WAUKESHA PONDERS 'SOBER' SCHOOL

District Considers Charter Program Focused On Beating Substance Abuse

Waukesha - It took only a half-hour before the high school junior, fresh
from treatment for marijuana use that started when she was 10, was
approached in a high school bathroom by friends offering drugs.

Soon after, Risa Wasilak switched schools.

"I knew if I didn't want to use, I couldn't go to my old school," said
Wasilak, 17, who lives in Bloomington, Minn. "I would not be sober right
now if I went back there."

Instead, she enrolled in Sobriety High School, a private school in suburban
Minneapolis that contracts with local school districts to provide a fresh
start and an education to teenagers recovering from chemical dependency.

Such schools - known by names such as "sober schools" or "dry highs" - are
rare. The fledgling Association of Recovery Schools counts only 17 sober
high schools scattered across eight states and the District of Columbia.

Wisconsin could join that group this year.

Waukesha School District administrators have proposed starting a sober
charter school as soon as next month. The Waukesha School Board will be
asked to give the go-ahead for the school within the next two weeks.

Plans for the Waukesha school call for it to be separate from existing
schools, even apart from the district's charter school for at-risk
students. The district is studying three possible locations.

It would start small, with a single teacher and possibly a part-time
chemical dependency counselor, and use a computerized curriculum, said
James Haessly, executive director of student services and special education
at the Waukesha district.

Students would enroll at the school only after being referred by a drug
treatment center and 30 days of sobriety, he said.

Program Could Expand

"This could grow," Haessly said. "We're not sure how large we would want
something like this to be, but would it be open to other kids in the
county? In the long run, yes. In the short run, no."

The need for this type of program can be found both in the number of
students who are multiple drug users in Waukesha high schools - about 10%
of the population - and the relapse rate of adolescents who have gone
through treatment, Haessly said.

Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services show that youths
ages 12 to 17 made up about 4.6% - or about 930 - of admissions to drug
treatment centers in Wisconsin in 2000.

Between 80% and 85% of young adults who leave treatment to return to their
old high school or college end up relapsing, said Andy Finch, executive
director of the Nashville, Tenn.-based Creative Recovery Communities, which
operates a sober high school in that city.

"The idea is that these schools can provide some kind of post- treatment,
after-care for students where they can be surrounded by other people who
are in recovery," said Finch, the new director of the Association of
Recovery Schools, which was created last month after a conference of school
operators.

Concept Used In Colleges

In addition to the sober high schools, at least three colleges - Rutgers
University, Texas Tech University and Augsburg College in Minneapolis -
have recovery programs for students as well. As part of the programs,
recovering students live and attend meetings together.

"There's something to be said about being around people that have a common
purpose and a common goal . . . rather than being alone with it and
fighting it for yourself," said Bryan Meredith, 23, a student at Augsburg
College who had been kicked out of another college because of drug use.

Surrounding students who are recovering from drug addiction with other
students in recovery is a cornerstone of the sober schools, which otherwise
can differ greatly in services and academic programs.

They don't provide treatment, but many offer drug counseling.

Attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous is usually
required. As part of the Aateshing school recovery program on the Leech
Lake Ojibwe Indian reservation in Minnesota, school officials drive a van
to students' homes to take them to their weekly meetings.

Students often have to have sponsors - sober people they can go to when
times get tough.

Random Drug Tests Used

Many of the schools randomly test students for drugs, although Minnesota's
Sobriety High School relies on the honor system, requiring students to
report drug use to school officials within 48 hours. Other students are
held responsible as enablers if they know of drug use among their peers but
don't report it.

The Waukesha district is drawing on ideas from several of these schools to
help shape its version, Haessly said.

"And we'll work out the bugs the first year, because there will be bugs,"
he said.

No solid statistics exist on the relapse rate at sober schools, Finch said,
because the schools have varying rules and standards. Some kick students
out as soon as they use drugs. Others give students a second or third
chance after they have relapsed.

At Finch's Nashville school, which opened in 1997, "only about 25 percent
of the students who leave our school leave because they've gone back to
full-blown use," he said.

The rate is about the same at Sobriety High, which has two campuses with
plans to open a third, said Jim Czarniecki, chief executive officer of the
non-profit school.

Relapses Bring Repercussions

Consequences for drug use during enrollment at the school vary, but most
students would be forced to leave the school if they relapsed more than
once, Czarniecki said. Nevertheless, the school has a 78% retention rate.

"One emphasis that we place on our mission - and this is the way that we
describe it to our students - is we're your school, not your program,"
Czarniecki said. "We are the school. We are there to make sure they get a
good, first-rate high school program. And we know in order to do that they
have to maintain their sobriety."

But just saying no to drugs, especially for students with drug addictions,
isn't always easy.

After enrolling in Sobriety High School last fall because she knew she
didn't want to use drugs anymore, Wasilak said she started having cravings.
In October, she used drugs and then reported it to the school the following
Monday.

The 40-student school held an assembly where she had to explain what had
happened and answer questions from fellow students.

When Sobriety High student Jarrett Swanson, 17, split a bottle of Jack
Daniel's whiskey with another student from the school at his home in
February, he was forced to leave the school while receiving outpatient
treatment.

That was his third time in treatment, but he said he's committed to
remaining sober.

"If you start using when you were 13 or 14, you really haven't had a chance
to live life the way you're supposed to live. And once you quit, that's all
you know so that's what you want to get back to," Swanson said. "But once
you know what it's like to live sober, you don't want to go back."

(SIDEBAR)

Drug Treatment Need Among Adolescents

Youths ages 12 to 17 made up about 4.6% - or about 930 - of admissions to
drug treatment centers in Wisconsin in 2000.

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Quotable

There's something to be said about being around people that have a common
purpose and a common goal . . . rather than being alone with it and
fighting it for yourself.

- - Bryan Meredith, 23, a student at Augsburg College who had been kicked out
of another college because of drug use