The Story of Channon Rose: Lessons between the Lines by Channon Rose Page B

feel so much better when you know you are doing good in the world. Remember karma is only a bitch, if you are.

Chapter 7

School for Disturbed Youth
    “Sometimes people with the worst pasts create the best futures.”
    ANONYMOUS

 
    W hat happens to bad kids when they get kicked out of normal schools? Well they put them where the rest of the bad kids go, a “special” school. I was sent to a “special” school for kids that had been kicked out of public school or could not function well in normal schools. “Special” was code for “where the bad kids go,” and we all knew it. It is called Special Ed, but it is the Special Ed for kids who are bad and can’t get through school without special help. They put all of us in one convenient location.
    There were so many desperate, unruly, criminal, violent, and lost kids in that place. The school was called North Hills Prep. Many of the kids were more messed up than I was, if you can believe that. There were heroin addicts, meth heads, potheads, psychopaths and anything else you could possibly imagine. If a kid was REALLY bad, they were sent there. The classes at that school were a joke. The teachers barely taught us anything and schoolwork was rarely assigned because no one would do it anyway. Each class had about six students, and some of the kids even smoked meth in the back of class, to give you an idea of the learning environment and the entire situation there.
    The teachers knew about most of the stuff that took place, but I had a sense that the teachers felt like many of the kids were beyond saving. I’m sure a lot of the kids’ parents felt the same way, which is why we were there, and why there are schools like that in the first place. There was even a section on campus where kids could smoke cigarettes, which was new to me. I hadn’t seen that before. We called it “the cage” because it was all fenced in and secure. Between every school period, I smoked cigarettes there even though none of us were of age to be smoking in the first place, but it was nice and convenient for us smokers. By the beginning of tenth grade I was smoking a pack a day. There weren’t very many kids at that school, so friend choices were very limited. Not only that, but as you might guess the kids there most likely wouldn’t have been the best influences anyways in terms of good friends.
    I eventually became friends with Celine and Kay. They were both addicted to meth. They were really nice to me though and I didn’t really have anybody else at that school to hang with or talk to. They asked me if I wanted to hang out with them after school, so I agreed since I didn’t have any friends at that school yet. They introduced me to smoking meth, which up until that point I was too afraid to try. I really didn’t want to do it, but I was peer pressured into trying it. Normally, I would peer pressure other people to do things, so this was a first being pushed into doing anything. I took my first hit and my whole world changed. I was hooked. I had never felt so high in my life! I felt so happy, a feeling that I had missed and longed for. I always wanted to feel that way, feel happy and not feel sad anymore. In an instant, and because of the immediate gratification, I was addicted to crystal meth and the feeling it gave me.
    I smoked meth whenever I could get my hands on it. I stole from my parents and started escorting again to make more money to buy more drugs. I was in high school and had a handful of clients that I escorted for.
    Soon, my drug problem got really bad. Meth is a drug that can ruin your life really fast. It’s cheap, the high lasts a long time, it makes you skinny because you lose your appetite, and it’s extremely addicting. Among other negative effects that occurred from smoking meth, one obvious thing that happened is I had lost a lot of weight. My dad and Misty were completely oblivious to anything that was going on. My mom on the other hand was beginning to