Woodside man saves lives at his 'Wilderness School' Woodside man saves lives at his 'Wilderness School' (June 06, 2001)

By Jane Swigart

Special to the Almanac

For three decades, Woodside resident Reno Taini has been saving the lives of troubled youth. Lost adolescents come from all socioeconomic backgrounds and can be vulnerable to depression, use of illegal drugs, learning disabilities, such as attention-deficit disorder, addiction, and other forms of self-destructive behavior.

In his "Wilderness School," a public school program in the Jefferson Union High School district, Reno Taini has developed ways to transform the lives of kids headed toward failure in traditional classroom settings.

Each spring, before they set out on 10-day backpacking expeditions, Reno Taini arranges for his students to train with U.S. Army sergeants.

In March, sitting cross-legged in a meadow of the Fort Hunter Liggett Army Reservation adjacent to the Los Padres Wilderness, 40 of Reno's students listened closely to Sergeant Toro.

"You see that black cloud over there," the sergeant said. "If you get wet and you're wearing cotton next to your skin, you can get hypothermia."

Reno knows that at-risk kids need to hear information from many different sources.

"What these teenagers need most are flesh and blood people, not TV heroes, who will give them time and attention -- the right kind of attention," Reno says. "It's the one thing our society is short on, people who'll spend time and energy on these kids."

He nods toward a petite, dark-haired 16-year-old. Last year, Grace was addicted to cocaine. She's been off drugs now for nine months. She listens intently to Sergeant Artigua describe emergency medical techniques. Now a class leader, Grace will help teach the new students first aid.

Reno then points to Hal, who was sent to the program from Juvenile Hall. Caught for possession of illegal drugs and petty theft, Hal went from playing hooky daily to a year of strict attendance at the Wilderness School.

"These kids weren't learning anything in the classroom," says Reno. "Here, they're excited, they're safe, and they're learning."

Stocky, muscular, radiating both inner and outer strength, Reno surveys the meadow, what he calls "the open spaces of experiential learning."

He adds: "And what good are high math scores if your kid is suicidal or hooked on speed?"

Reno's students are diverse: white, Latino, black, Jewish, Palestinian, Samoan, and Filipino. One boy spent fifth-and sixth-grade in a gifted child program. Another spent last year living under bridges and eating out of dumpsters with a pack of other feral kids.

With their braces and designer jeans, some look like ordinary kids, only they'd stopped going to class and were smoking pot all day. Al, from a well-to-do family, sold crank and "ecstasy" at his school. Hank burned the car of an enemy gang member.

Many are enticed by their peers to take drugs -- Steve took 32 LSD trips during his freshman year in high school. Will is a brilliant student but suffers from depression. His psychiatrist felt Reno's emphasis on inclusiveness, the building of close ties and learning-by-doing would help alleviate the stress of the competition at Will's private school that makes his life so lonely.

Trekking into the wilderness, the four groups take off in different directions. Reno has carefully picked each group for its diversity. Pals have been broken up; boyfriend/girlfriend separated.

Old students will teach the new how to set up camp. Group C finds a beautiful campsite along the banks of the San Antonio River. The kids work hard together putting up their tarp, building a fire and cooking dinner.

"Kids helping kids," Reno says. "It's the only way with teens who are peer-driven."

Unknown to any of them, on the sixth day of their trip, a 14-year-old boy in a suburb outside of San Diego shoots two of his classmates to death and wounds 13.

On this day a cold rain pelts their tarp as the kids in Group C huddle together underneath for warmth. Despite the storm, they hunker in and enjoy the confinement, using this time to play cards, sing, make up rap songs, and tell each other their stories.

Reno has learned over the years how to get the kids to talk and to listen to one another. Some reports indicated that this latest killer-kid in America had experienced lots of bullying and mind-numbing loneliness throughout his young life. Could Andy Williams have been salvaged by Reno's program?

The Wilderness School could possibly have changed the course of his life and those of his victims (the dead, the wounded, all their families and friends, everyone in Santana High School traumatized by the event).

The group leaders on Reno's backpacking trips (usually former students who are now successful adults) make sure no one is picked on or excluded.

Some kids live in a world of broken marriages, or with alcoholic parents. Others have struggling single moms who work 10 hours a day. Many have loving parents, yet suffer from inexplicable depression or eating disorders.

Academic expectations seem meaningless to them. Emotional survival is what concerns them, sometimes just the ability to make and keep friends.

On the sixth day, the rain stops, and sunshine breaks from behind billowing clouds. Several kids in Group C climb to the top of a spectacular rock formation. Others discover a cave and explore where, for centuries, Indians ground their acorns into meal.

On the 10th day they stride back to base camp confident, suntanned and grinning broadly. The meadow rings with laughter.

They share their adventures: how they'd safely crossed the San Antonio River using ropes tied to trees (as the Army sergeants taught them); how many deer, bald eagles, and coyotes they counted; the three-hour night hikes and the shooting stars they saw.

Living close to the natural world, they have been exposed to botany, biology, and astronomy, as well as their individual capacities for physical endurance and cooperation.

When these at-risk adolescents return to the Bay Area, they've learned about camping and survival, native plants and animals of the Santa Lucia Mountains, and how the Salinan Indians hunted, gathered and cooked their food.

Most importantly, Reno has created a time and space in which the kids have learned how to get along and to work closely with other teens who might otherwise have become either their bullies or their victims, or remained strangers.

Woodside resident Jane Swigart, author of "The Myth of the Perfect Mother," is collaborating with Reno Taini on a book about at-risk teenagers. Since the late 1960s, Mr. Taini has been working with troubled youth within the public school system, and has created a privately funded alternative program for teens called the "Wildnerness School," where Ms. Swigart spent several months recently observing and assisting. In March, Ms. Swigart and photographer Anne Dowie traveled to the Los Padres Wilderness area to observe Reno Taini and his teacher-partner, Ed Lopez, take 40 "at-risk" students on a 10-day backpacking trip. For more information on the program, call Reno Taini at 550-7847 or 851-3632.