GOOD NEWS: Communities in Schools Helps Student Stay off Drugs and Get to College 8/1/12

Shannon Murray
CBS 7 Reporter
smurray@cbs7.com
August 1, 2012

Midland, TX - Temptations like drugs and alcohol are often times the reason a student loses focus and falls behind. That’s why one school program is stepping in to make sure they stay on track to graduation.

Communites in Schools serves as an advocate for students. The counselors are there to be a friend and a mentor to keep them from slipping through the cracks. In one Midland student's case, CIS is the reason he made it across the stage at graduation.

Walking through the hallways at Lee High School, Michael Riek remembers some of his best memories and his worst.

"My first week my senior year I got caught with possession of marijuana," Riek says.

But a Communities in Schools counselor stepped in to help him turn his life around.

"I met Michael in the beginning of the year at an alternative school,” remembers LHS Campus Coordinator Chernika Andrews. “We discussed the reasons he was there, making poor choices and I told him when he came back to school I'll be here for him, to come see me."

"She told me that I made a mistake but mistakes don't affect the rest of your life, you can learn from it,” says Riek. “I let her help me and I helped myself. I stopped doing drugs and started to focus on school so I could graduate and go to college. She was more like a best friend to me, somebody that I could go to that I could talk to about anything besides school stuff."

Through CIS, Michael visited colleges and he even spoke on the stage at the Lee High School graduation.

"It was something that helped me, something to make me do better, to get me to the next level in life that would really help me in the long run," explains Riek.

"If they just know one person truly cares and is in their corner, they'll get there. They'll finish and they'll succeed"

Riek is now a children’s psychology major at Sul Ross State University and will be starting his sophomore year in the fall.