When I was in fourth grade, my teacher showed a documentary about the meat and dairy industry. At one point she paused it, and said that if any of us didn’t want to watch a scene with animal cruelty, we could stand outside the classroom door for a couple of minutes. Knowing myself to be a sensitive kid, I stepped out of the room, ignoring the laughter and eye rolls of my tougher classmates.
I’ve been utilizing content warnings since an early age. Of course, my elementary school teacher didn’t use that phrase, but that’s what it was.
The use of content warnings, and sometimes the dramatic lack of them, have followed me throughout my educational career.
In college, we’re often expected to engage with content that is “heavy” or makes us uncomfortable. And that’s good – college should challenge us and make us uncomfortable and make us think about things we haven’t thought about before, and I believe that 100%.
But, I also believe people with trauma shouldn’t be forced to relive it.
Content vs. Trigger Warnings
This is where the distinction between content warnings and trigger warnings comes into play. I don’t feel that content warnings are as necessary as trigger warnings, in a college context. Content warnings are more general and are for anything that might strike discomfort. Some topics should surprise us and make us uncomfortable, but some content is triggering to people, and inhibits their learning.
Professors should give trigger warnings for readings, videos, presentations, photos or discussions that might make students feel unsafe. There are lots of different ways to do that, and anything is better than nothing, whether it’s written or verbal, broad or specific.
It should be professors’ top priority for students to feel safe and comfortable in their classrooms. I think a lot of professors do want that, but don’t realize that trigger warnings are the best way to do that – or that a lack thereof can make students feel uneasy or unsafe, and not want to come to class.
Trigger warnings can be a jumping off point to making classrooms the safe spaces we all want them to be.
According to the University of Michigan, a content warning is a verbal or written notice that precedes potentially distressing content. A trigger warning is specifically intended to “attempt to forewarn audiences of content that may cause intense physiological and psychological symptoms for people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other anxiety disorders.”
While the terms are often used interchangeably, the distinction is important.
Content warnings are for everyone, and they let you know this topic is hard and potentially upsetting. Whereas trigger warnings aim to protect people with trauma from having flashbacks, panic attacks and so on. These warnings are found in all types of media and internet spaces – and schools.
For example, a history teacher might give a content warning to students that a documentary will depict violence and blood before they start playing it. An English teacher might provide a written trigger warning on the syllabus for an assigned reading with a scene of a sexual assault.
Trigger warnings aren’t only relevant to people with PTSD, but for anyone who would feel unsafe or dismissed when a topic is brought up without a warning. You can’t know every topic that might be triggering to students, but you can cover some of the basics, like sexual assault, suicide and violence against marginalized people.
Triggering Readings With No Educational Purpose
I once took a class in which my professor assigned a reading with a violent and disturbing rape scene, and gave no trigger warning. When I told them I wished there had been a trigger warning, they apologized, and sent an email apologizing to the whole class as well.
I have no ill will towards this professor; they just made a mistake. They forgot the scene was in there, the chapter wasn’t actually important and we weren’t even going to talk about it in class.
Reading that scene sent me into an obsessive dread spiral for a couple days – for no good reason. It wasn’t a “learning and growing” moment for me; the distressing material didn’t help me understand a different perspective or anything like that.
Yes, there should’ve been a trigger warning, but there was also no reason for us to read it in the first place.
If you’re teaching potentially triggering material, you need to carefully consider why it’s important to teach that thing and how you’re going to teach it. Additionally, you should provide trigger warnings so students can mentally prepare themselves to be able to engage with that content.
Albion College Professors’ Policies
Professor of English Danit Brown says she provides a blanket trigger warning at the start of the semester so students can “know what they’re going into.” This warning is for the whole semester, telling students they might be assigned readings that make them uncomfortable, but doesn’t specify what themes will come up or in which readings.
She does give specific trigger warnings before readings with sexual assault scenes, and offers to give students one-on-one trigger warnings for things they request.
However, Brown said there’s a reason she prefers to keep it vague.
“I’m really torn about trigger warnings in creative writing,” Brown said. “A trigger warning affects the way that you read the story or poem, and affects whether you’re surprised by things the author wanted to be surprising.”
I understand this sentiment when it comes to English classes, and that the reading experience is different when you know something specific is coming. But, the safety and comfort of students should come first.
You can still get a lot out of a reading even if it’s somewhat spoiled for you; I don’t think a trigger warning by any means makes the material not worth reading anymore. I once took a class with associate professor of English Helena Mesa where she assigned a trigger warning for gun violence before an assigned reading. Despite knowing vaguely what was coming, the essay was still surprising and impactful.
Professor and History Department Chair Marcy Sacks said trigger warnings are most relevant to her African American history classes. Sacks said her class that covers the Civil War to present times has “so much brutality,” such as lynching.
“Because these are acts of atrocity against Black bodies, I think people who identify as Black need special warning, that, you know, this is traumatizing, this is what this nation has done, and it’s very personal,” Sacks said.
Sacks said she used to always show images of lynchings to her classes, and provide a warning beforehand, but now she makes it a conversation about whether they even look at them at all.
“I have found that that’s a valuable exercise, both to provide something akin to a trigger warning but to actually intellectualize the question of why might we expose ourselves to things that are horrifying,” Sacks said.
Assistant professor of psychological science Shanti Madhavan-Brown teaches a class called “Psychology of Mental Illness,” and said there are many potential things in the class that could be triggering for students. Because of that, she has a broad discussion of the material with her students at the beginning of the semester, instead of individual ones.
“I see providing good trigger warnings as actually building really good classroom environment and support,” Madhavan-Brown said.
I couldn’t agree more with that sentiment.
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