Tough love sparks rebound from addiction for West Newton native

Sam and Kimberly Salvio were desperate by the spring of 2016.

The West Newton couple had watched in fear as their youngest son, Victor, then 17, descended into an abyss of drug abuse and lawlessness, refusing their repeated efforts to get him into treatment.

“Finally, his mother and I took a day off and met with our attorney and a pastor. Both of them advised us to get him arrested,” Sam Salvio recounted.

The advice sounded counterintuitive.

Today, the Salvios believe it saved their son's life.

Now 19 and a freshman at Washington & Jefferson College, Victor Salvio recently was awarded a $1,500 scholarship at the 2017 James E. Anderson Conference on Juvenile Justice. The scholarship, given to two students each year, recognizes resilience and accomplishment of Pennsylvania youths who go through the juvenile courts.

The Salvios traveled to Harrisburg together to celebrate at the awards dinner.

Eighteen months earlier, such a scenario seemed out of reach.

Victor, who attended Yough High School, had begun dabbling in drugs at 13 and moved on to harder substances. He told juvenile authorities he overdosed twice before he was arrested fleeing with firearms he had taken from his father's gun safe.

“I didn't even know he had (the guns). We were moving, and I had left them in the gun safe at the old house because I didn't want to move it yet. He cut the door off of it,” Sam Salvio said.

The Salvios credit Westmoreland County Judge Michele Bononi with pushing Victor to get clean and begin living up to his potential.

Bononi, who introduced Victor at the Harrisburg awards ceremony, ordered Victor to Abraxas I, an intensive residential juvenile drug and alcohol treatment center in the far reaches of the Allegheny National Forest and three hours from home.

Like the Salvios, Bononi saw potential in Victor. And she had something on her side that the Salvios did not: the law.

“Once they are under my jurisdiction, I can put them in placement and we can hold them there until they're 21,” Bononi said. “When we put them in placement, it's not like rehab where they are in for 30 days and insurance throws them out.”

Victor Salvio soon came to accept that reality and settled in at Abraxas.

“There was no option,” Victor said. “I was at Abraxas for 11 months, and it was mainly the absence of any drug abuse that allowed me to see I didn't need it. I was locked up, so I tried to make the best of it.”

That meant hitting the books in class and going out for football, where he excelled and was named team captain.

Kimberly Salvio made the long trip to see every game. Bononi said the family's commitment was important.

“Sometimes I have to fight the parents. It's amazing. Three months later, they'll come back and thank me,” she said. “But the Salvios are an exception in that they are together, and they both work and they wanted help.”

Sam Salvio said the decision to turn in their son cost the family dearly.

“Friends who had known us forever and people from our church shunned us. Everyone turned away from us,” he said.

But he has few regrets.

By the time he was released in March, Victor had graduated from high school with straight As and began applying to colleges. Washington & Jefferson, a small liberal arts school known for its rigorous academics, offered him an academic scholarship as well as a chance to play Division III football.

The juvenile probation officers who nominated Victor for his scholarship award said he attends Narcotics Anonymous meetings every week, submits to urine screens and participates in outpatient counseling.

Everything seems positive these days.

But the Salvios know the odds.

They know it isn't uncommon for those recovering from addiction to relapse. They've heard tales of parents who thought a son or daughter had beaten addiction only to learn the worst imaginable news.

“That fear will always be there for he and his mother and I,” Sam Salvio said.

Victor Salvio said more than that fear is the fear of hurting the parents who stood by him through nearly five years of ups and downs.

“When someone tells you (that) you are breaking their heart, it really resonates,” he said.

Debra Erdley is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 412-320-7996, derdley @tribweb.com or via Twitter @deberdley_trib.