U.S.weight loss school has big results with hefty class of teens

A Kansas City school district, Independence, is seeing big results after sending 14 of its students to a weight loss boarding school in South Carolina. The students have returned home for Christmas collectively shy of 756 pounds.

The biggest loser was 16-year-old Jason Alexander, who went from 326 pounds when he left for the school 4 months ago to 233 pounds, a loss of 93 pounds. Alexander and the other students, the youngest was 11, lost weight by a combination of exercising, classes in healthy eating, sessions with counselors learning about themselves and their weight issues; the students also studied regular curriculum. It may be the first time in the United States that a school district sent an entire class to a weight loss boarding school. The school, the MindStream Academy in Bluffton, S.C., does not normally cater to entire classes from the same school district but this venture is being considered a success, with each student experiencing dramatic weight loss. "I feel amazing," said Jason, who lost so quickly he had to borrow clothes. "I can't believe I got to that point. I can't believe I got that big." While Jason and his fellow-students have completed their studies at MindStream, the school district intends to send another class there next Fall.