SOUTH HADLEY — Every Monday, artist Tony Jones comes to the squat, institutional-looking building, its bland exterior belied by the printed and hand-drawn posters that line the walls inside, where he’s come to teach a small group of high school students.

Jones often starts class by ringing a set of small Tibetan tingsha cymbals while his students raise their hands in the air and slowly bring them down as the sound fades. Soon, though, hearty laughter fills the room.

Last Monday was no exception, the enthusiasm apparent as four young women read aloud their deeply personal poems and worked on a scene from a play about apartheid in South Africa.

The joyous cacophony may seem a profound contrast to both the subject material and the location — the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps South Hadley Girls Treatment Program — but it is an important piece of the women’s rehabilitation.