvenile criminal justice system creates an enormous amount of stress and trauma in itself."

Nada Atieh is a Report For America corps member and education reporter focusing on childhood trauma and the achievement gap for the Redding Record Searchlight. Follow her on Twitter at @nada_atieh. Help local journalism thrive by subscribing today!

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