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Daily News-Record (Harrisonburg, VA)-July 27, 1997
School Offers Troubled Girls New Lives
Students Learn Self-Respect By Earning Every Privilege Under Primitive Conditions
By JESSICA CLARKE News-Record Staff Writer DILLWYN -- By the age of 14, Carol had been expelled from school and arrested for auto theft.
She was sexually promiscuous, used cocaine and marijuana, drank heavily and had disappeared from her Waynesboro home for three months.
Now 15, Carol, not her real name, attends school daily, says "no" to alcohol, drugs and sex, has gained 32 pounds from regular meals and plans to be a nurse.
And she can haul a loaded wheelbarrow along a wooded trail.
The difference is self-respect.
It came partly from a wake-up call of rain thumping the tent in which she sleeps. And from constructing privies, splitting wood, digging trenches, making campfires and meals and building trust.
Trust was defined dramatically for Carol after she arrived a year ago here in Buckingham County at New Dominion School, a program for troubled teens an hour south of Charlottesville.
She used a pocketknife to do a chore. "Honestly I never thought anybody would hand me a knife. I used to be destructive. I used to cut my shoes up, spray hair spray on my pants and catch them on fire. It's good to know they trust us here and good to know I trust myself enough not to do it anymore."
That's a measure of success at this year- round outdoor treatment program, Virginia's only such girls' school. New Dominion's boys' school opened here in 1976.
The girls' program started in March 1996 with a philosophy that "being able to see the effects of what you do builds self- reliance," Steve Welsh, a school coordinator, says. "We don't appreciate what we don't earn. In a sense we have to create that appreciation by having them earn everything they get."
Including food, warmth in winter and school.
A teen gains self-esteem "when she does something that makes her life better," he says. With the school's focus on teamwork to instill individual responsibility, "more than it deals with their problems, it really helps kids see their strengths. That kind of growth environment fills holes."
The holes in girls here may have been created and enlarged by sexual or physical abuse, drug use, promiscuity and problems at school. The private school is unsuitable for girls who are violent, suicidal, with low intelligence or a serious psychological disorder, officials say.
New Dominion's girls, mostly from Virginia, have tried other treatments.
Before coming here last month, Debbie, 14, from Waynesboro, had been at a mental health hospital, residential program for troubled teens and emergency youth shelter. "I had a hard time dealing with my anger and getting along with my parents," says Debbie, not her real name.
With Carol, Debbie and another girl here referred by Waynesboro's Office on Youth, "It's like they were laying their bodies on the railroad tracks almost literally," says Kirstin Frescoln, the office's family outreach coordinator. But the girls are bright and have potential.
"We feel like the kids we send there are going to be safe and nurtured and cared for," Frescoln says. "That may sound strange because we're sending them out into the woods to fight mosquitoes, to live in tents. The living in the snow and the rain and with mosquitoes is kind of a wake-up call."
Though New Dominion is licensed as a wilderness program by the state, school administrator Chris Yates says its image is different. "Nobody wanted to be associated with schools that were kind of march or die."
Children have died at survival schools in the western United States, Yates notes. Most such schools have shorter terms than New Dominion, which has open enrollment and no set duration.
New Dominion is licensed as a school for students with disabilities and a wilderness program by the state departments of education and mental health, mental retardation and substance abuse services. A wilderness program is a primitive, nonpunitive environment that combines learning and therapy in an outdoor setting.
The average stay here so far has been about 14 months. Girls leave after meeting goals established when they enroll. Goals may be educational or involve relationships at home or with groups.
Enrollment is 33 now with a capacity of 44. Of 45 girls who have enrolled so far, eight have completed the program, and several have left without finishing. The school has a waiting list, Welsh says.
The program, with three camps now, will have a fourth soon. Each camp has a sleeping tent the girls built with pine beams, plastic sides and mosquito netting over beds. Lanterns illuminate at night because the camps, with tents for eating, cooking and nightly group meetings, do not have electricity.
Girls, who sleep outdoors year-round, use only hand tools for their work projects. In the eating tent at Arapaho camp, a bow saw, ax, hammer, mattock and other tools lie in a corner.
"Our idea isn't to be militaristic. Our idea is to teach them basic life skills," Welsh says. "If it's physically beyond a kid, we wouldn't accept them. You've got to have the guts to push that kid, and if you don't, you're not going to get results."
Working as a team builds self-reliance and trust in others. "The group depends on the individual. The individual depends on the group. It's really modeled after a family," he notes.
The "survival element" is "really good for those particular kinds of kids," Frescoln says. "We don't send kids there to be punished. We have detention and juvenile justice for that. For the most part, once they go they generally thank us" afterward.
Most kids Frescoln refers here are behind academically but have caught up by the time they leave.
With no more than five girls for each teacher, "I've had phenomenal results," Welsh says. "School becomes something that they want, not something they take for granted."
At the ungraded school, where students work at their own pace, girls earn credits, a high school diploma or prepare for a General Educational Development (GED) test.
New Dominion, owned by Three Springs Inc. in Huntsville, Ala., offers counseling for substance abuse, sexual and physical abuse and other issues.
The school is among the most primitive camp programs in Virginia. "I wasn't sure how receptive agencies would be to sending girls to a wilderness program," says Gloria Dalton, a licensing official with the state education department.
The school has increased its enrollment capacity, a sign of need for the program, says Dalton, whose office has had no complaints about New Dominion.
Parents, social services agencies and the court system refer girls. The $100 daily tuition is paid by private and public sources.
"They certainly don't come in happy. No one's happy to be here initially," Welsh says.
Tracy, 16, not her real name, of Waynesboro had a choice about coming nine months ago. "The judge was tired of seeing my face in court" for running away from home, she says.
Carol burst out crying in court when told she was coming here. "I guess I was just used to getting things handed to me all the time." She was under house arrest for a month while waiting to come.
Her auto theft charge will be dropped when she leaves here next month, says Carol, whose mother is dead. She will live with the aunt and uncle she stayed with in Waynesboro before arriving.
Among the proudest moments here for girls is earning a crest, a badge conferred by the staff as "an outward sign that kid is making changes inside," Welsh says.
The girl's group makes a recommendation to staff about the crest based on her meeting her goals. The crest, usually earned within two to four months, allows privileges including visits home and academic classes.
A girl who runs away from the school, is threatening or dishonest has privileges revoked and usually a work project assigned to do with a staff member.
Home visits allow girls and their families to discuss issues as part of a transition home, Welsh says.
For Tracy, who will leave by the end of the year, home visits are the hardest part of being here. "It's very depressing having to come back" and deal with matters that happened at home.
"Parents are a big part of that healing process" with home visits, Frescoln says. "It's not just the kids who are doing all this work. We're also asking that family members make some changes too."
Open for just 16 months, the program has had no recidivism, Welsh notes.
Some mental health professionals believe it's more cost-effective to give services at an earlier age so children don't need residential treatment.
"Many links they have with the community are going to be broken," says Joann Grayson, who teaches psychology at James Madison University. "In some cases a parent might see that as an advantage if they're not happy with a child's friends or activities."
The transition from here to home can be difficult, with some teens pressured to revert to former friends or behavior and no support network.
"Some kids when they integrate fall apart," Welsh says. "It's not something that's going to be pretty all the time. They need to make mistakes and learn like they do here."
Although she "might struggle still with sex" after she leaves, Carol says, "the drugs and alcohol, that's definitely out of the picture. I know I'm going to have a struggle with my attitude. I have a big mouth."
"You're accepted here no matter what you've done," says Carol, who thinks she'd be dead by now if she hadn't enrolled. "There's nothing people ever will judge you for. They might be a little scared of you at first. But it means a lot to have somebody accept you."
Copyright (c) 1997, Byrd Newspapers, All Rights Reserved.
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