| Schools,
Programs, & Visit Reports - Dec, 1991 Issue
|
Pine Meadows School
(916) 359-2211
French Gulch, CA.
Executive Director: David Hull
Lon Woodbury's Visit: June 13, 1991
The school is located on a
556 acre former cattle ranch in Northern California. The site originally
contained a large Wintu Indian village. In the last half of the 19th
century, gold hunters were all over it during one of California's gold
rushes. Touring the site, history seems very close with old buildings
and other relics of by-gone eras evident.
The optimum size is 41 boys
and girls (Ages 11-17), that are more fragile and more damaged than
most Special Purpose Schools, and tend to be more acting-in rather than
acting-out. The approach is strongly clinical, and the staff feels they
can handle any medical problem necessary. Treatment includes many non-verbal
methods such as Art therapy.
A strong element of the treatment
is the use of the outdoors as a healing tool. The students spend much
of their time in outdoor recreation, or raising farm animals such as
horses, cattle, sheep and pigs. The school takes advantage of many outdoor
opportunities, with the pinnacle experience being the fire-fighting
crew. Membership on this crew is earned by demonstrating responsibility
and consistency, among other habits, and membership is coveted by the
students. The crew is called on to fight forest fires in the area. This
is hard work, but extremely satisfying. There are 10 students on the
fire crew, no more and no less, and a tremendous amount of healing occurs.
I was lucky enough to watch a practice session/demonstration while I
was there. The discipline, efficiency, and speed in which the students
built a fire trail was impressive. In my past, I helped pay my way through
college by fighting Idaho and Montana forest fires in the federal Forest
Service. I wish I would have had this crew to work with instead of some
of the knuckleheads I did have to work with.
Every student has an Individual
Education Plan (IEP). The school either develops one or uses the one
developed by the student's home district. Also, each student is assigned
a therapist upon entering the program. Using the outdoors, IEPs, individual
counseling, group dynamics, telephone family therapy, and a level system,
the overall approach is what they call a Behavior Management System.
The school has small academic classes with 10 children or less per class.
Pine Meadows is licensed and
accredited by the State Department of Education as a Non-Public school,
in the Special Education category, for the severely emotionally disturbed.
There are regular in-service training sessions for the staff. If the
one I attended is any indication, the sessions have meat in them and
would be helpful for career development.
Copyright
© 1991, Woodbury Reports, Inc. (This article may be reproduced without
prior approval if the copyright notice and proper publication and author
attribution accompanies the copy.) |
