美国国家公共电台 NPR Kids Struggling With Addiction Need School, Too, But There Are Few Options

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Across the country, an estimated 1.3 million teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 struggle with substance use disorders¹. That's about 1 in every 12. For teens in Wisconsin, there is exactly one high school where students can be treated for substance abuse while they earn a diploma. Rachel Morello from member station WUWM visited that school and brings us this story.

RACHEL MORELLO, BYLINE²: Horizon High School is in a strip mall, down the street from Target and Pick 'n Save on the outskirts³ of Madison.

(SOUNDBITE OF STUDENTS LAUGHING)

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: Rob (ph), car.

MORELLO: It's been open 12 years. More than 150 kids have passed through the doors at one point or another. Des, who just turned 15, is finishing her first year here.

DES: At the beginning when, like, I first got introduced to the idea of coming here, I thought it was going to be, like, intense. And I didn't really like that idea.

MORELLO: Des is one of just 15 students at the school.

DES: But it's not bad 'cause it's a small, comfortable environment.

MORELLO: She and her peers are here because they're struggling, working through alcohol or drug abuse and, in many cases, mental health issues. Des started drinking back in middle school. Her mom was in and out of jail on drug charges, which meant Des moved a lot between guardians⁴, neighborhoods and schools. We're not using her last name to protect her privacy. Des says constant uprooting⁵ led her to depression and anxiety. And she turned to alcohol, which quickly became an addiction⁶. After rehab and a halfway⁷ house, she says she hopes Horizon is her last stop in recovery because here, she gets a kind of support she didn't see at other schools.

DES: I got in-school suspensions all the time. I was in the office all the time. They didn't really work with my mental crap.

MORELLO: Didn't really feel like you were in school?

DES: Yep, I was in a room.

MORELLO: Horizon carves out time for therapy every day. Certified⁸ counselors⁹ lead group and individual sessions to talk mental health, social life, family, anything going on in the kids' lives that could pull them back into substance abuse.

TRACI GOLL: Who has lunch money today? Yay, Ben.

MORELLO: It's Traci Goll's job to get to know each of these students and make sure they're successful in the program. She's the director at Horizon.

Do you feel like the mom kind of in some of these situations?

GOLL: Oh, yeah. They call me Mom. I had one call me Grandma. That really ticked me off.

MORELLO: (Laughter).

Goll says students in recovery have extra needs, so it takes extra attention and resources to get them through school.

GOLL: All of our students have a random¹⁰ UA once a week.

MORELLO: UA is a drug...

GOLL: A drug test, yep.

MORELLO: OK, OK.

GOLL: So they pee in a cup. Not my favorite part of the job, but kind of goes with the territory.

OK, I need UAs today from Lili, Aaryn, Paige...

MORELLO: Research shows kids in recovery schools like Horizon have better sobriety levels and better grades than students with addictions¹¹ who remain in regular class settings. But those extras, in addition to all the regular stuff, costs money, something Horizon doesn't have enough of. When students are referred here, the money to educate them comes from their home district. But that amount only covers about a quarter of the cost it takes to get each kid through. For Traci Goll, that means having to cobble things together for her students, sometimes through fundraising or donations.

GOLL: Every year at this job, I never know what's going to happen next year. I mean, we have lots of bills. And if we don't have funds coming in, how in the world are we going to keep this going?

MORELLO: Goll is from the area, so she knows a lot of folks who can help out. The day I visited, she was thrilled to get a text from her friend, who's moving out of town and offered the school furniture.

GOLL: Oh, look at these fun chairs.

MORELLO: I have never seen someone so excited over chairs.

GOLL: Look at that.

MORELLO: Horizon has attracted attention at the state level. As part of their efforts to curb¹² opioid and other drug related deaths, Wisconsin lawmakers just approved funding for a state-run recovery school. Just like Horizon, it will educate up to 15 students. That might not sound like a lot right now. But the idea is to scale up, to replicate¹³ what works out of this pilot program. Democrat¹⁴ Christine Sinicki supported the project. She represents the southern suburbs of Milwaukee, an area with one of the highest rates of overdose deaths in the state.

CHRISTINE SINICKI: It's gotten to the level of being a public health crisis, and we're losing too many young people. And we need to really start looking at creative ways to work with children who are addicted¹⁵.

MORELLO: The folks at Horizon like the idea of a new state school, knowing that more than just their students need the help.

For NPR News, I'm Rachel Morello in Madison.

(SOUNDBITE OF MATEO MESSINA'S "UP THE SPOUT")

1 disorders   

n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调

参考例句：

• Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告，厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

4 guardians   

监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者

参考例句：

• Farmers should be guardians of the countryside. 农民应是乡村的保卫者。
• The police are guardians of law and order. 警察是法律和秩序的护卫者。

5 uprooting   

n.倒根，挖除伐根v.把（某物）连根拔起( uproot的现在分词 )；根除；赶走；把…赶出家园

参考例句：

• He is hard at work uprooting wild grass in the field. 他正在田里辛苦地芟夷呢。 来自互联网
• A storm raged through the village, uprooting trees and flattening crops. 暴风雨袭击了村庄，拔起了树木，吹倒了庄稼。 来自互联网

6 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

7 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

8 certified   

a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的

参考例句：

• Doctors certified him as insane. 医生证明他精神失常。
• The planes were certified airworthy. 飞机被证明适于航行。

9 counselors   

n.顾问( counselor的名词复数 )；律师；（使馆等的）参赞；（协助学生解决问题的）指导老师

参考例句：

• Counselors began an inquiry into industrial needs. 顾问们开始调查工业方面的需要。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• We have experienced counselors available day and night. ) 这里有经验的法律顾问全天候值班。） 来自超越目标英语 第4册

10 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

11 addictions   

瘾( addiction的名词复数 )； 吸毒成瘾； 沉溺； 癖好

参考例句：

• He has removed the stigma of drug addictions. 他已经洗去吸毒的污点了。
• Intelligent people are good at using reason to control excessive addictions. 智慧的人善于用理性来控制过度的嗜欲。

12 curb   

n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制

参考例句：

• I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
• You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。

13 replicate   

v.折叠，复制，模写；n.同样的样品；adj.转折的

参考例句：

• The DNA of chromatin must replicate before cell division.染色质DNA在细胞分裂之前必须复制。
• It is also easy to replicate,as the next subsection explains.就像下一个小节详细说明的那样，它还可以被轻易的复制。

14 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

15 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。