Justin's Political Corner
The DeSisto School sits abandoned in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
It was a private boarding school for troubled teens with a long and troubled history of its own.
Pinal County Sheriff and U.S. Congressional candidate Paul Babeu was the school’s Headmaster and Executive Director from 1999 to 2001.
While Babeu ran the school, the Massachusetts Office of Child Care Services launched an investigation into repeated allegations of abuse.
The ABC15 Investigators traveled across Massachusetts and tracked down reports that have never been released.
The documents show that during Babeu’s tenure the school was not licensed. Other allegations include detailed instances of physical and sexual abuse.
Holli Nielsen was a student of DeSisto while Babeu was Headmaster.
“It’s not unreasonable to say we were cult-like,” said Nielsen.
SEVERE PUNISHMENTS
Click here to read more about DeSisto’s controversial disciplinary methods
When the rules at the school were broken, student faced serious consequences.
Nielsen told us about strict punishments and how each punishment had a special name.
“Take a verb, add an -ed to the end and that’s a DeSisto term,” said Nielsen.
One of the punishments was being “sheeted”.
Nielsen told us about her experience of being forced to strip down and wear nothing but a sheet in front of her peers.
“That’s how I spent my 16th birthday,” said Nielsen. “It was just miserable.”
The state documents obtained by ABC15 also reveal students “strip searched” each other and “routinely took group showers”… “leading to sexual abuse.”
Being “cornered” was considered by many students to be the worst punishment.
That meant sitting, facing the wall for hours, days and sometimes weeks.
“You have to sit like this with your feed flat on the ground. You can’t cross your legs,” said Nielsen. “From 7 in the morning to 9:30.”
In one case, records show a student with bi-polar disorder, ADHD and impulse control disorder was “cornered” for “weeks on end.”
The student’s medication was not monitored properly. He began to “urinate and defecate” on himself. He was also taken to the hospital for pneumonia.
Days later, that same student was returned to DeSisto and sent back to the corner.
We asked Nielsen if Babeu was aware of students being “sheeted’ and “cornered”.
Nielsen replied, “He was there for that. Yes. He was certainly aware of that. There were a lot of things that happened there that probably shouldn’t have.”
Babeu’s in big trouble now.
h/t: Dave Biscobing at ABC15.com
The Paul Babeu saga continues: We have reports that while Headmaster of the DeSisto School, a notorious behavior modification gulag school that has since been closed as of 2005, Babeu has been accused of aiding and abetting physical abuse towards children.
EXCLUSIVE - The ABC15 Investigators have uncovered physical and sexual abuse allegations at a boarding school, run at one time by Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.
We began digging into this story five months ago after Sheriff Babeu announced his plans to run for U.S. Congress.
We traveled to Massachusetts to speak with former students and gather documents which confirm their stories.
This is the first time these documents have ever been released to the public.
The Desisto School was a private boarding school for troubled teens with a long and troubled history of its own.Consequences
Sheeted: All clothes except underwear has to be taken off. Sometimes a toga was given instead. Survivors tell how the undressing often took place by fellow detainees with higher level ripping the clothes off forcefully
Sitting meetings: Dorm meetings (group therapy) that lasted 8-10 hours.
Leashed(also called hand-held): Have to stay in arms distance of the dorm member who “has you”. Breaking this would increase severity of punishment to “double hand held”. Leashing would often include bathroom activities such as urinating, defecating, or showering.
24 Hour Leashed/also called shifting: Watched while sleeping. Doors and windows may be blocked by person(s) watching to prevent running away.
Group Leashed: Entire Dorm is “leashed” together…arms distance, and 3 meetings per day.
Farm: The “farm” was a place but it was also used as a verb. There was a girls and boys farm (separate) that someone could be sent to. Sent to the Farm where you have 6 meetings per day and are not allowed contact (not even eye contact) with the rest of the school. Manual labor and meetings all day with other persons on the farm and staff member there. Possessions are taken away. Work suits provided. An entire dorm can also “be farmed”. They would also be as separated and ignored from the rest of the population as possible. Manual labor and meetings all day.
Cornering: Can given given as standing or sitting. A way to obtain a person’s turn-in’s. No time minimum or maximum.
h/t: JGibson at Daily Kos
