Growing Scandal in Army Childcare
MALVEAUX: President Obama has called the Secretary of the Army, John McHugh, to press him on how people are hired at Army daycare centers. This move is pretty unusual for the president. I want to bring our Barbara Starr from the Pentagon to talk about this. Why -- first of all, why did he do this?</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is extraordinary, Suzanne. You know, in a week when the country is so focused on the safety of small children, the Army is getting a failing grade, big- time. The president having to pick up the phone and call the Secretary of the Army on Tuesday night to express his personal concern right from the White House about a number of arrests and a growing scandal at an Army childcare facility here in Washington, D.C. Here's what happened. Back in September, two workers arrested, charged with some assault against small children at the facility, pinching them, slapping them, dragging them across the floor This sparked a look at the background checks on all the workers there and it wound up, last Friday, 30 childcare workers of 130 that worked at the facility, 30 workers over all dismissed. They have things in their background checks like assault, drug use, abuse of minors, things like this. Many more had some minor charges, but generally things that certainly would have disqualified them from working in this type of facility. Suzanne?</s>MALVEAUX: When was the president notified about all this taking place?</s>STARR: Well, this is one of the big issues. The arrest happened in September. They start doing the background checks. The Secretary of the Army, the Army says he didn't find out how widespread this was until last Friday night when these people were dismissed from their jobs. Some of the parents had been informed along the way, but the Army leadership doesn't know until last Friday. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is finally told on Tuesday. The president is told on Tuesday. There is now a review of all child care facilities, all the background check procedures across the country. Suzanne?</s>MALVEAUX: And, Barbara, real quickly here, because I know we don't have a lot of time, but do they think this is one particular facility or do they think this is endemic. They've got a much larger problem on their hands.</s>STARR: Yeah, absolutely. Terrific question. The answer is they don't know yet. They're checking everything one more time.</s>MALVEAUX: All right, thank you, Barbara. Appreciate it. An ancient culture fighting for its rights in Australia, we're going to take you to the battle of the airwaves on a new television station. We're actually going to look at aboriginal TV.