Swampscott High alumni among guests at Wellness Day

SWAMPSCOTT – Alyssa Dedrick said she was drunk when she was a student at Swampscott High and attended Wellness Day.But now that the 23 year old has more than three years of sobriety, Dedrick has a very different attitude toward the annual student-led event.”You’re in high school, you’re probably going to experiment with drugs and alcohol,” Dedrick said, after detailing how her $350-a-day heroin and alcohol addiction spiraled out of control while she was a student.She said she would forge checks from her grandfather, steal and then blow through her father’s disability payments in a week, steal and then pawn jewelry, all while working three jobs.It also took many, many attempts from friends, teachers and family to convince her to enter treatment. She said that she felt “stuck” in addiction, even though she knew that she had support of her teachers and her immediate family members to get help.”The attempts didn’t fail. In the end, I did feel like they made me get to the position where I could seek help,” she said. “I’m here to tell you that when things get out of hand, there’s a way to get help.”Students at this year’s event spent half the day traveling with their homeroom class to presentations that ranged from keynote speaker and Swampscott High School alumnus Dr. Jackson Katz, who spoke about his work as an anti-sexist male activist, to testing the healthy range of volume on an iPod. Students also took lead roles as educators. Members of the senior class hosted “Boy Talk” and “Girl Talk,” where students divided into groups by gender and senior leaders answered anonymous questions about drug and alcohol use, sex and popularity.”We wanted to focus on giving out all the information about these issues,” said Junior Peer Leader Michelle Migdalovich.She added that the school’s new Chemical Health Policy inspired the organizers to emphasize that those impacted by drugs and alcohol could get help and overcome their addictions.Katz said that he was motivated to promote healthy living – in his case, preventing violence toward women – from his experience as a student at Swampscott High.”My female friends (in college) were completely ordering their life around the threat of violence and sexual assault,” he said. “I thought to myself, ‘I’m a man and I’m in a position to do something about this.”Katz realized then that, while explicit and dramatic misogyny was rare in Swampscott, his experience as an athlete made him aware of the “bystander” in gender violence. So he co-founded the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) program, where college and professional athletes mentor boys and men on issues of masculine identity and preventing gender violence. The program has since been adopted by the military and by Swampscott High School.”We don’t focus on men as perpetrators and we don’t go in to women and say, ‘you’re going to be a victim,” Katz told students. “We focus on all of us as friends, teammates, co-workers and what can you do to be a person of integrity when you witness misogyny ? “Students and teachers said that the awareness provided by Katz, Dedrick, teachers and classmates was important.”I want to thank you,” Senior Danielle Goldman said to Katz after his lecture. “I know a lot of people in the audience needed to hear your message.”The event closed with a rap performance by student Josh Carreiro. Carreiro attended Swampscott for more than two years before transferring to Recovery High School to continue his studies while undergoing treatment for drug addiction.”It’s kind of weird coming back as a participant” in Wellness Day, he said. “I used to sit in the back and laugh, it was definitely a joke. But now I have more of an awareness of myself. I’m the last person that should be preaching, though.”