When Aisha Wilson-Middleton was named the Cumberland County Schools’ 2023-24 School Psychologist of the Year on Dec. 9, she initially didn’t feel like she deserved the award.
“Right before the month that they nominated me, I had been dealing with a lot of health issues,” Middleton, 36, said Thursday. “I’d been very sick and been out for a little bit… I was doing a lot of meetings from home and just trying to pull my weight since I was in and out of the office so much.”
But Middleton’s compassion and dedication was something her colleagues wouldn’t easily forget. Lisa Craver, the psychological services coordinator for Cumberland County Schools, said in a Dec. 8 news release that Middleton never hesitates to help out.
“She is a consummate professional with a deep passion for each student she works with,” Craver said. “She is a shining example of what a school psychologist should be.”
CityView spoke with Middleton on Thursday about her career path, what her job entails and what she believes parents need to know about students’ mental health.
Her answers are excerpted below and have been edited for brevity and clarity.
***
CITYVIEW: Can you walk me through your career path with Cumberland County Schools thus far?
AISHA WILSON-MIDDLETON: I did my internship in Scotland County, about an hour away [southwest of Cumberland County], and I stayed there for three more years after. Honestly, I just kind of got tired of the drive; I lived here in Fayetteville. It was just a long drive. It’s the funniest thing; I just called into work sick one day and I drove down to the Educational Resource Center to figure out what to do. I walked in and I was like, “I promise y’all I’m a for-real school psychologist and I’m looking for a job.” [laughs]
The person at the front desk just directed me to Ms. Lisa Craver, the director of school psychologists, and she had me sit down and fill out an application, because I think they were short-staffed still at the time. After that, it was pretty smooth sailing.
I got here in 2017. I’ve had the same schools since I’ve been here. I’ve only maybe covered two or three others. The main district I work in is the Douglas Byrd District, and I have Douglas Byrd Middle School, Douglas Byrd High School and J.W. Coon Elementary School.
…I work a lot with behavior, so I like to do a lot of behavior interventions… I ended up being more classroom-oriented, like classroom management. When that was kind of discovered as something that I liked to do and I had a passion for, Ms. Craver gave me a lot of opportunities to build or help build systems in different classrooms. One of the main frameworks I like to use is called the CHAMPS system.
And what’s that?
It’s a framework for classroom management. It fits right into the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports program where it really helps define expectations that teachers need to give to classrooms in order to make sure that they don’t have behavior issues, so it’s all preemptive — pre-planning, pre-interventions when it comes specifically to behavior.
How did you decide to become a school psychologist?
It was kind of an accident. I didn’t know that field existed until I went to college. But I’ll say that I have an older brother who is 54 this year. He is profoundly disabled. He’s never walked, he doesn’t talk, very severely disabled. I’ve always grown up with him, so I knew that I wanted to do work in a field with special needs, but I also knew that I wanted summers off.
My mom was a school counselor, so I was kind of used to that kind of groove of education. I went to college just thinking, “I’m gonna major in psychology and minor in social sciences.” I was like, “We’ll just figure it out.”
At Winthrop University [in Rock Hill, South Carolina], a part of their psych program is, when you’re a first-year psych major, you’ve got to take a class called Careers and Courseworks in Psychology. They force you to look at all kinds of fields of psychology. It popped up that “school psychologist” was a thing and it existed, and I just kind of decided I was gonna stay on that track.
What are your day-to-day duties as a school psychologist?
Every school needs a different type of psychologist, so I feel like my roles change every single time I walk into my elementary school, my middle school or my high school. I would say I break my schedule up; since the middle and the high school are right next to each other, I usually take those the same day, so I walk back and forth.
On an elementary day, I kind of get brighter, because that’s when I go in and I help with car rider duty in the morning. That’s not required, but I like to do it. [laughs] I help with that. And then I usually start settling in to get testing with them. I call them “my little babies” at J.W. Coon. It’s better to get those kids first thing in the morning when they’re just kind of energetic… I don’t have any counseling groups, but I do a lot of one-on-one counseling.
The middle school is a little bit more of testing… I might end up in the classroom doing observation or pull a kid out — my entire office at the middle school is a calm corner.
…High school is a whole different monster, honestly. I walk in there, I need to test, I need to find the kids. I don’t really work as closely one-on-one as I want to with high school yet. But that is much more of a, “Let’s get you tested. Let’s figure out why we’re struggling in math. Let’s figure out why we’re struggling in reading and get those services in place as soon as possible to benefit the kid.”
When did you find out that you had received the School Psychologist of the Year award?
It’s a funny thing. Nobody knows until the day of, but I think one of my principals accidentally gave it away, because all the principals of anybody that was nominated are invited. My principal showed up with flowers and I was like, “Oh, dang it.” [laughs] I found out Dec. 9.
My husband kind of gave it away because he’s very scheduled in the morning, and he was off that morning. I was like, “Something’s going on, but I’m just gonna be quiet and go about my day.”
What do you feel is the most important part of what you do?
Every site is gonna have a different answer. It’s always, first and foremost, what is the best way to even the playing ground with our children that have special needs or academic needs?
…So many parents, they don’t understand their child’s education, especially when they have a child with special needs. They don’t feel a connection with the school sometimes. The language is off putting and it’s a sensitive topic to look at a parent and say that your child may not have the ability to perform, but we’re gonna do the best we can. My goal is to make sure that every parent understands what their child needs and is comfortable coming to the school and asking questions and being involved with their children in the special education area.
What do you think people might not know or understand about your job?
Everybody thinks that we’re glorified school counselors. Everybody.
I think people misunderstand that our job is more so to work within the special needs arena. People don’t get that we work mainly with special needs and how vast that is, because a lot of people think, “Oh, that’s just a self-contained classroom. Those are just separate children.” There’s so many students that just have a learning disability, and they’re mainstream.
The impact of social media on our students has been a big topic of discussion for a long time. In your role, have you seen any impact on students?
Behaviorally — that’s just where my mind goes — I see it getting a lot harder for them, because everything is recorded. I was sitting and talking to a student not long ago, and they were saying that dances aren’t fun and they don’t want to go to prom. I’m like, “Well, why aren’t things fun?” They were like, “Everybody’s gonna record me.” I was like, I’ve never thought about that, and it really opened up my mind.
I think that affects mental health, that they don’t feel like they can just be free and be silly or even get into a little mischief that is not illegal. So that’s what I see behaviorally.
Academically, I have a 17-year-old stepdaughter, but I see it’s harder for her to understand research. Everything can be found in a YouTube video. Everything can just be found, so she doesn’t really retain a lot of stuff because it comes so quickly and it’s just like, “Answer. Go.” The effects of social media can be amazing because there’s so much at their fingertips, but it can also be hindering to development.
What are some of the biggest issues that you believe are impacting students’ mental and behavioral health in 2024?
I will have to say the negative impacts of social media. I do like social media; I feel like it has its amazing benefits, but sometimes students are engrossed... I think I have a little bit of that perspective since I have a moody 17-year-old. Gen Z, they’re so unbothered — I love that, that y’all are so unbothered, but sometimes you gotta be a little bothered about things. We have to focus on self-improvement.
What would you say has been your proudest moment as a school psychologist?
In 2017, I was working at Douglas Byrd Middle School, and a parent came up to the front office. I was just manning the phones. I think somebody was out. I was just kind of minding my business at the front office, and a parent came in in tears. She was like, “My kid has a report, and I don’t understand it. He has an individualized education plan issued in another language.” I was like, “I have no idea what’s going on, but we’ll figure it out.”
I went and got this kid, got the report, figured out what she was talking about and was able to help call that meeting and realize that her son got outside testing, but his IQ was so high that he wouldn’t qualify for anything. His schoolwork was good; he just was really socially awkward…
I met him and realized that he is autistic… So I met him one day. I was like, “How about I just hang with him for a little bit? You want me to do some one-on-one counseling?” She was like, “That would be great.”
I met him and we just started talking. It turns out that we were both really obsessed with a cartoon, which is “Steven Universe.” Love “Steven Universe,” and that was one of his special interests. So we built a lot of counseling time around those lessons and watching videos and social skills, and he was able to throw a little “Steven Universe” party and invite some friends over.
All that to say, that was him in 7th grade. I met with him consistently outside of the 2020 meltdown. We had counseling sessions until he graduated last year. After he graduated, we kept in contact. He called me the other day and he said, “I don’t drive quite yet. I really want to get my mom something for Christmas, my sisters and brothers,” and he asked me to take him shopping.
Of course, I got with mom and was like, “Is that OK? He’s out of school.” She was like, “Oh, please.”
To this day, probably once a month, he’ll be like, “Can we go to Barnes & Noble?” …So I still have that one sweet baby that I hang out with. I’m proud of that. I’m glad that he’s so much more open and his social skills have grown. I don’t take a lot of credit for that; it’s just I’m proud that he’s doing so well.
What do you think are some common misconceptions about mental and behavioral health issues in adolescents?
I think — and I’m guilty of it too — that we get into our groove as adults and we make it through, and we are OK and we thrive over time. We look back at our teenagers and we kind of say that we feel their problems are so insignificant, because we know it’s gonna be OK. We know you’re gonna get over the boy. We know you’re not gonna remember this forever. So I think, sometimes, we’re very flippant with real teen emotions and problems, and I think that affects their mental health.
Are there any tips or messages you would want to share with students about ways that they can protect their mental health as they navigate through school?
It’s hard to answer, because I feel like … if we really had more of a collaborative effort between home and school, I think that would be a lot healthier for students. Lately, I’ve been seeing the conflict between home and school of, “My mom says I don’t have to listen to you” and “My teacher said my mom is this.” As adults in their lives, as staff and parents, I think we need to get along a lot better.
Is there anything else you’d want to share with parents?
I understand the distrust of the school now that I have a stepkid… I have a better understanding of the outside looking in and the inside looking out. I would hope that we can move in a direction that we build more trust with our parents and that they trust the schools and we help build events together.
Is there anything you’re working on in the new year that you’re excited about and want to share with the community?
We have a small team of psychologists here — a task force — that are trying to reach out to more graduate students to become school psychologists. I can’t think of the number right now, but our numbers as school psychologists have declined greatly. There’s literally not enough people coming into the field to sustain it. It’s scary.
I graduated in 2013 in South Carolina. My entire class was 10 people. In South Carolina, there’s only three school psychologist programs, period, and that year, there were 10 from my program, nine from another and 11 from the third. And that’s all that came out of South Carolina that year.
I am really looking forward to figuring out how to get people interested in school psychology and keep the field growing and thriving.
Lexi Solomon can be reached at lsolomon@cityviewnc.com or 910-423-6500.
