For students like Jack, behavior resulting in expulsion or suspension is often rooted in their trauma.

Jack's behavior was a distraction to the entire class. The inability to control his behavior and complete the simplest classroom tasks made him feel like an oddball. The more his teacher demanded compliance, the more he felt singled out, embarrassed, and a victim. When the teacher asked Jack to sit down and finish his assignment, he snapped. He threw his pencil, flipped his desk over, and stormed out of the room. Once again, Jack found himself in a familiar situation - expelled and regretting his behavior. Jack had nowhere to go and no one to call. He thought about walking back to the last place he spent the night, on the floor in a stranger's home, but couldn't bear the thought of possibly seeing his mother passed out from the previous night. His mother's addiction was hard for Jack to handle. With no job and no money, she often traded sex for drugs. Each night Jack would try to shut out the sounds of adults getting high and partying. Each morning he would wake fearful, wondering in what condition he would find his mother; would she be passed out or possibly even dead? Jack truly loved his mother but struggled with the thought, "Why does my mother choose drugs over my siblings and me?" Being expelled changed things for Jack. The one daily meal at school he counted on throughout the week would cease, and having a previous expulsion meant he would soon be two years behind academically.
 

Jack had been expelled for several weeks before he, not his mother, called McAdams to set up an enrollment appointment. A few days after he enrolled, Jack came to school angry. I asked what was going on. He cursed and said, "Leave me alone." After he changed into his McAdams shirt, I asked, "Can I help with anything?" He looked at me and said, "I don't know where my mother is." Jack said his mother left the night before, saying she was going out to get some clean clothes and would be right back. She never returned. That morning, he got his brothers and sisters dressed and walked them to a relative's house, and then he walked to McAdams. Jack could have stayed at his relative's home but he walked to McAdams, his only safe place. Jack was only fourteen.