In this week’s Catholic School Matters Radio Hour (December 5), I am joined by three great guests to discuss teen addiction. First, I’m joined by my former guidance counselor at Creighton Prep, Steve Wertzberger. Steve shares his 35+ year experience as a guidance counselor and the decision to move to random drug testing to deter student drug use. Though the program is expensive, he argues, “What is the cost of the loss of human life?”
My next guest is Dr. Brooke Tesche, the Deputy Superintendent of the Diocese of Allentown. Brooke brought the idea of a Catholic high school for students in recovery and discussed their funding model and recruiting efforts. “Because it’s mission-driven, it’s very easy for people to give,” she says. She has worked hard to establish Kolbe Academy (scheduled to open fall of 2019) and describes her determination this way: “I tried to work as hard as I could in order to make it hard for the Bishop to say no.”
Here’s an article highlighting the efforts, another here, and another discussing teen addiction in Allentown. Here’s a summary of the new high school.
My final guest was best-selling author Jessica Lahey. Author of The Gift of Failure, Jess is hard at work on a new book on teen addiction. She discusses the challenges of teen addiction as well as her own work in a recovery school.
Here’s another link to take you directly to this week’s episode. Remember to subscribe so when the episodes start dropping again in January, they’ll automatically download.
