Forward, March!

By BETTY SMITH
Press special writer

TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS May 07, 2008 11:49 pm

— Once, this spacious room was jam-packed with band students and the sounds of instruments being tuned up.
Today, it is quiet, punctuated only by the teacher's voice as 19 students pursue their work in front of computers or at tables with textbooks.
The young men and women wear black T-shirts and sweat pants, and speak respectfully and politely when spoken to.
They are members of the Cherokee County Regimented Education Academy, commonly known as "boot school." It's designed to help students having problems to remain at home, while pursuing their education and obtaining the skills they need to return to the classroom.
Periodically, stories surface of "boot schools" that entice parents to send their children to military-style programs to straighten them out.
A recent Associated Press story reports that such programs -- referred to as residential treatment facilities, behavior modification programs or therapeutic boarding schools -- have been under congressional investigation for about a year. An estimated 20,000 teenagers attend these programs nationwide.
Sgt. Marcus Sams, who leads CCREA, said the local program is different from the programs referred to in the congressional investigation cited in the story. So is Thunderbird Youth Academy in Pryor, a military-oriented residential program for young people having trouble in regular high school classes. Juvenile courts refer students to the CCREA or Thunderbird.
Some of the programs the AP cited in the congressional study do extensive advertising to urge parents to send their troubled children to the institutions.
Investigators at the Government Accountability Office made undercover visits to the boot camps and their referral services. One investigator posing as a father was advised to hide information about the program from his wife, said Greg Kutz, an investigator who was scheduled to testify before the congressional committee.
"The referral agency warned our fictitious parents that his wife might 'freak out' about sending her daughter to a boarding school, and stated: 'I want you to tell her that it's a college prep boarding school. ... If she thinks that you want to send her daughter to a place where there are drug addicts and people that are all screwed up, she will look at you and say 'no way,'" Kutz said in testimony obtained by the AP.
Kutz told members of Congress the GAO has obtained thousands of allegations of abuse, including eight deaths, at such programs since the early 1990s.
Sams said such allegations occasionally surface. He worked at Thunderbird for 5-1/2 years before coming to CCREA when it was established in 2001. He said these stories were posted prominently to make Thunderbird staff aware of them.
"This is nonresidential," he said of CCREA. "They don't live here. They are court-ordered to be here, from truancy to minor crimes."
CCREA, now housed in the old band room at the Central school complex, operates during the same hours as Tahlequah High School. Its students, who must be in middle or high school and can come from throughout Cherokee County, attend for a minimum of one trimester. They don't have class during breaks and have the summer off.
The academy has a maximum enrollment of 20. The number of students varies from four or five to as many as 20, but averages 14 or 15. The number of boys and girls is roughly equivalent, and also varies. Currently there are nine girls and 12 boys attending class.
Former District Attorney Dianne Barker Harrold and Gary Rozell, school resource officer, initiated CCREA.
"When Cherokee County needed a place for some of these young people to go to, to get back on the right track before they get sent out to a facility, they started this," Sams said. "They [students] don't need to be sent away; they just need to be redirected."
He said it's primarily up to the student how long he or she remains at CCREA. If students perform successfully, they can go back to regular classes after a trimester. If the desired progress hasn't been made, the student's case worker can decide he should remain in the academy.
The success rate is about 67 percent. To date, counting the current students who are finishing their school year at CCREA, 222 students have passed through the program.
Last year, CCREA moved to its current site from the National Guard Armory on Choctaw Street. At the same time, the alternative school moved to the adjoining building. Occasionally, students from CCREA attend a class at the alternative school if something is available there that isn't offered at CCREA, and if their behavior warrants it.
On Tuesday, a student from the alternative school was attending a government class teacher Joel Haas offered at CCREA. The alternative school students was distinguished from his classmates because he wore a black T-shirt with white printing on it, in contrast to their solid black shirts.
A couple of other students wearing "civvies" at CCREA had been suspended from THS and were spending that time in class, rather than at home unsupervised, Sams said. The suspended students have to participate in the physical training that goes along with CCREA, so it's no vacation.
"On Monday, they'll go back to school [THS] like nothing has ever happened," he said.
The Central location is convenient because Alternative School Principal Sheryl Ridenour also supervises Haas' work at CCREA.
Haas, a longtime teacher with Tahlequah Public Schools, said he has quite a few good students who are progressing academically and earning their credits. However, some still lag behind.
When students arrive at CCREA, mostly by bus, they get active right away.
"The first hour of the day is physical training -- calisthenics, pushups, running," Sams said. "We use the track a lot for running."
Then, it's time to get down to academics, on the computer or in the books, with Haas' guidance. The class work involves everything students normally take on at the high school, including electives.
"Their transcripts don't look any different than any other Tahlequah kids' transcripts," Sams said. "Their diplomas look the same as other Tahlequah kids' diplomas."
How do parents react to CCREA?
"I get a lot of parents who say when they first learned their son or daughter had to come here, 'I'm not so sure,'" Sams said. "But it's not 'Full Metal Jacket.' We're not screaming at them all the time."
The students are never touched, pushed, or physically disciplined.
Once parents understand what the program is about, most give positive feedback, Sams said. Many are pleased to see their children succeed.
The main difference between CCREA and Thunderbird is that the Pryor academy, on the grounds of the old Whittier State School, is residential. Students from around Oklahoma live, work and study there.
"They say this is a boot camp program. We're really here to help the kids. We hold them responsible for their actions," Sams said.
CCREA tries to instill them with a military ethic -- right is right, wrong is wrong. Correct behavior is rewarded, while students must endure the consequences of making wrong decisions.
"We have had some students come here who didn't make any changes," Sams said.
He works with the Office of Juvenile Affairs, the court system, Department of Human Services, People Inc. and Multi-County Counseling to address students' issues.
"We're trying to get to the same goal, to help these kids," he said.
Their reward comes with seeing students succeed and graduate.
"Sometimes the kids just kind of get headed down the wrong street. My goal is to just get the kids caught back up, gradewise, so they can be normal junior high and high school kids," Sams said.

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