Worcester High School On Mission To Help Recovering Teen Addicts
BOSTON (CBS) - The first day of school doesn't normally include life lessons from a recovering heroin addict -- but the teens who began their fall semester listening to him aren't typical students.
"These are our kids who just went off the rails," says their principal, Susan Strong. "And it's our job to get them back."
Welcome to Worcester's Recovery High School, where the classrooms are still coming together inside a vacant factory in the city's Greendale neighborhood -- to educate teen substance abusers on the mend.
It's run by the Central Massachusetts Special Education Collaborative.
"It's just going to be better for me," says 17-year-old Corey Clark.
Clark's high school years have gone up in smoke -- until now.
"Like you're going to catch up on your school work here," he says, "but you'll also have people around helping you to stay sober."
Ethan Cammett's snorting and drinking had sunk school to the bottom of the list.
"And so I had to factor in all that stuff and deal with it all at once," Cammett says. "It got really overwhelming."
Only 11 students are on board now -- from all walks of life and from all over Worcester County -- with room for up to 50.
Unfortunately, filling the classrooms here shouldn't take long amid the Commonwealth's crisis of opiate addiction -- with overdoses claiming more than a thousand lives in Massachusetts last year.
One hundred thirteen of those deaths were in Worcester County.
No judge orders these kids to come here.
The program is completely voluntary -- but teens are often referred by a parent or doctor.
The kids can return to their old high school at any time -- although most realize that would likely be a return ticket to the same old crowd and the same old life of addiction.
"Every single student looked me in the eye and said 'I want to commit to recovery,'" says principal Strong. "All of them said 'I want something better for myself.'"
Four hand picked teachers will guide students through the state's regular curriculum -- but an addiction specialist is among the trio of full-time counselors at the ready.
"When they're triggered to use, when they start to struggle," says Strong, "we'll be able to access support really quickly."
This is the fifth recovery high school in the state -- funded partly by a five year grant of more than two million dollars from the state Department of Public Health.
The program recognizes that these students often have underlying issues to their drug problems -- like a history of abuse or mental health troubles.
Still, this is not a treatment program -- it's a high school -- where students are encouraged to find new pursuits to replace dope, while leaning on the shared experience of classmates.
"We'll come together and help each other out," says Ethan Cammett, "because we can't do this by ourselves."
