I came out of the blackout in the back of a police car.
My hands were cuffed behind me. My head throbbed. My shirt was stiff and damp.
What struck me later — much later — was not that I ended up there. It was that the moment had surprised me far more than it had surprised my peers.
My friends had known for years that something wasn't steady.
In every secondary school, students notice when something is wrong with a friend long before adults do. Yet most early intervention systems activate only after a problem becomes visible enough to document.
Where Students Turn First is part memoir, part framework. It offers a lens — not another initiative — for superintendents, principals, counselors, and district leaders who already understand the weight of responsibility they carry.
Early intervention doesn't fail because schools don't care. It fails because we misunderstand where influence lives.
WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR
Superintendents · building administrators · counselors · MTSS coordinators · student-services directors · teachers · anyone responsible for the systems that catch students before they fall through them.
"It was like a horse race. I was always the guy in last place. I thought I had to finish first. Then I realized I just had to finish."
— Student peer leader
"Adults underestimate the thoughts and capability of thoughts we have in our brain."
— Student peer leader
Silence is a design decision.
— from the book
Bob Faghan, MA, MLADC
Master-licensed substance use clinician. 30+ years in recovery, 27+ years in clinical practice. Founder of Live Free Adolescent Recovery. Author of Clinically Supported Peer Recovery (2017).