Yesterday was quite the day for pushing the theory that all press is good press. Paul Babeu certainly received a lot of press coverage, but it only further emphasized that his role in overseeing the rampant abuse of special needs students is a central issue in this campaign.
“In his role as headmaster, Paul Babeu oversaw the widespread and inhumane abuse of special needs students,” said DCCC Spokesman Tyler Law. “To make matters worse, he continues to brazenly lie about his role despite being caught on video touting the disturbing treatment of children that he was supposed to help. His behavior and his lies are both disqualifying — there’s just no way Arizonans can trust someone like this.”
Much to Babeu’s disappointment, the reporters at the press conference actually knew the facts, had watched the sickening home video where he touted the abusive practices, and they were ready to confront him about his lies. Watch ABC15’s Dave Biscobing repeatedly demand the truth. Ultimately, what began as an attempt to lie his way out of a truly sickening past ended up with Babeu fleeing the area. The Arizona Republic was also on the scene:
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Paul Babeu seeks to shake Massachusetts school past
Arizona Republic
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Babeu’s forceful insistence that he was not tied to wrongdoing at the now-shuttered DeSisto School put on full display his combative political style. The news conference was also implicit acknowledgement that his ties to the controversial school have become a liability in his race for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District. Babeu is the Republican nominee in the race.
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The probe resulted in a court order to stop specific activities, including punishments that put students in chairs facing corners for hours at a time, withholding food from students and strip-searches. The court also ordered the school to stop group showers and allow students to use the bathroom in private.
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On Monday, he struggled to explain why he considered those techniques acceptable at the time, but inappropriate today.
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The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has pilloried Babeu in recent weeks with an alarmist ad using a portion of videotape where he explains how students could be cornered on an extended basis.
“Because they’re hopeless. They need to get through, this is why,” he said. “They need to feel hopeless and feel depression and complete failure. … They have to bottom out and then be able to work through it.”
Since the tape surfaced earlier this year, the person who headed the DeSisto probe, U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., told KNXV (Channel 15) that Babeu “stonewalled her investigation at every turn.” Clark was special counsel for the Office of Children’s Services for the state of Massachusetts at the time.
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However, interviews, court and tax records, media accounts and Babeu’s police personnel records present a broader picture of his leadership role at DeSisto.
In a Chandler Police Department employment application signed by Babeu in November 2002, he wrote that he “supervised directors and 80 full-time employees” at DeSisto. He wrote that he was “responsible for budget preparation, financial accountability, legal issues, long-range planning and fundraising.”
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Students and school staff have said Babeu and other administrators sat in on morning meetings in which student safety and misconduct were routinely discussed.
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Montini: Paul ‘Underpants’ Babeu wants you to ignore his past (and elect him to Congress)
Arizona Republic Column
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Babeu is getting hammered in a campaign ad on TV that harkens to an apparently unpleasant period in Babeu’s past. (He has a couple of periods like that, actually.)
In this case, the ad in question reminds voters that Babeu served as headmaster at DeSisto School in Stockbridge, Mass., from 1999 until 2001. While Babeu was in that position at the boarding school the state investigated reports of abuse, neglect and concerns about students’ safety. Usually, the person at the top – like, for instance , the headmaster – would say that when it comes to such issues the buck stops with him.
Not Babeu.
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Or, if he were to represent Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, that Rep. Babeu would take no responsibility for anything done by those working for him in government or for those executing policies he might have a hand creating?
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Back in March, when a reporter from the station showed up at a Babeu press conference to ask the sheriff about all this Babeu dispatched a few of his guys to block the journalist’s access.
Bebeu seems determined not to let this reminder of his past undermine his political ambitions, as happened the last time he ran for Congress.
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Should the sheriff become a member of Congress the plaque on his desk in Washington, D.C., will be Babeu’s particular variation of Harry Truman’s motto:
The buck stops…there. Way, way over there.
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