Ossining Students Teleconference with Award-Winning Author

The following is a news release from OHS.

When they had finished reading David Sheff’s best-selling memoir, beautiful boy, about his teenage son’s drug addiction, Ossining High School seniors in Irene Unger’s college-level English classes still had questions. They wanted to know if Sheff’s son, Nic, was still clean. They wanted to know how his younger siblings were doing. They wanted to talk to the father who had poured out his heart and soul in the book, beautiful boy.

Thanks to Unger’s initiative, the students had the opportunity to pose their questions directly to Sheff, who lives in California, via Skype, the teleconferencing technology. Unger wrote to Sheff about her students desire to learn more about Nic and his family and said she expected he might agree to answer some questions via email. When she asked if Sheff used Skype, however, he said he would be glad to arrange a video conference with the students.

Sheff, an award-winning author who has written for the New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Fortune, Outside, Esquire and other titles, originally wrote about his son in a New York Times Magazine article, which was then expanded to a book. The book chronicles Nic’s downward spiral into addiction and its affect on him and his family.

“This book really shows that it can happen to any family,” said Unger. “This was an ordinary, everyday family with parents who were loving and educated. Nic was a bright boy who was accepted into Stanford University. David Sheff tried to give everything to his son, yet this happened.”

Sheff spoke to 50 seniors in three classes via Skype on November 3rd for 90 minutes, answering even the most personal questions. Students asked Sheff if he regretted telling his son about his own past drug use and whether his experience with Nic had changed his opinion on teen drug use. They asked him to describe the anguish he felt when Nic relapsed and to tell them what Nic is doing now.

Afterward, Sheff wrote to Unger via email, calling her students “awesome” and praising their enthusiasm.