Sober High: OKC Mission Academy turns lives in tatters to graduation tassels
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Mission Academy is a tightly knit student body. There are 2 graduating seniors in 2024.
Look around one room school and you’ll see textbooks, student art, a home room and living room combined. But there is one subject everyone here deals with on a daily basis.
Each of the students here, including one senior, Kaden, has dealt with drug and alcohol addiction.
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“Without this community,” he insists, “I probably wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”
Teen Recovery Solutions Executive Director Joe Don Fennell says this unique school, in many cases, offers a last chance for meaningful change.
“When you do this work,” he says. “you’re trying to affect change, one teenager or one family, at a time.”
Kaden, himself, recalls starting with marijuana and alcohol at the age of 13 or 14. He bounced around school districts and quickly graduated to more potent drugs.
“Fentanyl,” Kaden admits. “I remember taking a hit and thinking, ‘I like this too much.’ I knew it was going to spiral from there and it did.”
His mom TaNeal got him to rehab, then to Mission Academy, the only school like it in the state.
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“I had had enough,” she says. “I’m one of the lucky ones.”
A 17 year old freshman when he arrived, then a relapse and close call at Christmas. He nearly died overdosing on fentanyl. He recalls, “I had 8 shots of Narcan.”
TaNeal says, “I’ll never forget that drive to the hospital.”
Kaden came back to school changed. “That was my moment of clarity,” he says.
He buckled down on his studies and he did the work at afterschool programs. It wasn’t easy but he caught up and then joined up.
“I recently joined the military,” he smiles. “I took my oath and everything.”
There are victories and defeats here, but enough wins to keep going said by the staff. Fennell puts it, “one of the reasons I really want to do this is that I’m really tired of going to funerals.”
Lives in tatters, turned to graduation tassels. Mission Academy gets them set in the right direction. The rest is up to them.
For more information on Teen Recovery Solutions, Mission Academy, or their Alternative Peer Group after school program you can click here.
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