Pubdate: Tue, 15 Feb 2000
Source: Everett Herald (WA)
Contact:  http://www.heraldnet.com/
Copyright: 2000 The Daily Herald Co.
Author: Kristi O'Harran

TOUGH DRUG PROGRAM HELPS TROUBLED TEEN NOTICE BEAUTY INSIDE

This was like interviewing a candidate for a Miss Teen USA
competition. Mindi Nuner, 17, spoke of maturity, inner beauty,
intelligence and success.

Talk about the emergence of a swan. Hardly a model teen, when Mindi
ran away from home at age 14 to live at a downtown Everett drug house,
her parents were terrified of getting a call from the police, or the
coroner.

Mindi began smoking marijuana in the fifth grade. Three years ago,
Mindi did every kind of drug except acid and heroin, she said. She was
expelled from her Snohomish school for fighting and ran away to live
with an older boyfriend.

With the help of police, her parents found her after three weeks.
Accompanied by an escort, Mindi found herself on a plane to Spokane,
then in a detox center. She finally arrived at the Northwest Academy
in Naples, Idaho, on June 10, 1997.

She arrived sick from detox. She doesn't remember her first days after
capture. In Idaho, she was allowed no baggy jeans, makeup, black
clothing or loose hair.

Mindi was broken down like a budding Marine. She didn't visit home for
14 months. At the beginning, Mindi was angry. She wasn't allowed to
see her parents for weeks.

Her anger softened to sadness and confusion. Though her life turned
upside down, Mindi did an amazing thing. She vowed she would never run
again.

She stuck with it. After 2 1/2 years, she recently graduated on the
honor roll with outstanding achievement awards in math, English,
history, biology and drama; was listed in Who's Who Among American
High School Students; was dorm manager; played soccer; and was a group
counseling facilitator.

Home now in Everett, she plans to enter the University of Washington
in the fall to study biological sciences.

Like I said, Miss Teen USA.

Interestingly, the Northwest Academy emotional growth program is not
based on a particular religion. As students progress, they may choose
to be escorted to churches for Sunday services. Students move through
stages, starting at Voyager, then proceed to Quest, Challenger, New
Horizons and Summit. As a Voyager, you are nothing, Mindi said. You
are escorted every time you leave the building.

When Mindi was a 14-year-old runaway, her mother, Gloria Nuner, said
she and her husband, Darrell, knew their daughter was into drugs.

"She was into all the nasty things in the world," Gloria Nuner said.
"She got involved with the wrong crowd."

Nuner said she and her husband lost all control of Mindi. Counseling
didn't work. They tried being strict, lenient or compromising to no
avail. To avoid seeing their daughter hit rock bottom, they arranged
what Nuner called a legal kidnapping.

They located the school in Idaho through a friend. It took them three
weeks to find Mindi in a drug house. Their daughter stepped outside
and was whisked into a strange car without a clue as to what was happening.

She did tell her crying parents she loved them, Nuner
said.

The program costs about $5,000 a month. Nuner said every penny was
worth it.

"I'm very confident it worked," Nuner said. "It's an absolutely
wonderful place for a child to be in and work through their problems."

After her first months in Idaho, Mindi gained the trust of the staff.
She was taken to Ashland, Ore., for the Shakespeare Festival, to
Montana to dig for dinosaurs and to Washington, D.C., for a
presidential classroom program.

In Idaho, residents live in six-bunk dorms. They do dishes and clean
the buildings. After an infraction, Mindi paid a consequence. She had
to wear a blue jumpsuit for a month. She worked building a ball field
and was shunned by the other residents for three weeks. There were
lengthy writing assignments that had to be completed.

There was no violence, sex or drugs at the Northwest Academy, she
said. Mindi said problems among dorm mates were verbal. Frequent rap
sessions exposed everyone's warts, she said.

When she graduated, she hated leaving her peers.

"I made best friends there," she said. "We knew everything about each
other."

She wasn't afraid to come home though, she said. But Mindi is avoiding
her old crowd.

"I don't need to prove anything to anyone," she said. "It's not about
parties or who can have the most friends. In a lot of ways, I'm very
different. I feel I've matured more than others."

She sounded so well based, I asked Mindi to describe herself. She
flashed a runway grin and declared she is intelligent, confident and
strong.

"My inner beauty is better than anything," Mindi said. "I know I will
succeed." 
- ---
MAP posted-by: manemez j lovitto