FAST TIMES AT HIGH HIGH

Alternative School Offers Young Drug Addicts A Second Chance To Succeed

The administrators at this high school want to see you regularly, but not
for very long - two or three semesters at most.

And the students are more than happy when their stay is over, in part
because the social life here is practically non-existent.

"Here" is one room at the Toronto's Centre For Addiction And Mental Health
complex, just north of College St., off Spadina Ave. A couple of former
attendees have - jokingly - dubbed it High High.

It doesn't have a name (it comes under the Toronto District School Board's
alternative College Street Secondary School umbrella). It only began taking
students last year.

But it does have a very specific role. It's for young addicts - students,
aged 14 to 21 who are trying to wean themselves off an assortment of
substances and either return to a regular high school or find meaningful work.

The biggest challenge is to get these young users to buy into the school
concept. The next biggest challenge is to get them into the habit of doing
something with the first half of the day. Typically, they aren't early risers.

It helps that the programming is flexible. Check-in time runs between 9 and
9:45. Classes begin shortly after. Studies are tailored to meet individual
needs (otherwise known as alternative learning strategies).

"They always ask us if we're real teachers, if this is a real classroom and
if what they're doing are real courses," says Barbara Thal-Hodes, one of
two Toronto District Board teachers.

And indeed they are.

Still, the ratios are much, much lower - no more than 10 students per
teacher. Afternoons are dedicated to life skills and group therapy. A youth
worker is on hand throughout the day to deal with emotional or behavioural
issues.

Jane, 16, started attending last spring. She's back, taking Grade 10
courses, and hopes to be in a regular high school by next fall.

Decked out in a navy fleece jacket, gray fat pants and white runners, Jane
says this is the closest thing she's had to a real academic experience in
nearly four years. She tolerates the math, adores English, is okay with the
group therapy.

Mostly, she looks ahead to getting an education and landing a decent job.
That's quite a leap for a kid who, beginning at age 12, stole from her
family to support her drug habit. Over the following three years she became
a heavy user of "whatever was available" from her friends and at various
rave parties.

School staff don't expect students to suddenly stop abusing drugs or
alcohol, but to arrive sober and, at the very least, stay that way until
the end of the day.

Young addicts aren't exactly lining up for the structure and counselling.
Mostly they're required to attend - by the group home they're living at,
their probation officer or an official at their former school.

"Kids don't come to us easily," admits Lyn Watkin-Merek, the centre's youth
program manager. "We wish we could get more of them."

An estimated 7 per cent of high school students in the Greater Toronto Area
report significant problems with alcohol; 1.5 per cent with drug use,
according to 1997 figures from the Centre For Addiction And Mental Health.

What makes the program different from others is that students can also be
treated for mood and anxiety disorders. In offering scholastics and therapy
in one seamless day, it reduces the drop-out rates for both.

"Nothing really does succeed like success," emphasizes Thal-Hodes.

Lots of times, students agree to come here when the rest of the world is
too frightening, she says.

The day begins with a bit of breakfast, prepared at the back of the
classroom. Talk focuses on the previous night or weekend and any issues
with friends or family, standard hot buttons for youths battling substance
abuse.

"We're not talking about kids who are experimenting" with booze and dope,
notes teacher Betty Niemi.

"When using has grown to be your whole life, you're not going to be used to
doing normal things like going to school, so we have to start from where
they are. And most of these kids are way behind."

It can take weeks or months for some students to concede that what somebody
else suggests might actually be good for them.

Nick never liked school. This one was no exception.

"I hated it at first," he says. "I just wanted to leave. I thought I
deserved better. It's a lot of hard work. You have to have lots of
willpower. You have to motivate yourself."

Nick, 15, is now at a regular high school - in Grade 10 with a full course
load. He's regaining his family's trust.

From the age of 12, he smoked dope daily, drank on weekends, and hung out
with an older crowd. He dropped out of school in the middle of Grade 8.
Getting dope, doing dope and finding money to buy more dope took over his life.

"I didn't like myself much, but I kept doing it because I didn't care. I
was a follower. I wanted to be cool. When I was upset, the weed made me
feel better.

"It took a lot of time for me to realize where I would have gone without
going to school and finding new friends."

He still smokes up periodically, but his new outlet is working out
regularly at a neighbourhood gym.

Jennifer Martin, a child and youth counsellor at Rosedale Heights Secondary
School, a referring school, says the program should be seen as a lifeline,
rather than a place of last resort.

Kids who "use" need help in identifying why they do. And they need to
develop other coping skills.

Why bother with these kids at all?

Well, it just may keep a few of them off the streets, out of hospitals or jail.

The challenge for schools and families is to "engage the already
disengaged," emphasized a Health Canada study released earlier this month.

Schools are the source of tremendous stress, with less engaged students
more inclined to smoke, get drunk, skip and use drugs, noted the report
entitled Trends in the Health of Canadian Youth.

Some of the students at this alternative school are the teenagers "people
cross the street to try to avoid," says Niemi. "We'll listen to them and
teach them that life is a series of little steps and accomplishments.

"You're still going to lose half of them back to the streets and back to
the drugs. But you will have helped half."

For more information or to make a referral, call Lyn Watkin-Merek at (416)
535-8501, ext. 6798.