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At 5280 High School students get an unusual start to their day with a school wide recovery meeting. That’s because the students at the Colorado recovery high school all have substance abuse histories.
The director of recovery for the school, Keith Hayes, said that “When we’re talking about sobriety, we’re talking about all mind altering substances.”
Ending Lives Before They Begin
Due to the surge in lethal narcotics like fentanyl being mixed into street drugs, Hayes had a crucial warning for the gathered teens. “Here’s the thing…that line [of cocaine or other drugs] could be your last, permanently.”
Although there are only 43 recovery high schools nationwide and approximately 160 residential treatment programs, the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics states that 2.9 million kids in the U.S. between 12 and 17 need addiction treatment.
Meeting a Dire Need
At 5280, they’ve got 109 students for the 2024-2025 school year, making it one of the largest recovery high schools in the nation. Denver Public Schools and private donations fund the high school and it’s been operating since 2018.
Students can’t attend unless they’re fully committed to their sobriety and school statistics reveal that 70% of the students have been sober for a minimum of six months. Once the kids are stable, they begin focusing on their academics.
Hayes told Nightline that he has a team of recovery coaches, individuals experiencing sustained and long recoveries. The coaches handle individual case management with the students. “It’s [like] having a sponsor here at school on a day to day basis,” Hayes said.
Notably, Hayes himself is eight years sober from a 20 year active addiction to cocaine and alcohol.
“Our goal is to help kids get sober, stay sober, find purpose and passion in their recovery, while getting their high school diploma,” Hayes remarked.
One Success At a Time
Graduating seniors of 5280 High School include twins Clara and Ben Leoni.
Ben, who deals with dyslexia, told Nightline, “It’s amazing how much they’re doing for the community and people in recovery. But also it’s a school where it helps me kind of learn the way that I need to learn.”
Clara added that she appreciates the school’s support system. “If I’m struggling, I know I can go to my teachers or I can go to [my] classmates. So…you always feel like you can lean on somebody,”
Conor Schroeder, 18, in recovery from benzodiazepines, marijuana and alcohol, was one of several students followed closely by Nightline’s team throughout the school year. Conor is in his fifth year of high school and is a senior working to graduate. He told Nightline that he used to attend school solely to score drugs before he went to 5280.
“I got suspended for fighting multiple times…I had moved into sophomore year with a 0.014 GPA,” he said.
Growing up, Conor was surrounded by drugs. His father used their suburban Denver home to grow weed before it was legal there. His mother is now in recovery but she abused cocaine, alcohol and Xanax.
Conor said he was 8 the first time he got high. He said his drug use escalated when he was 12, and his friends called him “Popper” because, “I literally would, like, take unnamed pills…like I wouldn’t know what they were.”
He had subsequent run-ins with the police due to untold numbers of drug fueled benders and breaking into cars. In 2022, Conor reached out to his mom, who had maintained her sobriety for years by then.
He told his mom, “I don’t think I could do this anymore,” and she told him about 5280 High School.
Students at the school get help recovering credits so they can get their academics back on track. They’re giving Conor the opportunity to graduate this year. He celebrated two years of sobriety in October 2024. Only days later, his mother, Ceara McAllister, celebrated 5 years of recovery.
Ms. McAllister remarked to Nightline how special it was to be able to celebrate these milestones with her son.
Conor attends the “Full Circle” recovery group outside of school, and has applied for an internship because the group gave him a purpose he doesn’t think he could find anywhere else.
Another senior at 5280 High School, Lele Mayfield, 17, lost her mother when she was only 2 years old. She then lived with different family members but her alcohol and cannabis use escalated to addiction after her aunt died in 2023.
Lele told Nightline that she “got into a very, very depressive state after my auntie passed away…if I would’ve continued to do what I did [at] another school and didn’t go to 5280, I don’t think I would have been sober.”
Lele’s cousin has since become her legal guardian, taking her into her home and enrolling her in 5280 High School, where she’s been since October 2023. She recovered enough missing credits to graduate on time and in January, she celebrated one year of sobriety.
Morgan Hendrick, a 17 year old junior at 5280 High School, was introduced to crystal meth at a sleepover, she told Nightline. She was only 13 years old at the time and her life quickly spiraled out of control.
She told Nightline, “I was a meth addict who had hardly any ways of getting what I needed. So I got myself into a lot of trouble…I was selling nudes, you know. They leaked. I was actively getting blackmailed with my nudes while I was in school.”
Morgan’s parents ran out of affordable options in Texas after exhausting their finances to get her the help she needed, she said. They decided to move to Colorado, specifically so she could attend 5280 High School.
Keith told Morgan’s stepdad, “Just bring her, just get her here. We got her.” Morgan’s parents were relieved and hopeful, though scared. They moved to Colorado in 2022.
Morgan noted, “I’m eternally grateful to them for that.”
In December 2024, Morgan celebrated two years sober. She and Conor attend Full Circle meetings together, and she also hopes to work at 5280 High School at the end of the year when she finishes school.
On probation, facing jail time, and in recovery from alcohol, fentanyl, and crystal meth addiction, Anthony Montano, an 18 year old sophomore, came into the school year with a lot at stake. Additionally, his girlfriend gave birth to his first child, a boy.
Anthony ended up homeless in Denver at the tender age of 13, which is when his struggles began. He took the Nightline team to the bus stop where he used to sleep and shared that he would have “nowhere to go just walking up and down the streets. I had a bag full of clothes…I sat here for about maybe four or five days.”
Anthony’s mother had an alcohol addiction, and his father was in prison, leaving no one to take care of him. He fell in with someone who recruited him to join a gang, where he learned to sell dope to make money.
Anthony ended up with a meth addiction and wound up bouncing between arrests, with time in juvenile detention, and motels. He turned to fentanyl upon his mother’s passing in 2022. He overdosed immediately but was revived with Narcan.
He ended up in jail after stealing for the last time in December 2023, when he was 17. His older half brother, Tomas Salazar took control after that. Tomas took Anthony in. As part of his probation, Anthony enrolled in 5280.
His infant son suffered a near-fatal exposure to fentanyl when Anthony was seven months into the school year but has recovered. The child’s mother pleaded guilty to child abuse with bodily injury and awaits sentencing.
Anthony now has custody of his son and feels that if his son had died, he would have lost it. Despite his numerous setbacks, including one brief meth relapse, he celebrated five months of sobriety in April of 2025 and finished the school year. After receiving his diploma and his probation ends in November of 2025, he hopes to enlist in the Army.
Stories like those of the students at 5280 High School show that no one, no matter their age, is immune from the thralls of addiction. But they also show that recovery is real and that drugs and alcohol don’t have to rob our kids of the happy and healthy future they deserve.
If a young person in your life is struggling with addiction, call
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