PORTLAND, Oregon — It took three years of planning before Harmony Academy was able to open its doors this fall.
It is Oregon's first addiction recovery high school. The school can hold up to 50 students and is housed on the former Marylhurst University grounds. At the start of the year, 11 students had enrolled.
Sharon Dursi Martin is the school's founding principal. "The kids who started the year with us were taking a huge risk and there were no leaders there. There were no leaders on the first day because everybody's brand new. It's really taking a risk to show up and be vulnerable and especially in early recovery. It's really hard to feel comfortable in your own skin when you've just gotten clean and sober."
At the start of every day, the group of students and staff would gather in a morning meeting for an informal, "How are you doing?" listening session. They called it, "Rose, bud, thorn." Students listed a good, something they were working on and a bad.
"Sometimes those groups are really silly, sometimes they're serious, but it sets a tone for the day," Dursi Martin said.
"Originally I started going there because it looked good for my legal situation," said sophomore Sammy Ems.
She soon found out it changed her life.
"Going there and experiencing real recovery and just being sober it gave me perspective. I got to have my first taste of what life could be like if I really put in the effort for be like I wanted it to," Ems said.
Ems attended a small charter school before Harmony.
"Being around students in a traditional high school that don't understand that I have a disease. That I have an allergy, I have this huge thing I can't get rid of that changes everything for me, I felt really alone," she said. "Starting at Harmony and being there everyday for several months, I've never been this happy."
Senior Madison Lundahl had just spent 15 months in recovery. She had enrolled in a public high school, and then was about to start a 90/90, she said. 90 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in 90 days. It was at one of those meetings she met a current Harmony student who told her about the school.
"He told me that attending a public high school that I would be surrounded by so many drugs. A different situation that I would be put in if I wasn't at Harmony."
She says within 10 minutes of walking through the doors, she felt at home. "I didn't feel like I had to cover up who I was or be ashamed of my story and stuff that's happened to me."
In mid-March, Governor Kate Brown ordered all schools to turn to online learning. That included Harmony Academy.
"I know it affects everyone, but for people in recovery we really, really need each other," Dursi Martin said.
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The first thing the principal did was make sure she stayed connected with her students during their own recovery.
"The first thing that we set up was 5 o'clock all recovery meetings and I set that up right away because I was like 'I do not want to lose this connection with these kids'," Dursi Martin said.
Classes resumed in an online fashion too.
"It was hard to make the adjustment and it was hard to have the faith that it was going to work, but what I realized was that recovery is all about adapting and overcoming," Dursi Martin said.
And overcome they did. Madison Lundahl did something she didn't think was possible. She graduated high school.
"[My family and I] didn't even know if I would graduate high school in general, based off my grades. I was able to get those up and work my butt off."
She's one of four who has graduated so far and three more will graduate by June.
To date, the high school has 25 students enrolled is still accepting applications.
"We definitely didn't anticipate a pandemic when we started the school, but all the tools of recovery we can use those for anything that comes up. Dealing with life on life's terms is what this is all about for us," Dursi Martin said.