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NewsHigh-powered therapy targets troubled teens, familiesKibret MarkosThe Record March 14, 2007 Aja was abandoned by her drug-addicted mother shortly after she was born and lost her father to a bloody murder when she was 13. She was arrested a few months later for bringing a gun to school and twice was stopped from committing suicide. By her senior year, she'd been disciplined several times for fighting, cursing out teachers and making threats. A little over a year ago, Aja ran away from her grandmother's Bogota home. She was 17 -- and destined, it seemed, for a life of crime. Then her school sent her to a special program that targets not only the delinquents themselves, but also their families, peers and neighborhood. After seven months in "multi-systemic therapy" (MST), Aja mended fences with her grandmother. She's now in college in North Carolina. "I don't know where we would have been today without MST," said her grandmother, whose name is being withheld to protect Aja's identity. "She was lost in grief, with no role model in her life. She would have been locked up by now." Aja's family is one of more than 90 that have participated in MST since it was established in Bergen County five years ago. Only two other counties -- Essex and Camden -- offer it. |
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