Being a junkie at fifteen does not necessarily mean that your future as a degenerate has already been set in stone, especially if an institution such as Horizon High School is available to you. Its mission, stated on its website, reads as follows: “to provide a school that fosters emotional, social and academic growth for students who want to learn in an alcohol-free, drug-free environment.”
An article on the Wisconsin State Journal shares how the school helps teenagers and serves the community. It is a private, non-profit institution operating in two rooms at the Neighborhood House Community Center in Madison, Wisconsin. It caters to students who are recovering from addiction to drugs or alcohol – or both. Students who apply to the school are interviewed along with their parents and fill out an application.
The school opened in January, 2005, and has thus far served more than 50 students, some of whom have earned a diploma, returned to a traditional high school or earned their General Equivalency Degree. At this time, there are nine students studying in the school.
Lori Battista LaFond, director of outreach and marketing for Horizon High School, shared that classes follow a curriculum that meets state standards. In addition, it provides each student with one hour of counseling everyday and subjects students to weekly random drug testing.
Madison’s director for Connections Counseling Shelley Dutch shared that Horizon began with some parents of teenagers who underwent treatment but suffered relapses after returning to their schools. Horizon receives enrollees any time during the year and almost all of its students have undergone inpatient drug or alcohol treatment.
Tags: horizon high school, horizon high school drug addiction, horizon high school drug test, school for drug abuser
