What Students Think About Chris Herren

by ELEANOR RAINE ‘21

When students walked out of the FCC on Wednesday February 13th, leaving what they had originally thought would be a standard ‘don’t do drugs’ assembly, the hallway was dead silent—not a single “where’s your next class” or “I can’t find my backpack” was heard. Chris Herren’s words hung in the air as students wrapped their minds around heavy, heartbreaking stories. However, the stagnant silence lasted for only a few minutes; as soon as class started, the deep self-reflection was over.

Most high school-aged students have been given a talk about drugs that uses data from scientific studies and presents pictures of dying drug addicts, but Chris Herren told a different story. Herren is a former professional basketball player who struggled with a drug addiction for much of his life. When he overdosed for a fourth time, he decided to change his life around, and for the past 10 years he has been speaking to groups ranging from high schools to well known professional sports teams. Recently, Herren changed the nature of the speech he gives; the speech transformed from a narration of what happened to him into a multitude of stories about people he has met in the past few years. Specifically, he connected with the Milton audience by telling stories about students who were around the same age as most of our student body

Chris Herren proved himself to be one of the most engaging speakers our student body has listened to; when I sent a poll to gauge students’ reactions to the assembly, 97 % of responses said that Herren was more engaging and impactful than other speakers, even going so far as to label  him as “the first speaker I have never spaced out in.” Students agree that Herren kept students engaged through his “tone of voice and the way he caught the attention of everybody at the assembly, including kids who never pay attention at assembly.” Herren told stories about kids in prep schools like Milton, and to many students this connection made his message much more impactful. Students in our community felt especially moved by Herren’s “stories of families affected by addiction,” his “powerful presence,” and the way that he challenged the audience to think about their own lives and decisions. About 75 percent of students who responded to my survey said that because of Herren’s speech they will try to change their actions related to drugs and alcohol. Chris Herren accomplished what few other Milton speakers have; he “was able to relate to [those of] us sitting at the back of the bleachers listening…[and that made] all the difference.”

Despite these positive reactions to the speech and the praises of Herren’s ability to connect with the student body and convince them to rethink the use of drugs and alcohol, the assembly left other students with mixed emotions. While they understand that shocking adolescent minds when talking about topics like drugs is a way to get students to pay attention, some students still felt that “trigger warnings were necessary.” One student in particular suggested that the school, “please, please urge speakers to consider the topics and the depth at which they [speak about them] and decide if [the speech] should have trigger warnings or not.” Herren spoke often about suicide and self-harm in a way that “was way too triggering for people who have struggled with or who do struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts,” one student noted, and another similarly wished that “he had warned us about how emotional and serious that [speech] was going to be.” Additionally, students wished that they had gotten “time at the end [of the speech] to process and debrief instead of going right to class.”

This lack of time to process the speech can be attributed to the fact that the adults who organized the assembly weren’t entirely aware of what its contents would be; in regards to the more emotionally taxing parts of the speech, counselors were “not happy with that aspect of it all.”  Ms. Morin stated that she was taken aback by the mentions of self-harm and suicide, stating, “as a counselor I feel that I am here to protect the most vulnerable in the community,” and that she “would have been sure to provide a content trigger warning to those who would need it” had she been better informed about the exact changes in his talk.

Despite some controversy over the content of his speech, Chris Herren delivered the Milton student body a powerful and thought provoking speech that reached even the students in the back of the bleachers, and very few students disagree with the goal of his speech—to reduce drug and alcohol addiction in teens. The only disagreement lies in the way he chose to relate that goal.

Image Courtesy of Milton Academy