Local News in Brief : Santa Ana : 10 Youths in Drug Program to Be Honored

Ten students from Phoenix House of Orange County, a residential drug treatment program for teen-agers, will be the guests of honor when Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) speaks at their graduation ceremony today.

The eight senior high and two junior high school students who are being honored were once truants and failing in school but now should be considered “role models for their counterparts in public schools,” said Larraine Mohr, vice president of Phoenix Houses of California.

The high school students all have earned diplomas and plan to go on to college in the fall while continuing the final phase of their treatment, Mohr said. The junior high school students are being honored for completing eighth grade.

Each student will speak briefly during the ceremony, as will Dr. Mitchell S. Rosenthal, president of Phoenix House Foundation. State Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) also will attend the ceremony, which begins at 4 p.m. at Phoenix House of Orange County, 1207 E. Fruit St. in Santa Ana.

Phoenix House Foundation is one of the nation’s largest private nonprofit drug abuse services agencies, operating six treatment centers in the New York Metropolitan area. Phoenix House of California Inc. operates four treatment centers--in Los Angeles, San Diego and Stanislaus counties as well as Orange County.

The center here is a 40-bed residential therapy program for boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 15 who have been drug abusers. The program offers self-help in a supportive environment, as well as an accelerated academic program.