After Driscoll left the Disney studios, his parents withdrew him from the Hollywood Professional School, which served child movie actors, and sent him to the public West Los Angeles University High School instead. There his grades dropped substantially, he was the target of ridicule for his previous film career, and he began to take drugs. He said later, "The other kids didn't accept me. They treated me as one apart. I tried desperately to be one of the gang. When they rejected me, I fought back, became belligerent and cocky—and was afraid all the time." At his request, Driscoll's parents returned him the next year to Hollywood Professional School, where in May 1955 he graduated.