Bisbee English teacher big hit at Mexican drug rehab center

Instructor makes weekly cross-border trek to improve lives
The Associated Press
Published: 01.03.2007

Some teachers might be taken aback if a man suddenly burst into their classroom with a box of apples and started tossing them out to students.

But Sandi Riggs, an English teacher at a Mexican drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic known by its Spanish acronym CRREDA, used the intrusion as an opportunity to reinforce a lesson about verbs.

"What's he doing?" she asked her class, which at that moment numbered 18 men and two women, ranging in ages from 15 to 53.

When they couldn't think of the verb, she coached them. "He's throwing apples," she said, and asked them to repeat.

For the past two and a half months, Riggs, 66, has been making a weekly trek across the border from her home in Bisbee to teach English to clinic residents in Naco in the Mexican state of Sonora. A retired Cochise College instructor with 44 years of English teaching experience, she was at a friend's birthday party when she first heard about the fledgling English class that needed a teacher.

FYI - CRREDA is a "pay-as-you-stay" for profit rehab organization with more than 28 centers located mainly in border towns. The owner, a man named Luis, wears a $10,000 gold coin medallion around his neck and he and his children all drive current model year vehicles. He is a "former" drug supplier but is rumored to still be producing crystal meth for distribution. The recidivism rate for these centers is about 92% and the addicts are very often back inside after anywhere from 3 days to 3 months. It costs the families US$50 per month for the addict to stay and while the addicts are in residence, they are sent out to work often begging for donations, all of which comes back to the center and none of which can they keep, even their pay. Though I applaud Riggs' heart in wanting to help, there are better avenues. -mm