He changed schools, brought up his grades, got into rehab and is now a leader in the program that helped him get clean. Today, at 17, he's been clean for more than two years.

And on Friday night, he graduated from Oak View High School in Oak Park, the salutatorian of his class.

"Before I got caught, I wasn't really anybody," Kamrath said. "I was just somebody doing drugs. When I got clean, I had more on my shoulders. People actually take my advice. They listen to what I have to say."

These days, Kamrath is serving on the steering committee for Action Family Counseling, a drug rehabilitation program that meets at Oak View High, as well as other places in the county. He's also attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings.

Kamrath came to Oak View from Agoura High School when he was in 10th grade. He moved to the alternative high school, which provides more individual attention and allows students to work at their own pace, because he did not like the structure at his traditional high school. Plus, friends from his rehab program also were going to Oak View.

At Oak View, he turned his grades around and developed into a young man with "a strong sense of honor," said Susan Allen, his English teacher.

"What I respect about him is he doesn't try to duck things," Allen said. "He looks at life head on."

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