Hospital Program Brings Classroom to Troubled Youths : Education: Some detest school, others are furious about being locked up. But teens admitted to a Port Hueneme hospital for behavioral and emotional problems learn they can’t play hooky.

Sixteen-year-old Michelle was full of rage when she first walked into the schoolroom at Anacapa Adventist Hospital in Port Hueneme and counselors locked the door behind her.

A runaway with drug problems, Michelle’s parents shipped her, against her will, from their central California home to Anacapa for counseling and rehabilitation.

“I was so mad,” said Michelle, who has been at the private hospital for about four weeks. “I was outraged. I was shocked.”

But while Michelle undergoes treatment at the private hospital for adolescents, her time will not be wasted.

Along with up to 28 other school-age youths in the program, from all over California and beyond, Michelle is being educated while she is locked up.

Anacapa officials asked that the full names of the students not be used to protect their privacy.

The hospital, under an agreement with the Oxnard Union High School District, has permanently assigned teacher Jerry Reed to the steady stream of students who come to Anacapa’s single classroom from public and private schools as far away as Nevada, Colorado and Arizona.

Reed’s challenge is daunting: to instruct ninth- through 12th-grade youngsters whose problems range from drug and alcohol abuse to eating disorders, depression, family problems and--like Michelle when she first arrived--outright hostility.

“We get some very angry kids whose parents have tricked them in here,” said Reed, whom the students affectionately call “Doc.” More then 1,200 youths have been through Anacapa’s program since it started in 1985.

One of those was Jason Shoup, 19, now a supervisor with the program.

“The first time I came here, it was supposed to be for an hour, but I didn’t stay for an hour,” Shoup said. “I was tricked in.”

Shoup, a Ventura High School student with drug problems who had run away from home in 1987, had called his mother and said he was ready to come back. She asked him to meet her at a nearby drugstore, and from there she drove him to Anacapa, where he had agreed to meet with a counselor.

Instead, hospital workers locked the doors behind him and he ended up staying for 64 days.

After his release, Shoup eventually lapsed into his old habits, as some Anacapa students have done.

“I just didn’t use what I had learned,” Shoup said. “I didn’t follow the guidance that was given.”

He ended up back at Anacapa in 1988--this time voluntarily. The second time around, the training stuck. “Because I was more willing, I learned more,” Shoup said. “The seed was planted.”

Now a student at Ventura College, Shoup supervises youths in the Anacapa program and assists Reed in the classroom, tutoring math. He said having been through the program helps him understand the anger and frustration of current students.

Besides the problems the students have outside the classroom, many dislike school and are not eager to spend the required four hours a day in the Anacapa class.

“This is different from what they’re accustomed to,” Reed said of the year-round program. “They can’t just show up and sit in the back of the room. They must come to class and do something to get credit.”

Reed receives a transcript from each of the students’ home districts. During a conference when the student first arrives, he discusses what subjects are needed to help meet school requirements. Students are then assigned several subjects, given books and, under Reed’s supervision, work at their own pace.

Heather, a 17-year-old senior from Santa Barbara County, is studying earth science, world history and writing skills. A recovering alcoholic, she ended up at Anacapa after a drunken fight four months ago, during which she fell and broke her neck.

“I’m behind in my credits badly and I’m making it up here,” said Heather, who is out of a brace but still under a doctor’s care.

Many students flourish in the school portion of the program and, for the first time in their academic careers, begin to concentrate seriously on their studies, Reed said.

Others, however, continue to resist studying.

Ryan, 17, a former gang member from Las Vegas, said he feels his time would be better spent in counseling sessions than in the classroom.

“I don’t like it, personally,” said Ryan, who is studying world history. “I feel it’s not helping me in my recovery.”

Jeff, a 17-year-old from Montecito, said he was also trying to concentrate on his recovery.

“I’m starting to get my life together, so while I’m here I’m not concentrating on the books,” he said. “It’s good to have school, though. It takes your mind off what we’re going through.”

Christine Smith, director of student services at Oxnard Union High School District, said the district participates in the program because the students are residents of the district while they are at Anacapa and, under state law, are entitled to schooling while residing in the district.

The district also receives some state revenue for the students in the program.

Oxnard Assistant Supt. Gary Davis said the district started the program at the hospital’s request. He said an additional teacher will be assigned to the 48-bed facility this fall.

“From a residential point of view it’s an asset for parents looking for an appropriate place for their kids while they’re going through these problems,” Davis said. “Their educational program will continue.”

Reed said the Oxnard High School District was among the first in the state to provide a public schoolteacher at a private institution, shortly after a state law was passed allowing districts to claim revenue for students living temporarily in their districts, for medical or other reasons, and attending schools within the district.

The Hueneme Elementary School District provides tutorial services to a much smaller number of younger students undergoing treatment at Anacapa.

Suzie Lange, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education, said it is not unusual to have public schoolteachers teaching in institutions, including hospitals. However, most specialized programs for students unable to attend regular school, such as programs for students who are incarcerated or bedridden, are run by county schools superintendents.

David Smith, a psychiatrist who founded the Anacapa program, said two tracks are offered, one for youngsters with drug dependency problems and another for those with mental problems. The drug portion of the Anacapa program has a branch at the Van Nuys Psychiatric Hospital and a facility for adults in Sherman Oaks.

Smith said many of the parents whose children attend the program may unrealistically expect that, after a long summer, getting back to regular school will help their children straighten up.

“Kids who have a problem have been out at the beach and partying . . . and getting loaded all summer,” Smith said. “Parents are hoping school will turn them around.”

Often, he said, it doesn’t happen. At Anacapa, when students are not in the classroom, they spend much of their time in group and family counseling sessions. They live in dormitory-like rooms at the hospital and, after several weeks, can earn passes to spend time away from the facility with family members or supervisors.

Smith said the cost of treatment can range from $10,000 to $15,000, depending on the illness and length of stay. In most cases, medical insurance helps cover the cost, he said.

One Oxnard mother hopes that the program will help her 14-year-old daughter, Amber, cope with her drug problems.

Amber was admitted to Anacapa on Aug. 8 after she told a counselor at another program that she was carrying crack cocaine in her school backpack, said her mother, who asked not to be identified.

The mother said she hopes the program will keep her daughter from falling too far behind at her school, where fall classes have already started. She said the family’s insurance will cover much of the cost.

“That they have a school was a real big consideration, not that I thought about it much at the time I admitted Amber,” she said. “The program has been hard, but it’s really wonderful.”