Sober School To Open In Fall Program To Help Teens Stay Off Drugs, Alcohol

They planned to name it “Sobriety School,” but educators worried that might offend someone and settled on “Summit.”

No matter what it’s called, a new school will open next fall aimed at helping teenagers stay sober after kicking drug and alcohol habits.

Spokane School District 81 officials expect to sign a contract next week to open the school in a YWCA storage room with a “New York-style warehouse feeling,” said project manager Greg Baker.

Twenty high school kids will spend up to a year each at the school before moving back to their former high schools.

They’ll be held to regular academic standards with a few additions. Reading and writing, yes, but also random drug testing and routine counseling.

Educators are betting students who have just finished rehabilitation will have an easier time staying sober if they’re separated from their old classmates - and party mates - for awhile.

“We have a huge amount of kids who have used and abused alcohol and drugs,” Baker said. “They go through some type of treatment - inpatient, outpatient or both.

“And then they’re asked to go back to a 1,600-person high school, and then they’re constantly bombarded with drugs and alcohol.”

Richard Miles, treatment director at Daybreak, a private adolescent rehabilitation center, said he sees only one problem: size.

“We could probably put 100 kids in there within the first month it’s operating,” said Miles. “I just think there’s enormous need for it.”

Daybreak’s 40-bed inpatient center has an eight-week waiting list, as do most adolescent treatment centers, he said.

Lyn Erickson, vice president of Havermale Alternative Center, which will oversee the school, said she expects the school to have a waiting list, too.

The $140,000 budget will provide a teacher, a counselor, a classroom assistant and space for 20 kids. About half the money will come from a federal grant to create safe and drug-free schools.

There is no fixed amount of time students can stay, but Erickson is aiming for about a year.

District 81 is getting help from several other sources. Washington State University has agreed to have a professor and construction and design students make plans to renovate the school space.

And the Intercollegiate Center for Nursing Education will provide health instruction and medical care the students may need. Nurses are setting up a clinic at the YWCA to help “under-serviced children and their families,” Baker said.

Eastern Washington University is making plans to assess the school so educators will know if it’s really working.

Students who attend must agree to stay sober and prove it with random urinalyses, Baker said.

“They need to be committed to being drug-free. They need to want to go to this program. It’s not court-ordered.”

A QUICK LOOK AT THE SCHOOL Spokane’s District 81 plans to open a school next year to help teenagers stay sober after kicking drug and alcohol habits. Academic standards will remain the same, but there will be random drug testing and counseling. District officials believe youngsters will have a better chance at sobriety being away from their old school and party mates.