Sober high school goes statewide in Minnesota

The following interview was edited for length and clarity

PEASE Academy in Minneapolis, the nation’s oldest recovery high school, recently joined with Minnesota Virtual High School to offer sober education online for middle and high school students across the state. Exactly how does this work and why is it needed? We caught up with Michael Durchslag, director of the PEASE Academy.

High Plains Reader: Public schools are supposed to be drug-free zones, students are supposed to be sober, so what’s the idea behind a sober school and taking kids out of the public education system?

Michael Durchslag: The idea is really kind of simple, if you talk to anyone and the same was true 26 years ago and even before that, sometimes the high school is the best place to find drugs and alcohol. Maybe not specifically on site, often times it is, but you start connecting with people who are also using, it’s where your friendships are and in those friendship networks, you start using.

So the idea is, I use this scenario because right now about 3,000 adolescents go to treatment every year, so if we were to ask an adult who is coming out of treatment to go spend 6 and a half hours, 5 days a week at their favorite bar but don’t drink and go to a meeting afterwards, think of that as the worst idea ever for that adult to have to accept.

But we ask students to do that every single day when they get out of treatment, go hang out in the same situation for six and a half hours a day where they have all their same friends, the same stressors and then go to a meeting afterwards. It’s just not a recipe for success. We need build a new social network in order to most often be successful. The research is actually showing recovery rates go up as well as school improvement.

Now a significant population of every school doesn’t use, right? We’ll say 50-50 if statistics are right. But if I’m a young person coming out of treatment and I got back to my regular high school, I know that hanging out with my old friends is not a good idea. I heard that at treatment, I’m hearing it from my relapse prevention plan, so I am keeping them at arm's distance and then this population that doesn’t use, they all know me as someone who uses now, they know me as someone who is trouble so they keep me at arm’s length. So I am just kind of caught in the middle, students are caught in the middle. I don’t fit in back here where people aren’t using per se and I don’t fit over here where students are using but the users will take me back and so I tend to gravitate back towards people who use. That’s unfortunate but that’s what tends to happen. If you remove the drugs and provide additional support, you are able to focus on what’s important in school; and that is the academics and achievement and moving on off to colleges and universities and other post-secondary options.

HPR: So now you are going to be operating statewide, joining the Minnesota Virtual High School. How’s that going to work? People in our region can’t live in Minneapolis but they could enroll their kids in the school if it were online.

MD: The MAARCH (Minnesota Association of Resources for Recovery and Chemical Health) is an annual conference -- anyone who works in the recovery world is there. Over the years, so many people have come up to me and said oh my gosh, I wish we had something like you up in our area, if it’s Bemidji, if it’s Moorhead, if it’s Albert Lea. I was talking to the Principal of Minnesota Virtual High School and said is it possible that we can build something where we provide virtual support and you guys will take care of the education? And he said sure that’s not a problem.

We piloted the program second semester of this past year. If the student signs up for PEASE Academy online, they do it when they are still in treatment and they sign a release, so our social worker can get involved upon release and right before the release from treatment, to really help the families put together the relapse prevention plan, the support, the meetings, the community-based recovery support networks, it could be faith-based recovery support networks, there could be some after care services, continued outpatient services, counseling, the whole gamut. They sign up and get all their academics through Minnesota Virtual High School and they are one of the longest-standing online providers of education.

They do a really nice job with the curriculum. I am older so I am always brick-and-mortar, face-to-face education is the best, but I also know that doesn’t always work for everybody and here’s just an option and they built up a plan for them.

This past year, every Wednesday at 2:25pm, students from across the state would log onto their computers, my chemical dependency licensed alcohol and drug counselor at PEASE Academy logs onto his computer, we have a handful of students from PEASE Academy brick-and-mortar log onto their computer and they have basically a virtual sobriety support group.

He or she connects with real live students who are in recovery. Some of them have some pretty significant time in recovery. They talk about the pitfalls of early recovery and support each other, talk about meetings and importance of sponsorship and importance of saying goodbye to old using friends.

All of them have district-provided email. They can access both our social worker and our licensed alcohol and drug counselor throughout the week. If the social worker and counselor haven’t heard from them, they can reach out to the students. We can also provide the parents continued support.

We have a prom every single year in May so students from across the state come to our prom.

We didn’t have any graduates this year but we certainly have a beautiful graduation ceremony so hopefully next year we’ll have some PEASE online students who make the trip down to Minneapolis and have a meaningful graduation ceremony. They have a connection with our school, with our social worker and our counselor, so they’ll have meaningful things said about them too.

HPR: We’ve had deaths of young people in our region from the opioid crisis and the rise in the use of fentanyl. How do you think expanding your reach can help with that?

MD: We know that one of the things that fills that void of not using is developing a peer group and making a connection to something bigger than themselves. We need those students online to not only connect with the PEASE academy students but also to really provide the continuing check-ins. The more connected we can get them, the better.

Recovery schools aren’t a 100% guarantee against relapse. But if they make a poor choice and pick up and use again, the recovery schools quickly intervene and provide avenues for that student to get what they need to get back on track, so their descent back into addiction is not as drastic. If a student online makes an unfortunate choice and picks up and uses, our team can intervene and find out what happened and what led up to the relapse and create a plan to address those needs and help the parents figure out what they can do to help their child. If they do need additional treatment services, we can point them in the right direction.

How we can help is just letting students know that they are not alone, that there are other people who have gone through the exact same thing that they are going through right now. They can talk about it, they can make positive connections with other peers over the internet or texting -- that’s how a lot of adolescents work today anyway -- and I think it’s the best way.

You can find out more about the PEASE Academy’s online offerings and sign up for the program by going to http://mnvhs.org/pease-academy-online/