The Academy at Swift River, also known as ASR, was a

coeducation Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

therapeutic boarding school A therapeutic boarding school is a residential school offering therapy for students with emotional or behavioral issues. Description The National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs listed 140 schools and programs as of 2005. Therapeut ...

for teenagers, located in Plainfield and Cummington,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. Established in 1997 and closed in 2013, it was a part of the

Aspen Education Group Aspen Education Group is an American company specializing in providing therapeutic interventions for adolescents and young adults, including wilderness therapy programs, residential treatment centers, therapeutic boarding schools, and weight los ...

, which in turn is owned by

Bain Capital Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry se ...

's CRC health group. The school's student population was described as "bright but underachieving kids" with a variety of behavioral problems. The majority of students use prescribed

psychiatric medication A psychiatric or psychotropic medication is a psychoactive drug taken to exert an effect on the chemical makeup of the brain and nervous system. Thus, these medications are used to treat mental illnesses. These medications are typically made o ...

s. ASR was in session year-round and offered a

college preparatory A college-preparatory school (usually shortened to preparatory school or prep school) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily designed to prepare students for higher education ...

curriculum for

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

grades 9 to 12. Total enrollment was about 55 students. The school was the focus of the 2005 book ''What It Takes To Pull Me Through: Why Teenagers Get in Trouble and How Four of Them Got Out'' by

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

David Marcus. Shane Reardon, son of

major league baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

pitcher

Jeff Reardon Jeffrey James Reardon (born October 1, 1955) is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1979–1994 with the New York Mets, Montreal Expos, Minnesota Twins, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta B ...

, graduated from ASR with honors, but later died from a

drug overdose A drug overdose (overdose or OD) is the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended.

at age 20 in the year of 2004.Toughest save: Grief-stricken Reardon tries to pull himself together
''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'', November 26, 2006 In July 2013, Aspen Education Group announced that it would close the school later that summer.

References

Further reading