‘Trying to make sure our kids survive’ is the top priority at Philly’s high school for students in recovery from addiction

The front entryway at the Bridge Way School in Northeast Philadelphia could pass for any small school in the city — the principal’s office, the student-painted mural, the motivational posters — but for the table just by the door.

There, staff at this unique high school for students in addiction have stacked boxes of naloxone, the overdose-reversing drug, and tests to detect the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl now prevalent in street drugs.

It’s a reminder of the dangers that the students here are up against ― and how, in a state where addiction treatment for young people can be costly and difficult to find, staff at Bridge Way are working to close the gap.

In Philadelphia, overdose death rates among young people aged 15 to 24 hover around 20 deaths per 100,000 people. Those rates rose between 2020 and 2021, the last year for which data is available, after a decline between 2019 and 2020.

Though deaths among adolescents are far outstripped by those in older age groups, advocates say that early intervention and education are key to helping vulnerable students struggling with addiction.

“Our kids are falling through the cracks, and we have to figure out how to serve them,” said Erin Bernard, the school’s executive director.

On Tuesday, Bridge Way will welcome at least 10 students to the first day of the school year. Although the school has capacity for twice as many, it is still recovering from an enrollment plunge during the COVID-19 pandemic. The school had to cap the number of students admitted in order to meet in person, which staff felt was key for the mental health of its students. A number of adolescent treatment programs that once referred to Bridge Way also have closed.

Bernard, who started as the school’s executive director earlier this year, is working to get the word out about the program, reaching out to treatment programs that the school hadn’t worked with before, and reconnecting with Philadelphia public school officials.

“It’s not that fewer kids need us. It’s that there are fewer kids that even know we’re here,” she said.

Fatal overdoses among American teenagers rose sharply in 2020 and 2021, despite national surveys showing that drug and alcohol use among teenagers nationwide has declined in the last 10 years.

Nationally, among teenagers aged 14 to 18, deaths nearly doubled from 2019 to 2020, and grew by 20% the following year, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The rise in deaths among teenagers is likely due to more potent opioids like fentanyl, which is behind most overdose deaths in Philadelphia. Nowadays, there’s a higher chance that a teenager experimenting with drugs will take more dangerous drugs, often without knowing it.

State health officials say that recovery supports for young people, like Bridge Way, are a vital part of the state’s efforts to address an addiction crisis that in 2021 saw 5,331 people die of overdoses in the state. Of those deaths, 1,276 took place in Philadelphia, the highest death toll on record in the city.

Bridge Way describes itself as the only recovery high school in the state. (A second recovery high school, run by the Catholic diocese in Allentown, closed earlier this year due to a lack of enrollment.)

Staff at Bridge Way try to protect their students by passing out supplies of naloxone, which can stop an overdose on the spot, and testing strips that can detect fentanyl in street drugs. Bridge Way describes itself as an “abstinence-based” school, but students are not expelled for a positive drug test. Staff will encourage students to open up if they’re struggling with a relapse and work with them and their families to determine whether they need higher-level treatment.

“We know that Philly substances are more deadly than they have ever been. So we’re trying to make sure our kids survive,” Bernard said.

They’re also helping students navigate other public health issues facing Philadelphia kids, from mental health struggles exacerbated by the pandemic to the city’s ongoing gun violence crisis.

This year, Bernard ordered a set of ergonomic chairs for the classrooms: Some of Bridge Way’s students are recovering from gunshot wounds and need more comfortable seating.

Amber, 20, who’s entering her second semester at the school, bounced around alternative high schools for years before she found Bridge Way. She spoke to The Inquirer on the condition that she be referred to by her first name only, citing the stigma associated with drug use.

At her traditional public school, she was worried about being judged by other students and teachers for her drug addiction, and afraid to talk to counselors about why she skipped class for days on end to smoke marijuana, her drug of choice. She was also struggling with anxiety: “I had a lot of bad things going on,” she said.

Bridge Way doesn’t offer medical addiction treatment; Amber also attended an outpatient clinic when she first started at the school. But she appreciated how, amid her treatment, teachers didn’t approach her as “a patient,” but rather as “a human who’s going through a journey.”

At Bridge Way, students take drug tests and discuss how to maintain their sobriety by learning coping mechanisms such as mindfulness and self-care strategies to manage drug cravings. They also study traditional subjects like English and algebra, though teachers try to emphasize themes of transformation and recovery in the curriculum.

This year, they’ll plant a community garden outside the school — another case study in transformation.

“I thought it was a program where you had to go in there and talk about saying no to drugs and the downs and ups of our addiction — that it would be constantly based around how you’re going to better your life after you got hooked onto drugs,” Amber said. “But it’s not just about me having an addiction. It’s about everything else going on in my life, too.”

Students also spend time each day with John Elborn, a peer specialist, who uses his own experiences as a person in recovery to help others in addiction.

“Unlike a social worker, I’m allowed to share my lived experience, and encouraged to do so,” Elborn said. “They’re not being taught from a textbook.”

Bridge Way admits students on a rolling basis. For more information, visit https://www.thebridgewayschool.org/