ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — “First responders are ground zero of childhood trauma,” said Maralyn Beck, executive director of New Mexico Child First Network.

KOB 4 is often the first to tell you about some of the most horrific crimes in our community. But oftentimes children have a front row view.

New Mexico children experience significant trauma. It’s measured by what is called ACEs, or Adverse Childhood Experiences.

New Mexico has some of the highest rates in the nation. It’s the reason there’s a big push to get our first responders to engage with those children in a different way.

There’s a new push to reinvigorate a program that was introduced to the metro in 2017. It’s called “Handle with Care.”

“The point of the program is to say every one pause and put the child first at the center,” said Beck.

It starts at a crime scene or any scene where first responders are called.

“It is very common for us to go, whether it be an unintended death call or a domestic violence situation for there to be children involved in some capacity, even traffic crashes,” said Sergeant Autumn Neas, with Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit.

The Handle with Care program encourages deputies or officers to find out where those children go to school, and send an email to their teacher letting them know that that student was involved in an incident.

“Handle with Care reminds the teacher and everyone around them to just take a moment of grace and instead of ‘Johnny, why didn’t you bring your books, where’s your computer?’” Beck said.

It also puts the school on alert if other support systems are needed or available.

Right now, Beck says she’s training Bernalillo County Sheriff’s deputies to better understand adverse childhood experiences, trauma that can lead to health, social and emotional challenges down the road.

She points to data showing nearly 90% of children in the juvenile justice system have four or more adverse experiences. But there is hope.

“The research shows one positive adult in a child’s life can save their lives and put them on a trajectory for positive life experiences,” said Beck.

 Sergeant Neas says she wants her team to be that helping hand.

“We had a case in our unit recently with a juvenile suspect, and ultimately, we found out he was a victim previously,” she said. “So, to remember those things and that they’re very likely, especially with juvenile offenders, they’re very likely something that is causing this behavior. Maybe if we work harder at getting to the root of it and mitigating it, then we help.”

Beck says the goal is to get buy-in for the program from the community, eventually the state.

Beck says submitting those notifications to schools and tracking the data will help give the community a better idea of what of social supports are needed in which areas.