The Academy at Swift River, also known as ASR, was a coeducational therapeutic boarding school for teenagers, located in Plainfield and Cummington, Massachusetts. Established in 1997 and closed in 2013, it was a part of the Aspen Education Group, which in turn is owned by Bain Capital'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 medications. ASR was in session year-round and offered a college preparatory curriculum for high school 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 David Marcus.
History
In July 2013, Aspen Education Group announced that it would close the school later that summer.
Staff
Rudy Bentz was headmaster of Academy at Swift River from 1998 to 2003. He had formerly worked at CEDU high school in running springs for 13 years and had been headmaster of Hidden Lake Academy for four years.
In 2000, the headmaster was John T. Powers.
References
Further reading
- David L. Marcus (2005), What It Takes To Pull Me Through: Why Teenagers Get in Trouble and How Four of Them Got Out, Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 978-0-618-14545-4
