RECOVERY HIGH STRIVES TO KEEP STUDENTS SAFE AND SOBER

School Is First Of Its Kind In State

BEVERLY - It's the week before February vacation at North Shore
Recovery High School and the students are strategizing about what to
do with their days off.

One student proposes a laser tag outing. Another, paintball. A third
suggests Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and reminds everyone to call a
friend if they're in a tough spot.

Such conversations are common at Recovery High, the first high school
in the state for students recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.
While their peers attend parties, often surrounded by alcohol and
drugs, these students are focused on finding fun ways to stay sober.

"My first time going out with some of the kids here, we went from
house to house, but it was a whole different party. I can actually
remember what happened," said Keaton Heckman, 17, of Peabody, who
used to get high on marijuana, cocaine, Ecstasy and Klonopin, an
anti-anxiety drug.

Located in the basement of the former Memorial Middle School in
Beverly, Recovery High is a public high school run by the North Shore
Education Consortium. It offers 25 students from across the North
Shore the academic courses they would find at a regular high school,
plus programs designed to help with their recovery.

They all come with stories - about stealing a car while drunk,
spending the night in the tube slide of a jungle gym because they had
nowhere else to go, or waking up from a heroin overdose after being
pronounced clinically dead. Despite their pasts, they look and act
just like normal high school students, dressed in trendy clothes and
lugging math books.

"That's because we are normal," said one student. "It's everyone else
that's using."

As part of their recovery, students are encouraged to take part in
wholesome, child-like activities. Watercolor paintings decorate the
halls, and a chart hangs outside the main office with silver stars
next to their names. But the stars are for attendance at AA meetings,
and the content of the drawings is often dark. One shows a fisherman
aboard the S.S. Recovery pulling someone out of the water.

"There's definitely a little bit of lost childhood," said student
adjustment counselor Jim Howland. "The challenge is that a lot of
kids have jumped on into adult problems."

Recovery High was designed for opiate abusers, but it also serves
students overcoming addictions to cocaine, crystal meth, prescription
drugs and marijuana. To be admitted, students must be sober for 30
days. They must also agree not to associate with known drug users and
to tell a staff person within 24 hours if they've relapsed.

Twice a month, they are escorted to the bathroom for random drug
tests. If their urine sample comes back positive, they follow their
Recovery Plan - a personalized regimen they draft at the beginning of
the program that states what they need to do to get sober. A Recovery
Plan can include anything from attending AA meetings to counseling
and art therapy.

"It's not punitive," said Principal Michelle Lipinski of the drug
testing policy. "We understand there will be relapse issues. We'd
rather address those while they're happening than afterward."

Since the school opened in August, four students have left and been
admitted to drug treatment programs. Only two have been asked to
leave, not for relapse issues but because they weren't enthusiastic
about the program.

"You have to realize you have a problem and empower yourself over
drugs and alcohol, and that's a scary thing for a 15-year-old," said
Lipinski. "It has to be the student's choice. They have to commit."

'Finally A Light'

Lipinski saw the need for programs like Recovery High when she was
the director of Salem High School's alternative program. When the
Department of Public Health announced last April its plans to open
three recovery high schools in Massachusetts, the first in Beverly
and the others in Boston and Springfield, she thought, "Finally, a light!"

The state awarded the North Shore Education Consortium $2.75 million
to be spent over five years to get the school started. It also
receives $10,000 per student from school districts within the
consortium, and $12,500 from those outside it. The per-pupil cost
averages out to about $30,000 - a cost-savings for the state in the
long run, said Lipinski, since the average stay in a drug treatment
facility costs $100,000.

Designing the first recovery high school in Massachusetts has been
both a thrill and a challenge, she said. While a manual exists for
how to start a recovery high school, she said, it's written by
educators in Minnesota, which boasts nearly half of the nation's 25
recovery high schools.

"The support structure is not in place," she said. "In Minnesota,
they know where the students are coming from. (Rehab clinics like)
Hazelden. In Massachusetts, nobody wants to see it. It's hiding under
a rock. It's a stigma."

Lipinski expected the majority of her referrals would come from area
high schools, but has found that by and large it's parents who seek
her out. Schools tend to refer students who are not appropriate for
the program, who've been expelled and are still using drugs, she said.

Lipinski has also observed reluctance on the part of some principals
to place their students in the program, as though they want to prove
that students can recover from drug addiction in their own schools, she said.

"There are schools that do great substance abuse work," she said,
"but more often than not, students fall through the cracks."

At Recovery High, there's nowhere to hide. Even when students are
absent - as they often are for court dates, doctor's appointments or
family crises - the staff generally knows where they are.

"It makes me able to relax," said Jane Hurley, a single mom in
Gloucester whose 15-year-old son attends Recovery High.

"Before he was in this school, I could not ever relax while I was at
work or anything because I never knew what to expect. Most of the
time here, I feel he's safe. I know where he is. I don't worry as
much. It's been just a very, very different lifestyle."

'Testing It Out'

The school is still in a state of evolution. Since opening in August,
it has tried out three different schedules. Rules have also changed.
Students may keep their cell phones on them and smoke during lunch if
they choose, but only at that time. This rule was implemented for
their protection, after people falsely accused them of smoking
outside the school.

"School has changed a lot since August, and that's probably because
we're still trying to figure out what it is," said Sabrina Clark, 17,
of Beverly.

Students are clustered by age into two groups that follow a rotating
schedule, with math, history and English generally in the mornings
and wellness, science and psychology in the afternoons. Fridays are
looser, with some attending pottery class at Redbrick Arts Center and
others heading to the Sterling Center YMCA for sports.

The flexible schedule and small class size give the school's five
teachers a lot of freedom. English teacher Michaela Gile recently
began reading "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with the students, though
they haven't been quick to embrace the play.

"Shakespeare is overrated," one student said recently during English.
"Who really cares?"

Such outbursts can sometimes take away from a lesson. If a student
does or says something a teacher deems out of line, they are sent to
Lipinski's office, where they fill out an Amends Worksheet, stating
what they did, why it was inappropriate and how they can restore
themselves to the community.

"The average student coming into Recovery High School has been in
attendance at their regular high school 40 percent of the time," said
Lipinski. "They all have a poor history of academic success, either
because of (drug) use or a lack of proper instruction."

Three quarters of the students at Recovery High receive special
education services. The majority struggle with some form of attention
deficit disorder, and depression is common. Most were in dropout
prevention programs at their high schools and have huge gaps in their learning.

While teaching such a student population is challenging, it's also
very rewarding, said Gile. The same student who told her Shakespeare
was overrated, she said, had approached her earlier in the day to ask
when they would be putting the play on the stage.

"Some of the kids have made quite a transformation," said Gile. "Some
were very insecure about their academic competency and social roles.
Some hadn't attended school in a while. It seems like they have found
their footing."

Tools For Life

The students will eventually have to leave the safety of Recovery
High School and learn to stay sober on their own. Most are on a
college track; others will attend trade school, work or join the
armed services.

"The graduation rate at most alternative high schools is 50 percent,"
said Lipinksi. "Here, I think it'll be closer to 95 or 98 percent."

Some students are more reluctant than others to leave. Alyssa Dedrick
of Swampscott has 174 credits - 44 more than she needs to graduate -
and has been admitted to three colleges, but still feels she needs more time.

"One of the biggest challenges for them when they do leave school is
finding a healthy, sober environment for them to continue their
recovery," said Howland. "I would say that for all kids. These kids
are just a couple years ahead."

The hope is that students leaving Recovery High will have found other
interests to replace their dependence on drugs and alcohol. To that
end, Lipinski sometimes tells her staff to drop the discussions of
recovery and focus just on academics.

"The whole focus of Recovery High School is to get that off their
plate and give them something else to focus on," she said. "Music -
this is something tangible, something long-term, something they can
grab onto. We're exposing them to physical education. It's about
having those outlets so they can express themselves so they don't
have to go back to using."

Dan McLaughlin, 17, of Amesbury has been at Recovery High only two
months, but is already showing signs of change. When he arrived, he
said, he immediately began scheming about how to cheat the drug
tests. Now, he's proud when his sample comes back negative.

"It's a place to be away from drugs and basically a different state
of mind," said McLaughlin. "Before, my state of mind on a regular day
would be getting drugs. Since I've been here, it's been, 'What am I
going to do besides drugs?'"