Good Afternoon Blogworld. Its been awhile and things are looking somewhat less bleek than normal. The prince is improving, has 5 weeks clean under his belt. I am so so very proud of him. But there is a lot of work to be done still. Now the tough stuff begins. Hit a small roadblock this morning, one that left me in tears after speaking to his HS. They want him to return to the HS to sit for his regents exams. WTF?? He doesnt have enough time under his belt. He needs to get stronger, develpo coping skills. I am so frustrated. The following letter that I emailed to his high school will sum it up for anyone who may or may not be reading this or care about it.

Dear Mr. *****:

My son, Prince Charming, was a student in the ***** Alternative High School until April of this year. At some point during the last few years, my son developed a substance abuse problem. In February 2006 I admitted him to **** Hospital for detoxification and evaluation as an inpatient for 8 days. He was released into the adolescent partial day treatment program where he attended 5 days a week for approximately 4 weeks. **** is only a short term treatment center and works only as a “band-aid” and it was determined that my son was in need of a more comprehensive, year round treatment of his substance abuse. However, admission to any rehabilitation program is voluntary, and while we went through the process of obtaining a PINS petition to mandate his admittance to a better suited program, he returned to the High School. Within days of his return to the High School, he returned to his drug and alcohol abusing circle of friends, was truant from school, relapsed and began using drugs again and was subsequently suspended for 5 days. I was able to convince him to return to **** partial day program again, and the counselors in the program there were able to convince him to voluntarily admit himself to C.H. Adolescent Day Treatment Center at GC Hospital.

He was accepted and began the program on April 26, 2006. It is a very stringent program and difficult to manage as a family. He has to abstain from drugs and alcohol, he is not allowed any contact with any of his former friends, nor is he is allowed visitors or to leave the house. He has been sober for only 5 weeks. He is still extremely fragile and susceptible and is still learning to deal with his depression and urges to use drugs. He is not yet able to identify “triggers” and how to effectively deal with situations that in the past he dealt with by self-medicating by drug abuse.

My son receives his education through BOCES at CH. However he will have to take his Regents exams at his home District. My son is scheduled to sit for his regents exams back in the High School as follows:

US History June 20th 12:00
Math A June 15th 12:00
Biology June 21st 8:00

It is my absolute opinion that if my son were to return to the High School for even a short period of time to sit for his regent exams, he would be in a position that he would have access to procure and/or use drugs or alcohol. While I appreciate that the school is not a correctional or rehabilitation facility, and I am aware that my son has made choices that have lead us to this place, I know that it is simply too soon for him to be in that environment. He has not yet been in a social setting with any of his peers or friends since he has been drug free, as a direct result of the rules of his program. I believe he is still too fragile and vulnerable to handle that. I feel that it would be detrimental to his health and well being and could set him back from all that he has accomplished since his admission to CH.

I am requesting that accommodations be made for my son to be able to sit for the Regents exam at a location other than the High School, either at home under my supervision with a proctor present, or at the public library or at CH. I appreciate your consideration of this matter and look forward to your reply.

Please feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss this further.

I mean... c'mon..... Am I seriously asking too much???????