ELLENVILLE – Sandra and Donald Oglesby, the couple who have filed a federal civil rights suit against the Ellenville Central School District alleging that the district retaliated against them by making a false report to Child Protective Services after the Oglesbys attempted to force the district to provide mandated services for their special-needs daughters, have authorized the girls' therapist to speak out regarding his experience with the district.

Randy Bleiwas, who in his Rockland County practice has worked extensively with the Oglesby family, says that he is "shocked and horrified" by the district's actions regarding the treatment of the Oglesby's adopted twin girls. Bleiwas says that the meetings he and the Oglesbys held with school officials should have established a protocol of safe practices involving the girls, but that the school failed to implement many of these recommendations. In addition, Bleiwas alleges, the school district was made aware of other clinicians' work on the case, including 13 weeks of hospitalization for one of the twins at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Westchester County, as well as a clear history and a list of recommendations had been established for the district to implement. Yet, the district delayed for two years holding a Committee on Special Education (CSE) meeting that would establish appropriate guidelines for the girls.

"It made me question what they were doing," Bleiwas says. "Why were we having this series of meetings and memos just for them to ignore? Did they look at them? Did they listen to them? Did they follow through on anything that was discussed? Why didn't they follow through?"

Bleiwas, who in his nearly two decades as a therapist has worked with approximately one dozen different school districts and treated more than 800 individuals, says that a major part of the treatment for the girls — who had been sexually abused by both their natural and subsequent foster parents — involved the elimination of situations that could trigger a relapse. Bleiwas says that the school not only failed to follow his recommendations, but that the steps the school did take ended up exacerbating the problem.

"To compound matters," Bleiwas adds, "a CPS [Child Protective Services] call was made by the school district against the family, causing regression in the girls and re-victimizing them. The district's behavior was reprehensible, inappropriate, and in bad faith. I had to start from the beginning as all their wounds were re-opened."

As to the girls' transition back to regular classes, Bleiwas says that the "healing work" has been productive in private therapy. In addition to having taught a series of "safe coping mechanisms and tools" to the girls, his approach has been to develop and implement a "transition plan with a safe network of school staff," which was designed to slowly ease the girls into the environment of the school, an environment that the girls find traumatizing. Bleiwas's recommendations were to have the girls go back to school in a series of small, manageable steps. This "systematic desensitization" isn't a complicated process, according to Bleiwas. It does, however, mean that the girls must have access to a "safe network" of individuals within the school that they can trust.

This network, ideally, would be made up of school guidance counselors, school psychologists, or even teachers. These safe individuals would be an alternative to the parent or therapist if the school was unable to get a hold of either in a timely manner, should the girls get into a situation in which the past trauma became overwhelming to them. What is important in such situations, however, is that members of the network develop a relationship with the girls so that the twins would feel comfortable talking to that individual. Bleiwas says, however, that the school district dropped the ball on this.

"The school district has made the establishment of this network nearly impossible as there had been so many personnel changes and blocking access of people the girls have already established trusting relationships with at the school. This process typically occurs without difficulty in other schools," he says. "I along with the CSE team's general consensus have made numerous cost-effective recommendations available to the district including the use of a web-cam for desensitization connections while the girls are attempting transition from home."

The group of educators and other professionals within the school who were handling this case — the CSE team — are typically tasked to familiarize themselves with each case that comes before them. Bleiwas says that having continuity within this team is very important insofar as it relates to the members understanding this complex case and the importance of a safe network of people in order to support the girls at school. Bleiwas feels that the numerous personnel changes had the effect of undermining any progress that was being made with the girls. In particular, Bleiwas is confused as to why Michael Troeger, who is a School Guidance Counselor, should be taken off the case, especially as he had done such a professional job when it comes to establishing trust with the girls.

"Michael Troeger is a wonderful counselor, [he] established a wonderful relationship with the girls, [he is] insightful, dedicated," Bleiwas says. "He was a person who could have helped form other relationships in the school for [the girls] for transition."

Bleiwas also says that the other members of the CSE were quite vocal in their opposition to Troeger being pulled off the team, and that he could think of no good reason for the school to do so. He also says that the school continued to replace members of the CSE with people who were not familiar with the case history, something that flies in the face of his previous recommendations.

"It's taken nearly three years to reach this point, yet the girls are not back in the classroom," Bleiwas says. "Only in Ellenville has such a simple process created such a challenge."

As the matter stands now, the family, along with Bleiwas, on October 25 asked for another emergency CSE meeting for the girls, but there has been no response. The Oglesbys, at this past Tuesday evening's Board of Education Meeting, addressed this with Board President Carolyn Kulhman who said that she would look into the matter.