Boarding Schools And Obesity

Private boarding schools can serve a particular student population. Some private boarding schools emphasize a particular branch of academics, some emphasize sports, some cater to the deaf or the blind. What is new on the scene is a specialty school that works strictly with overweight teens. “…Central California to the Academy of the Sierras— AOS for short. It’s the first residential high school for overweight teenagers, and a place of last resort for kids who are dangerously obese. What makes AOS unique is that every waking moment is scheduled with rigorous exercise, intense emotional therapy, and a strict code of conduct. The kids willing to endure all that because the situation is so critical for them.

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At AOS, the school tries to keep some of their time as teenagers the same, but the philosophy of the school is that the weight is a mask that you use to hide something.” Obesity can easily lead a teen down the wrong road. One teen featured in the linked article, Jonny, is a good example. “He’s failing at school, gotten a pile of speeding tickets. He’s lived by his own set of rules and managed to talk his way out of everything. Jonny, the rebel, won’t be able to do that at AOS.” (Unknown source) As in all schools for troubled teens, the demands are tough, but the rewards last a lifetime. By Ann Walker