By Erin Vandermore, LCMHC-S If you work in a school, you’ve probably seen this moment. A student is sitting right in front of you, but they’re not really there . Maybe they snap over a minor redirection. Maybe they completely shut down. Maybe they look fine on the outside, but your gut tells you something feels off in the room. It’s easy to read that as defiance or a lack of motivation. But here's the truth: this is not misbehavior. It's physiology, meaning the nervous system is overloaded....