Paper Tigers explores the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACES) and toxic stress on struggling teens. The film follows a year in the life of Lincoln High Alternative School in Walla Walla, Washington. After radically changing its approach to disciplining students, Lincoln High School saw a dramatic turnaround in everything from the number of fights to test scores to graduation rates. The school has become a promising model of how to break the cycles of poverty, violence and disease that affect families through the practice of trauma-informed educational strategies and is a testament to what the latest research on childhood adversity is proving:  that one caring adult can change the trajectory of a young person’s life.