Tubman In the News

Frustrated Mom Fights to Navigate System, Keep "Dangerous" Son Safe

BY RUBEN ROSARIO

Pioneer Press

Seven years ago, Shane's mother caught him drinking nail polish remover and aiming to swallow antidepressant pills in a suicide attempt. He was 7 years old at the time.

Three years ago, he was hospitalized after trying to snap his neck by slamming his head repeatedly against a wall while at school. He has been in and out of institutions in Minnesota and Wisconsin since.

After another resident at a juvenile treatment facility in Wisconsin molested Shane this year, Wendy Olson Schreiber sounded last week like a frayed parent who has been pushed to the brink of emotional exhaustion and surrender.

"I'm tired of the fight," she said amid tears. "I'm tired. Scared out of my mind. And suicidal. I sat home and seriously considered doing it."

But Schreiber, who works as an administrative assistant for a foundation in downtown St. Paul, won't quit. It's not in her. When it comes to her son, she is headstrong, bullheaded and obstinate.

"I get mad. That's how I operate," said Schreiber, a former Woodbury resident who remarried and moved two years ago to a town in western Wisconsin. "Anger. That's all I have. That's all he's got. If I played by the rules, my son would be dead by now."

Shane may be the extreme poster child for the residual effects of domestic violence and child sexual abuse.

He suffers from an array of mental disorders that include post-traumatic stress disorder, oppositional defiant disorder and violent mood swings. He has bipolar disorder. He was taken to the facility after he threatened to stab to death a boy at his special-education school.

Shane is the boy's real first name. The Pioneer Press isn't using his last name, which is different than both of his mother's last names, because he's a reported victim of sexual abuse.

"I cannot have him at home," Schreiber said. "He escalates. He cycles. Now, because he's older and bigger, he's more dangerous. He can be frightening to live with."

But even such a child, she argues, does not deserve to be re-victimized.

Schreiber said she became upset after staff at Northwest Passage, a private juvenile treatment facility that contracts with county and state agencies, informed her that Shane was coerced into being touched in the buttocks by another juvenile resident. The two boys had apparently discussed having sex with each other in letters found in Shane's room, according to Schreiber and court testimony and documents.

She contacted authorities. The Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services' Bureau of Regulation and Licensing investigated and eventually cited the facility for "failure to provide adequate supervision of residents."

Schreiber also strenuously objected to a proposal after the incident to have the boys sit on opposite ends of the room during group therapy sessions. Her demands to remove her son from the facility led to a series of court hearings.

"Your Honor, Shane is a sexual abuse victim," Schreiber told St. Croix County Judge Edward Vlack, according to court transcripts. "He cannot go back there, please. Anywhere would be better than housing him with sex offenders."

At a second hearing, the St. Croix County Department of Health and Human Services — through Holly Bjerke, the boy's social worker — recommended to the judge that Shane remain at the facility, calling it "a safe and appropriate placement."

The recommendation was made in spite of a Northwest Passage report to the court in which the facility revealed that 14 of the 24 residents, including the boy who fondled Shane, "have identified sex offender issues."

Schreiber, whose private health insurance covers much of the services provided for her son, says she was stunned. She had told the facility at intake that her son had been a victim, not an offender.

"It was a shock," she said. "I don't become speechless very often, but I was speechless then. I understand these boys (sex offenders) need housing and treatment. But my son doesn't belong there. I wonder how many other parents are kept in the dark about this at these places."

The facility's director, Scott Treichel, declined to discuss the case, citing rules of confidentiality. Shane's court-appointed attorney, Ann Davey, and Teresa Baier, a court-appointed guardian ad litem, did not return repeated phone calls for comment.

But in the report submitted to the court, Treichel defended the facility's safety standards. He also painted Shane as more a manipulator than a victim.

"Shane chronically has falsely accused peers of misbehaviors and appears to take some reward in angering peers with comments and behavior," Treichel wrote in the report. He also stated that Schreiber informed staff there that her son "is a future sex predator, sociopath and the next Ted Bundy."

Indeed, such facilities often have mixed populations with a host of psychological issues. And treatment and placement becomes complicated when the sex offenders are themselves former victims of abuse.

However, Robert E. Longo, a published author and youth sex abuse prevention and treatment expert in North Carolina, says regardless of Shane's problems, he was basically a sitting duck for predators.

"My feeling is that this kid was set up to be abused there," said Longo, who served as a member of the National Offense-Specific Residential Standards Task Force. "If he was a victim of child sexual abuse, and the other kids know this or through group therapy, this kid becomes an easier target for sexual contact."

Vlack eventually agreed to remove Shane from the facility, preferably to a therapeutic foster-home treatment setting.

Because of a shortage of such long-term housing, Shane was transferred to another juvenile residential facility near Menomonie, Wis.

"I asked specifically and was told at the new facility that there is no guarantee that Shane will not be housed or come in contact with a sex offender," Schreiber said. "Again, they stick him in a place where offenders can teach him exactly how to do it. All they've done is given him the tools, given him the information on how to do it."

Last week, Shane was twice accidentally given overdoses of a mood-stabilizing drug at the facility. He was not seriously injured.

"It just doesn't stop," Schreiber said.

Schreiber, it seems, is now the one in a legal bind. She's facing a contempt of court hearing this month for refusing to take a court-directed psychiatric evaluation as well as refusing to work with county social workers on Shane's status.

"They think Mama's crazy, because I'm a mouthy mother, so I'm the one with the attitude problem," Schreiber said. "They're the ones with degrees. They think they know better. So go ahead. Have at him. I give up. But if they come back in a year and say he hasn't gotten better, I want to know who they are going to blame."

Rubén Rosario can be reached at 651-228-5454 or rrosario@pioneer press.com.