Across the Bay Bridge, three miles outside this small Caroline County town, 750 acres on what locals call the plains are set aside for emotionally disturbed students whom school systems can no longer handle.

They are children traumatized or abandoned at birth, suicidal, overly withdrawn or outwardly aggressive. Some suffer from the side effects of drug and alcohol use by their mothers during pregnancy.

Anne Arundel County's relationship with the school goes back nearly 20 years. At $24,000, Benedictine offers one of the lowest annual tuitions for residential placement in the state.

In all, 125 students are educated and housed behind the stone entrance of the Benedictine School for Exceptional Children. Run by the Sisters of Benedictine, the school accepts for residential placement boys and girls who doctors believe can still be educated.

Fifteen-year-old Rosemary is among 22 students from Anne Arundel County enrolled in the non-sectarian school. Dressed in her uniform -- plaid skirt, yellow blouse and blue necktie -- she attends classes from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

At first glance, a visitor may wonder why she has been a student here since the fourth grade. She is coherent and articulate.

But at home, Rosemary has had difficulty handling her emotions and has displayed aggressive behavior. That problem rarely arises at Benedictine, however. Students are monitored closely and receive individual and group counseling. They are allowed little idle time.

When the school day ends, Rosemary heads for Emmanuel Hall, a dormitory located in a wing opposite her classrooms. She and nine dorm mates stand in front of thelong row of wooden closets and change into play clothes.

The green-eyed student with short brown hair meticulously folds back her bedspread, then waits to be called so she can retrieve her laundry. Thereare no maids at Benedictine. Each dorm takes turns sorting and distributing laundry for the entire school.

With colorful paper kites hanging overhead and dolls scattered around the room, the girls await their assignments. Dorm supervisor Debbie Derby has them organize their dresser drawers. Later, she'll be around to make sure everyone is showered and in bed by 10 p.m.

Derby also will set the nighttime door alarms, to make sure no one enters or leaves.

Rosemary stops to look at a picture of herself. On top of the dresser sits a gift from her mother. She shakes it and glitter disperses in water around a colorful unicorn. It is a reminder of love and home -- and, ironically, the place where she exhibited the unmanageable destructive and aggressive behavior that sent her here.

Rosemary admits to becoming emotionally untracked on occasion. "Sometimes I get off the side of thetrain and get upset," Rosemary says. "Now I'm getting older, and I can handle my upsets. Every five weeks we go home, and my insides say I want to go, but my outsides say I don't."

As much as she looks forward to the visits, Rosemary is apprehensive about returning home, away from the structured environment of Benedictine. She appears rather easy-going and comfortable with direct eye contact.

"I get upset if I can't handle a problem or have my own way. I start crying, screaming and hollering and kicking. I have to let it out. In school, I have nice Mrs. (Linda) Smith who helps me."

The school's rigid structure and counseling from the staff are usually enough to keep students like Rosemary on track. But if all else fails, there's the thickly padded chamber they call the "Quiet Room," under the supervision ofcrisis counselor Dave Slama.

"I've got files on each student who goes in," he says. "A lot of times, (they're put in the room) just tohave them away from stimulus when they are out of control. Some kidswill settle down in 15 minutes, others take hours."

Inside the room, green padded walls and thick carpeting prevent students from hurting themselves. Slama sees to it that lights and exhaust fans stay on and that students are watched constantly.

Forty students have visited the room this year. But not Rosemary.

"I know about it," shesays, "but I haven't been in it. I know it's clean and a person sitsin there to get your anger out."

Wearing a Max Headroom T-shirt and gray jeans, Rosemary prepares for the evening activity. Today, students will be divided into five softball teams -- an exercise designed not only to be fun but also as a lesson in organization and confidence building.

"I hope I do OK with softball," she says, fiddling with her fingers. "It's my first time."

Supervisor Elwood Roy makessure each student is chosen for a team. Half-way through the process, Rosemary is selected for the green team.

Unfortunately, the selection process takes so long that the game has to be put off for another day.

The calm Rosemary displays at school can be attributed tothe rigid schedules and counseling, says Sister Jeannette Murray, who heads Benedictine. The 128 staff members, including full- and part-timers, provide almost a 1:1 student-teacher ratio.

"Our goal for students is to get them back to the community," Sister Jeannette says. "If not back to their own homes, then to individual homes with drop-in supervision and vocational training for employment."

The school has a "wonderful program that provides a very nurturing and caring environment for children," Anne Arundel County residential case worker Laurel Walker says. "We've been satisfied with Benedictine for many, many years. Not only is it nurturing, but it provides a lot of prevocational training.

"They have high expectations for students and try to make things as normal as possible. Many of the kids are under Social Services and have no home to go to."

Some graduates move onto the school's Open Community program, which provides residential housing in such places as Annapolis, Easton and Denton and Newark, Del. The sites also provide a home atmosphere for students unable to return to their own homes every fifth weekend.

Rosemary has begun vocational training in the school's print shop. She also works on keeping the school clean and helps out in the convent.

One reason for Benedictine's success is its self-sufficiency. A school-owned gas station and car wash, laundry operation, florist and print shop provide not only opportunities for training but services for the surrounding community at reasonable prices.

Another is the high energy and enthusiasm of Sister Jeannette.

"I get up at 4:30 a.m. and say a lot ofprayers," Sister Jeannette says. "My principal responsibility is to my spiritual life. If I don't work on being a good Benedictine Sister, how can I help anyone else?"

Late in the evening, before the sungoes down, she walks to the highest ground on the site, a cemetery. Enclosed by 12 large pewter crosses, it is a place of solace.

Onlya few months ago, a former student was buried there among the sisters -- a student Sister Jeannette educated and trained.

Even with her motherly toughness, she is moved, thinking about the loss of one ofher children.

"I can honestly tell you that working with disabledstudents and young adults has done more for me than I can ever do for them," she says.