poorer than what the teacher would reasonably expect from them, or they might be chronically late with their handed in work. Another way that intrusions cause problems for students with PTSD is that they often lead to sleep disturbances. The PTSD affected person either can not sleep because of recurring thoughts of the event, or they wake up often from dreams related to the event. Then, on top of the regular symptoms of PTSD, the student also has to cope with the effects of sleep deprivation on his ability to learn and to hand in acceptable work.
The symptom of avoidance can pose different problems (Qouta et. al. ,2003). Avoidance is exhibited when a victim of a traumatic event refuses to go near a place or a person or a subject that reminds them of the traumatic event. Students may be late to school because they take alternate paths far away from the place where a trauma occurred or they might avoid class all together if the trauma happened in school. This might occur after a hostage situation in a school, a school shooting, or a shelling of a school as a result of war. Another manifestation of avoidance, avoiding topics that remind the student of the event, may lead a student to exhibit signs of being unwilling to participate in classroom activities.
The last and probably most well known of the major symptoms of PTSD is hyper-arousal (Qouta et.al.,2003). This can be everything from a heightened sense of awareness of ones surroundings, leading to distractibility or a sense that the student is always looking over his shoulder or an increase in sensitivity to insults that can cause a student to be highly reactive in class. This can also be a major cause of unpredictable and predictable outbursts. Students may jump at the slamming of a door, after which they could be slow to return to normal behavior. Students could also react to statements made
