by Rebecca Blumenstein

About the author: Rebecca Blumenstein is a former staff writer for Newsday and currently a reporter for the Wall Street Journal.

They trickled into classrooms at Elwood's John Glenn High School clutching sleeping bags, pillows, teddy bears and Pearl Jam CDs.

It was Friday night. But not any normal Friday night for these 80 teenagers. There would be no basketball games. No parties. No movies. And no complaining how little there is to do on Long Island this night.

With the encouragement of "Doc," school psychologist Anthony Pantaleno, they split into groups of 20 for an overnight encounter designed to explore teenage angst in the '90s—and perhaps intervene in troubled lives before they selfdestruct.

"I want you to think of yourselves as precious people, because you are," said Pantaleno, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt...