Sobriety High School
"Sending a kid back to school where there's a bunch of using friends is like sending a drunk back to a bar," Jim Czarniecki, chief executive of Maplewood-based Sobriety High, one of the first recovery schools in the nation, told Pioneer Press. The schools help recovering teens shed their past reputations and stay away from peers who use drugs and alcohol.
"Students teach each other: how to have sober fun, how to live in sobriety," Czarniecki said. "Going through treatment is like getting a shiny new toolbox … but Sobriety High shows students how to use the tools."
There are about 20 such programs in the U.S., including eight in Minnesota. In the past five years, three out of four students attending sobriety schools stuck with the program. They are kicked out if they relapse more than once.
Sobriety High is merely a safe haven for students, not a treatment program. Students are required to work with a sobriety program, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, but no such program is offered in the school, Czarniecki said.
Critics of the program say that teachers at the school should be trained in substance abuse counseling, or their should be a on-site therapist. But even critics say Sobriety High is a better option that sending recovering kids back to regular classes.
More: Teens and Alcohol | Tips for Parents
Comments
How does putting a bunch of substance abusing kids in one school get them away from other kids that abuse substances? Doesn’t make sense.
It makes plenty of sense. It’s the same concept as any self-help group, whether it be for grieving families, Weight Watchers, Al Anon, whatever. There is great healing in peer support.