FOR STUDENTS, LESSONS IN RECOVERY

In a stuffy basement classroom in Beverly, three 16-year-old girls
sweep the worn linoleum floor and wash windows. The volunteers could
be doing other things on this hot summer day but see this classroom
as the most important room in their lives.

Next month, the three will be part of the first class of the
Northshore Recovery High School, created for teens who have struggled
with drugs and alcohol.

The state-subsidized school -- one of three that will open in
Massachusetts this fall -- will be located at 502 Cabot St., and will
be the first of its kind on the North Shore. Overseen by the
Northshore Education Consortium, the school has accepted 10 students,
and hopes to grow to 40 by the end of the school year. To enroll,
students must be sober upon admission and agree to random drug
testing. Students must also pledge to not take drugs, and commit to
attending at least two 12-step meetings a week.

"I want these students to stay safe, and I want them to get
high-quality academics, and I want them to go to college," said
Michelle Lipinski, the school's director.

Lipinski, who ran an alternative high school in Salem for seven
years, believes that bringing together teens who have had substance
abuse problems will build trust, and create a community where kids
can regain their confidence and succeed.

"I think that this is the best idea," said Lipinski. "Coming out of
these residential programs, they have such a strength, and they have
such a resiliency. Mostly what I want right now are students who are
committed enough to make change, and want to be leaders."

Robert Gass, executive director of the Northshore Education
Consortium, believes that the school will serve as a model for future
recovery schools in the state. "I think our ability to demonstrate
how important it is will be a crucial factor in the growth of this
whole movement in New England," said Gass.

Lipinski said students who relapse will be evaluated on a
case-by-case basis. Some could face expulsion.

To date, students from Beverly, Peabody, Salem, Lynn, Marblehead,
Gloucester, Ipswich, and Lexington have enrolled in the program,
which will run daily from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. In addition to classes in
math, science, history, and English, the students will also spend one
hour a day in group therapy. Electives in art, drama, music, and
video will also be offered.

Also, unless students have an after-school job, or 12-step meeting,
they will remain at the school from 3 to 6 p.m. to do homework, or
attend extra classes.

In an adjoining classroom, Sabrinna Clark is writing an essay so
Lipinski can assess her writing skills. Clark is 16, and lived in
Quincy, Brockton, Malden, Jamaica Plain, Woburn, and Winter Haven,
Fla., before coming to Beverly last year. She has not attended school
regularly since she was 8 years old, and hasn't been in a classroom
in two years.

In her essay, Clark writes about her trepidation at returning to
school: "I was the most nervous I'd been in a very long time. It's
that kind of nervous you get when you know your life is going to
change forever; almost as if the world, your world, could quite possibly end."

Clark, who says she has been sober for more than a year, shuffled
between her mother and father and grandparents' apartments most of
her life, and now lives in state-subsidized housing. After moving to
Florida two years ago, Clark says, she began taking OxyContin and
methamphetamines daily. To get the drugs, she says she stole and beat
people for money.

"Drugs was a life for me, but now I realize, you know, it's not a
life. It's a hell," says Clark, who surprises Lipinski when she
correctly answers several square-root equations.

"She's going to be a strong geometry and algebra person," says Lipinski.

Clark says the key to the school's success will be measured by its
lack of drugs. "I want this school to be good, not just for me, but
for people who have lived the life similar to the one I have," she says.

In another classroom, Dena Bowers pushes a broom with a smile. A year
ago, she was in a detox center, trying to kick a $300 -a-day
OxyContin habit. Like Clark, Bowers, who is 16, and has blond hair
and blue eyes, also hasn't been in a school in two years.

"I was always chasing the high to see if I could get higher, and I
just felt numb after a while," says Bowers, who lives in Peabody with
her grandparents. "And after a while you just needed to do it to
almost feel normal because I felt empty if I was completely clean,
with nothing in my system. I felt like I just hated myself. I
couldn't look in the mirror. I couldn't stand anything about myself
for a while. And drugs just kind of took that away from me because I
didn't care."

Bowers, who says she's been sober for 10 months, was the first
student accepted in the program, and has been coming to the school
twice a week since June to paint and clean. She's also reading works
by Maya Angelou and Harper Lee.

Bowers says she's no longer in contact with the friends she did drugs
with, and believes her new friends at the school will provide a
safety net. "It gives you a feeling that you fit in, because these
people are like you," she says. "No matter what drugs they did, or
drank, or whatever, it's still the same -- it's addiction that we all
struggle with."

For more information about the Northshore Recovery High School visit
www.nsedu.org.