Angela Kennecke: 0:07

Being a teenager is challenging enough, but imagine facing the added burden of addiction. Drug use is especially harmful to the developing brain, altering its structure in ways that can increase the risk of long term addiction and other serious issues.

Landon: 0:24

I started drinking at three years old. My father gave me my first sip of alcohol. From there I would just run around the house and steal beers and drink them. I thought it was normal because my parents were very young when they had me, so my mom would go to work and my dad would throw parties.

Giuseppe: 0:43

By the time I was going into 10th grade, I was kicked out of my high school. I was doing Xanax almost every day, doing any really pills I can get my hands on.

Angela Kennecke: 0:53

But thanks to a unique high school that combines education with substance use disorder treatment, these men have turned their lives around and are now thriving. In this episode of Grieving Out Loud, we'll talk about the program that helped them leave behind a life of addiction and crime, and how they're now helping others facing similar struggles. I'm Angela Kennecke, the host of Grieving Out Loud, and the founder of Emily's Hope. If you or someone you love is struggling with substance use disorder, please seek help immediately. With fentanyl dangerously flooding the illicit drug supply, there's no time to wait. You can find a list of helpful resources on our website, emilyshope. charity. Addiction is a powerful disease of the brain that affects people from all walks of life. From celebrities to doctors to those struggling to make ends meet. Research shows that the younger you experiment with illicit drugs, the greater the chance of continuing to use them and to suffer from substance use disorder. For Giuseppe, his journey with substances began before he was even a teen.

Giuseppe: 2:14

So I started using marijuana probably when I was around 11. My mom and dad were both using drugs when they met and, um, they got sober and my dad went back out, relapsed. And, um, my mom and I moved out here and when I was in like eighth grade, I started smoking marijuana.

Angela Kennecke: 2:40

When Giuseppe entered high school, his drug use quickly escalated, reaching a turning point in ninth grade when he tried opioids for the first time.

Giuseppe: 2:54

By the time I was going into 10th grade, I was kicked out of my high school. I was doing Xanax almost every day, doing any really pills I can get my hands on. And then towards the end of 2019, I started using meth and just mixing them with all the other pills I was doing.

Angela Kennecke: 3:17

Giuseppe's mom became extremely concerned, forcing him to enter rehab in 2020.

Giuseppe: 3:26

I didn't want to be there. My mom had hired two people to take me from my house to Utah, where I went to I was there for six months. I fought back the whole like program of it for about like three months. And then after that, I decided to give it a shot. I started trying to like help myself really like just try to learn the tools that they were teaching me and like all the advice that they would give me.

Angela Kennecke: 3:52

While 11 may seem young to start experimenting with substances, you'll be shocked to hear what age Giuseppe's friend Landon took his first sip of alcohol.

Landon: 4:04

I started drinking at three years old.

Angela Nickels: 4:06

Did you say three?

Landon: 4:08

Yeah, I started drinking at three years old. My father gave me my first sip of alcohol. From there I'd just run around the house and steal beers and drink them. I thought it was normal because my parents were very young when they had me, so my mom would go to work and my dad would throw parties. So I was exposed to a lot of things such as like violence and like sex and things like that at a young age.

Angela Kennecke: 4:44

By the time Landon turned 10, he had started drinking more regularly and experimenting with marijuana.

Landon: 4:55

And every time I drank alcohol, it was like a switch in my, in my brain, and I felt like I was going to do it the rest of my life. Same with like marijuana. When I started smoking marijuana at age 10, A lot of things were happening. My father started abusing me. I was going to school and I was having trouble at school. And when I smoked weed, it like, it numbed all my pain. Same with alcohol. I started mixing alcohol and weed to get a better effect.

Angela Kennecke: 5:30

At just 13, Landon began selling drugs and by 14, he was suspended from school.

Landon: 5:39

I chose to go get crossfaded, which is drinking alcohol and smoking weed. and I had alcohol poisoning. My grandma picked me up and what she recalled was that I was like foaming of the mouth or had like stuff coming out of my mouth. And I went to the hospital and alcohol poisoning at 14. And then I said I wasn't going to drink it again. Then like the next week I started drinking again. My disease or addiction, uh, will kill me. Like, I'll do it till I die. I got involved in harder drugs and every drug that I started using, I started mixing them together. So I started doing Trest pills, which was cut, they were covered like meth, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, just a lot of different substances. So I was taking those. I remember basically like, dying in my sleep is how I recall it, and the meth just kicking in my heart and waking me back up. to unlock the door so my mom didn't find my body dead in the bed and I just did more. I did more that day and I went to school and I started going through psychosis and seeing people following me and things of that nature so I ran out of the school and I was like running in the desert.

Angela Kennecke: 7:10

Thankfully, Landon says his mom called the police and he was quickly rushed to the hospital.

Landon: 7:17

They checked my heart and they said my heart rate was like 190 and they straight out told me that my heart was about to explode. My grandfather talks about that day and says like if I didn't get there in the time I did, I'd be dead. My grandfather asked me at the hospital, which he's in a program of recovery, he asked me if I wanted to do something different. And the year prior I heard about Mission High School, but I wasn't ready. And he asked if I wanted to go and just if I wanted to get into this recovery process. And at that time, I was ready. And I said, In my head I was like, I don't have a legacy, so if I would've died today, I would've died as a criminal, and just like, a horrible person, having nothing to leave behind but bad memories. I used to rob people, I used to sell drugs, I was just, I didn't want to be that person if I passed away. I didn't want to be another statistic.

Angela Kennecke: 8:27

To try to turn their lives around, both Landon and Giuseppe enrolled at Mission High School in Las Vegas. This unique school not only teaches subjects such as math and English, but also support students battling substance use disorder. I had the opportunity to sit down with the school's principal, Angela Nichols.

Angela Nickels: 8:49

So Mission High School was essentially started by three gentlemen whom, um, we like to call our founding fathers, our three amigos. Jeff Horne, Joe Engel, and Don Jersey about eight years ago developed the idea of Mission High School. All three of those gentlemen are in recovery themselves and have experienced some loss with relationship to recovery. Jeff Horne, who is a former administrator with the Clark County School District, you know, he always talks about how he wanted to break his anonymity in order to, you know, remove some of the stigma that's associated with addiction and that will allow students to come and Seek out the help that they so desperately need. So we are actually, we're in a building that was set to be bulldozed. Jeff Warren got ahold of the keys and said, Hey, let me go take a look at this. And overwhelmingly the school board of the Clark County School District decided, hey, that this is something that we want in our district. We wanna be of assistance to our students and help them find what they need in order to recover from addiction.

Angela Kennecke: 9:52

Get this. In less than a year, Mission High School opened its doors, ready for students starting in the 2017 2018 school year. Your mission

Angela Nickels: 10:04

is recovery, relationships, and rigor. Can you tell me the meaning behind those words? For your students. So first and foremost, you know, students come here when they want to enroll. It is a commitment to that pathway of recovery. That's really one of the only requirements, you know, per se, that we have is that you do have that commitment to the recovery process and engaging in a program of recovery. Really, and this is something any educator will tell you, that the only way you can really touch students lives and make a difference with them is to establish healthy relationships. You know, care who they are as a person, and that's especially important for our students here at Mission High School. They have to know that we care about them, we want what's best for them, and we want to wrap our arms around them so that they can be successful in the future. And then the rigor piece of it is we are a high school, right? Our goal is, yes, we are absolutely positively concerned about these students recovery, but if recovery was the only thing, treatments for that. We're also about the educational process, and one of the things, you know, I've talked about with my staff is that for me over the course of 22 years, my job has always been to prepare students for post secondary success. What that looks like at Mission High School is just a little bit different. Insofar as we engage in the recovery process, we have recovery meetings, we have recovery support, and we want students prepared for college and careers. So we try to combine, you know, those aspects so that we can get students healthy and prepared when they go out in the real world. Because at most they're going to have four years with us. So we want them ready when they leave. What do you think is the key to a teenager's recovery? Is it individualized? Is it any different from an adult's recovery? I would say it's definitely different from an adult's recovery, you know, in so far as they're kids, kids are always different from adults. And, you know, the process is a little different. I really haven't dealt with adults in recovery, so it's a little bit difficult of a question for me. But I think the key is, you know, like I said, just really letting students know that you care about them. We provide an extensive amount of wraparound services. There's also supports for the families because addiction does not just impact the individual. It impacts the whole family. It impacts the community around them. So we ensure that students have those wraparound services. And one of the things that I think has led to the success of a lot of our students is that sometimes we can be the first adults who have communicated that you're worth it, that you can do it. A lot of our kids are coming from really difficult backgrounds, you know, perhaps their parents experience alcohol or drug addiction as well. There's usually some trauma in the background of the students, but we just really wrap around them, show them that we love them and tell them that there is hope. It's really a mission of hope that there is a way through. Some of the stories of the students just break my heart. And I was doing some research and reading about them, you know, the age of first use. Being so young, using with their parents, or helping supply their parents drug habits. You see stories like that every day. What gives these students a chance to recover? It is definitely the support system. You know, we try to put in a support system for them. There's always somebody that the kids can talk to on campus. We have two employees here who are actually graduates of Mission High School, so they're able to offer. a really unique perspective that, you know, a lot of the adults coming in from it, we were not necessarily kids in high school who had addiction problems. They're like, I was here, I was you, but I'm able to engage in a program of recovery, you can do it too. And then they just really help kids with the coping skills with the, if you feel like using, what is it that you need to do, helping set students up with sponsors so that they, you know, have somebody within the community. We have a requirement that students do attend two outside meetings a week because it's really a matter of being Wrapped up in that recovery community inside and outside of campus and you also drug test students, correct? We do we randomly and on a weekly basis and we do understand that relapse has happened You know the journey of recovery its hills and its valleys. We have students who relapse I'm not gonna sound like all the time, but it's not an unusual appearance, right? You And our goal is that if that happens, that we don't find out necessarily through a drug test, but rather, you know, the students are like, Hey, you know what, I made a mistake I used last night, or I used over the weekend. I need some help. How can you support me? Because that's a different thing than catching them, right? That they're taking accountability for themselves. And, you know, we've had a number of students that their heart is absolutely there. They want to do it. So you tend to have, I don't want to use the word leniency so much, but. It's a little bit easier to say, okay, well, we're going to keep trying at this. We've also had students unfortunately have come on campus with no intention of quitting. They're not necessarily demonstrating that commitment. Sometimes they're just trying to get their parents off their back or they're trying, you know, to avoid some other consequence, which I think is actually kind of a good thing. Sometimes they come in with that attitude, but then they realize that there is hope and then the attitude changes. So your hope is you get somebody who's come in completely for committed, somebody whose attitude you can change. Yeah. But there's going to be kids that they're just not ready. But if nothing else, we're able to tell them that there is hope. At least we're planting the seed that there is. You would welcome them back if they didn't. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I think that's the big thing. You're not kicking kids out if they fail a drug test. No. You're giving them another chance. No, we try to work with them again in that journey, giving them the supports that they need. What are the things that they need to do? And, you know, we're all about second chances here and, you know, sometimes it's two, three, four, five, and that's okay. It's just, do you want to continue working it? And if they do, then we're here to help.

Angela Kennecke: 16:01

Why are you doing

Angela Nickels: 16:02

this job?

Angela Kennecke: 16:02

What is it about this

Angela Nickels: 16:04

job that is rewarding for you? I'm going into my 23rd year as an educator and I've always had a heart, not necessarily with addiction or things along those lines, but I've always had a heart for kids who are challenging, who have challenging backgrounds. Who may need a little bit more than, you know, the kid who they grew up next door to, and I think really tough schools here in the Clark County school district. And I was able to establish relationships with those students. And I thought, you know, I'm actually kind of pretty good at this. Maybe I have something that I can offer. And I tell you what, what's really fantastic about being here is last school I was at had 2, 800 students. I had maybe 25, I dealt with on a regular basis and was really able to help. I mean, he helped them all. And so like the other 2, 800 kids were almost kind of a distraction. I know that sounds like really weird, but here it's like, you can really genuinely make an impact on your entire campus and, you know, and working with the students. All the adults here know every single kid by name. We know, you know, the things and stuff about them. One of the complaints the kids have is that you guys always have eyes on us all day long. Well, well, yeah, because somebody didn't have eyes on you, and at another school you would have fallen through the cracks. And our goal here is that you don't, that you know that you have somebody who has eyes out for you, not to get you in trouble, but because we want to support you on this journey. And I know you're publicly funded. Are you a model for other schools like this

Angela Kennecke: 17:29

across the

Angela Nickels: 17:30

nation? We have people reach out and want to come see what we do. There are a number of recovery high schools in the United States. A lot of them tend to be charter or private. I think I kind of hear rumors about that there's other publicly funded high schools in the nation, but we are the first of its kind. If you were going to sell this to another district, how would you do that? Why would you tell them to establish a school like yours? So, it was the former superintendent, he was sitting, I'm not sure what restaurant he was sitting at, but somebody came and slipped him a note and it basically said, thank you for Mission High School. It saved my child's life. It's expensive and we have like 17 kids, but what's a child's life worth? And I don't think it's too much to say that we are saving lives here, that we are establishing not just their physical lives, but right, that their spiritual and their emotional lives, that they can go on and they can be functioning adults. And I think it's a great credit to the Clark County School District, because this was a big risk to take where, you know, it's not cheap to run a school, even a small one. Everybody has to take on all kinds of different roles. But, you know, to the credit of our current super, she's actually an interim superintendent. My boss and just the people of the Clark County School District that said, Hey, we're willing to do this. We're willing to fight for our kids. Because where else are they going to get it if they don't? If they don't know there's hope, where is that going to happen? So we're, we're a little bit of a beacon, I think. Do your students feel stigmatized? I think sometimes, like when they're initially coming in, we will have students who don't necessarily want to admit that they have a problem. Sometimes they will come to realize, you know, that they do. Others. Embrace it because it is that embracement of, I've got a concern, I've got an issue that you need to do before you can fix the problem. So it, sometimes it, it depends really on where they're at in their road to recovery. I would say those who've got a little bit of time under them, don't feel that stigma as much or, you know, but it's really where they're at in that recovery process that when they come in, don't necessarily want to admit, but they know they have some sort of a problem. What do you teach them about addiction? We, you know, try to teach them that there is another way. A lot of times, the reason our kids are using is because they don't want to feel the thing that they're feeling, or they don't want to deal with the thing that they're dealing with. And until you get through a thing, you don't know that you can get through the thing. So, it's a little bit of a hiding out process. So, we try to deal with it by, you know, teaching them coping skills. Got a little mantra, and it sounds a little bit silly, but it's just no matter what. I'm not going to use no matter what. And, okay, so I'm not going to use and who am I going to call? Substitution, I guess, might be a good way to put it insofar as what we want them to rely on is not that pill or that drink or that joint or what have you, but the resources that are in the community in your life that can help move you through it. And do you see kids going on? You talked about the importance of preparing kids for secondary education. Do you see kids going on? Having a productive adult life. We do. Um, we've got a big event on campus next week and we have a former student who's coming back, but we run into her at different recovery events. She's engaging in her life. A lot of times we don't know that unless the kids come back and tell us, but she's and you know, another student that we're also very proud of who actually didn't complete her high school career here. She said, you coursework with Nevada State College. So even if she's not graduating with, that's success, right? That they can function independent of us and go on and lead productive lives. So, and you know, there's those other stories as well too, but you know, just knowing that they have a sense that I'm strong enough and I know what my resources are, if I'm unsure and that they can move on with that is heartening. And again, Sometimes we don't always see the success rate in terms of students immediately stop using, sometimes they leave our doors and they go back to using, but we have again planted that seed, that there is hope, that there is a pathway that does not involve drugs and alcohol. And if nothing else, you proved to yourself that you could do it, even if it was for a short time, it is something that you can do. I think it's so wonderful you have a school

Angela Kennecke: 21:48

like this, that if parents do have a child who is struggling with substance use disorder, all the resources are right there at the school. Not everybody has that across the country.

Angela Nickels: 21:58

What advice would you have for parents who have a child who is struggling. If you're not in the Clark County School District, and you're not necessarily aware of us, or you don't have a school like this, it's gonna sound silly. Google something. How can I help? There's hotlines out there everywhere. You know, all kinds of different resources. Reach out to your church. See what, you know, meetings are available. There's resources everywhere. And take advantage of those. I think what happens sometimes is with parents, And I think this is just in general, it's, if you don't have a concern yourself or an issue yourself, it's really hard sometimes to put yourself in somebody's footsteps. So if you're a parent and you're thinking that, you know, why can't you just not do this thing? And sometimes parents too, they're worried about the stigma themselves that people will look at them that they failed as a parent because they have a student or they have a child who has a drug addiction. I would say just. Put the ego aside, go out and seek the help. And there's just resources out there on a daily basis. I run into people outside of work who have some connection to the recovery community and are willing to offer resources just to ask for the help and put aside the ego and engage in those resources as much as you can. What do you want the nation to know about Mission High School? I think I would want them to know that in Las Vegas, Nevada, there is a place for hope for the students of the Clark County School District and that if you can find a way within your own community, whether it's through a public school, whether it's through other resources, that you can put up that beacon of hope for students in your community, that that would be an amazing thing.

Angela Kennecke: 23:42

Both Landon and Giuseppe say that making the decision to attend Mission High School didn't just change their lives, it saved them.

Giuseppe: 23:54

Mission High School saved my life by just showing me unconditional love and support and just never giving up on me no matter where I was in my recovery or just in life.

Landon: 24:04

Mission High School saved my life by giving me a different path in a different way and showing me what love actually looks like. and who I could actually be and just meeting me where I'm at and not giving up on me no matter what. But when I came here and they showed me compassion and love that I've like haven't felt before. Like the administration was different and like the teachers like cared about me and they like showed me that I could do something. I thought I was a nobody, a loser, a mess up, you know what I mean? Basically what they showed me is I could do anything I put my mind to.

Giuseppe: 24:44

When I was going here, what really helped me was the constant support. Like, even if I wasn't doing what they wanted me to do, like, they still showed me the same love and support no matter what. And like, that never happened. Like, I'm used to, like, a lot of judgment, like, at home or just, like, around my peers.

Angela Kennecke: 24:58

And what keeps you in recovery?

Giuseppe: 25:00

Knowing that I can't go out and use, like, I know for a fact that if I start using something as little as weed or alcohol, like I'm going to start doing Xanax again or doing meth and it will just progress. I'll start doing drugs that I've never done before. And I just know that about myself because when I start, I don't stop.

Angela Kennecke: 25:17

Have you lost a loved one to overdose or fentanyl poisoning? I'd like to invite you to share their story on our new Emily's Hope Memorial website called More Than Just a Number. They were our children, siblings, cousins, husbands, wives, aunts, uncles. So much more than just a number. You can submit a memorial today on morethanjustanumber. org Thankfully, both Landon and Giuseppe are not only in recovery, but also thriving. They graduated from Mission High School and they both now work there supporting other teens struggling with substance use disorder. I did everything in

Landon: 26:06

my power to just, like, get the job because that's something I wanted. Since I was like 16, 16, I was like, I just want to give back because they saved my life And I just want to know other people like get their lives on track and like show them what I did, and that's what I do today, is just try to help where I can.

Giuseppe: 26:29

Kids can relate to me more, because like, I've done a lot of the same stuff they've done, whether they don't want to go to their recovery meetings, or they don't want to like, be active in their recovery, because I've been there, and like, I feel like they can relate to me, and kind of just like, vent to me about the stupid high school stuff that happens, that we don't know how to deal with, because we've been using for so long, that Like all these normal emotions we just don't know how to deal with and like they'll come to us with these normal emotions that they don't know how to deal with and we can kind of guide them through it and be like yeah you're gonna feel like this but like you don't have to go and like because of it. You can fin skills to deal with how y

Angela Kennecke: 27:10

make a big difference. He teens overcome addiction around.

Giuseppe: 27:27

It's important to Mission High School becau These kids can ask to com or any of the counselors during class. If they nee It's more one on one, like in a school of like 1, 300 kids, like I can't just like see all these kids every day and know all of them personally, you know, it's more personalized to where like I can help them with their personal recovery because not everyone's recovery is the same, right? My recovery looks different from Landon's, you know, and it just said being more personalized and us being able to wrap around them more and just show them unconditional love and support through whatever they're going through.

Angela Kennecke: 28:02

What is it about

Angela Nickels: 28:03

your own personal experience that you can convey to kids who are? Maybe where you were when you were 12, 13, 14 years old.

Landon: 28:14

There's help out there, and you're not alone, and you're not like a, a mess. So you can always make a, a 180 and change your life and ask for help. For years, I, I just felt like I was alone and I didn't talk about my issues. I didn't get through like the trauma I went through as a child. So like, just get that stuff out. If you want to change your life and you really want to do it and you really want to put this stuff down, like there's people out there that will help you.

Angela Kennecke: 28:46

And it sounds to me like the key in all of this is really the compassion and caring that the staff, and you guys are now on staff,

Landon: 28:56

of

Angela Kennecke: 28:56

Mission provides its students.

Landon: 28:59

Yeah, it's the compassion for sure. Because I had their high schools, they didn't really like care as much. There's of course those few teachers that do care. But here it's a different type of compassion because the teachers coming in here know that this school is based on recovery and if they see someone struggling, they're going to guide them over to Mira Giuseppe and we can talk to them and help them from our experience and have compassion for them because we know where they were at because we've been there.

Angela Kennecke: 29:35

What inspiring stories. And you can hear more about Las Vegas Mission High School and the opioid crisis during a nationwide TV special I'm Anchoring, sponsored by Walmart. We'll put a link for you to that special online here in the show notes. And don't miss next week's episode of Grieving Out Loud, where we'll hear from a successful collegiate basketball coach who made a life changing career shift after losing his athletic son to what he thought was a Percocet.

Vonn Webb: 30:06

He had gotten injured and he was dealing with injuries and his drift coach had told me that he was one of the hardest working guys in the weight room in the whole nine yards.

Angela Kennecke: 30:14

Hear from coach Von Webb next week on Greeting Out Loud. Thanks for listening. Until next time, wishing you faith, hope and courage. This podcast is produced by Casey Wundenberg King and Kaylee Fitts.