During Republican Paul Babeu’s campaign for Arizona’s swingy 1st Congressional District, he has been dogged by accusations that he not only knew of the systematic child abuse at the Massachusetts boarding school for troubled youth that he ran, but that he also oversaw it. Babeu has long denied any knowledge of abuse that led to the DeSisto School closing down in 2004. But earlier this year, a damning 1999 home video surfaced that showed Babeu speaking glowingly about the supposed discipline measures a less sadistic person would recognize as abuse. These measures included sustained isolation, withholding food, and even forcing students to strip search other students.
Two weeks ago, Babeu held a press conference where he even denied that Massachusetts found the abuse even happened, a claim that ABC15 News in Phoenix wrote was “directly contradict[ed]” by the 1,700 page report that Babeu himself cited. And a few days ago, former DeSisto student Hilary Friedman came forward to call utter bullshit on Babeu’s claims, saying, “There’s no way in hell Paul Babeu did not know what was going on with every single student in that school. No way.” Friedman and other former students interviewed by ABC15 News in Phoenix say that there were daily meetings where students and staff talked about topics, including discipline, and that Babeu was at those meetings. Friedman goes on to say that discipline needed to be approved by a consensus vote, and that Babeu took part in those proceedings as well.
For his part, Babeu claims he “was there as a business manager and I’ve said that since day one.” However, the 1999 home video features Babeu saying that, among other things, that students could be made to sit in a chair facing the corner of a room "for weeks." Babeu also indicated that food might be withheld, saying students "have to be free of anything, any distraction, like food to TV, radio." To get better, he insists, "They need to feel hopeless and feel depression and complete failure."
The practices that Babeu talks about in the 1999 video sound very similar to what Friedman says she went through when she was at DeSisto in 2001.
Please chip in $1 to each member of our Daily Kos House slate.
Election Day is fast approaching, and we need all hands on deck. With the PCCC and Daily Kos, no matter where you live, you can call key voters in districts where progressive Democrats are in tight races. Click here to get started.
Friedman says she was “farmed,” a punishment that the Massachusetts documents investigating the abuse describe as a practice that sent students to a separate dormitory and forbade them from attending classes. The state also said that farmed students “must wear a ‘Dickie’ style jumpsuit; must go to the bathroom as a group with other farmed students; may be deprived of food and water for up to eight hours until he or she completes chores; and may have no contact with home, for months at a time.”
A 2001 document from a state investigator also describes Friedman, saying, “She has been hospitalized due to her eating disorder and returned to the school from the hospital on December 22. When she returned she was immediately farmed. Hilary reported that DeSisto farmed her because of her eating disorder, not because of a particular incident.”
The DCCC just started airing another ad hitting the former headmaster over his complicity in this horrific scandal. They show Babeu maintaining his denial during that recent press conference, while former students testify to the sordid practices, and the narrator notes the state of Massachusetts had ordered the school’s mistreatment to stop after an extensive investigation.
Babeu faces Democrat Tom O’Halleran, and while this northern Arizona seat backed Romney by 50-48, the DCCC recently released a poll last week showing O’Halleran leading 45-38. National Republicans not only have yet to release contradictory numbers, they’ve also shown little interest in giving Babeu financial support even though Democratic groups have reserved millions in ad time here. Hopefully, voters in Arizona’s 1st District will be as disgusted with Babeu as we are.