Can ‘Sober High’ schools keep teenagers off drugs? asks John D. Tulenko in the Hechinger Report.
Independence Academy in Brockton, Mass. is one of 33 “recovery schools,” public high schools for adolescent drug and alcohol abusers.
Students are referred by residential drug-treatment programs, school districts, or parents desperate for help. Once in, the hope is that a culture of “positive peer pressure” will help teens stay sober. They also receive intensive counseling to find ways to stave off addictive urges and to address whatever got them using in the first place.
Matt Langley enrolled after a stay in detox. “My friends are all proud of me,” he said, “but they’re all addicts and I can’t be around them or I’ll start using.”
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