Penn-Harris Madison school board member, Matt Chaffee, has responded to last night’s special session vote demanding he step down from the school board with an exclusive press release to me.
In an exclusive press release to me, Matt responds to the vote and hints at what’s to come regarding the allegations against him.
Last month, Real News Michiana published a story accusing Matt Chaffee of hypocrisy in demanding PHM board members resign in the wake of numerous violations by their members. The claim is that Matt was himself engaging in activity that warranted his resignation.
Most local media outlets showed up to last night’s vote to call for Chaffee’s resignation. The media was disinterested in previous press releases they received highlighting several examples of the board president, Chris Riley, and his actions, and the subsequent calls by Matt Chaffee for Chris Riley to resign as a result.
These previous issues included, but are not limited to:
The board losing an illegal SAC complaint with the state.
A parent winning a Civil Rights complaint against the board.
The harassing of parents critical of the board. Including police and employer harassment.
Board President Chris Riley committing several policy violations.
And refusal to punish PHM faculty caught violating policies.
None of those well-documented issues have caught the attention of local media. This angle, however, did.
The same goes for the teacher’s union representatives who circulated an email recruiting people to be at last night’s meeting. They were never interested in showing up to address proven issues with the PHM school board previously.
I wanted to point out that the media has been completely disinterested in corruption and abuse on the PHM board, but the moment a conservative member faced criticism, they showed up.
Here’s Matt Chaffee’s response to what happened last night and the allegations against him:
Ah, the primaries are behind us. Now onto the general election.
Primaries are always ugly affairs. The inexperienced always take them too seriously. It’s like a family battle royale at Thanksgiving. Most of the time, fences are mended. Sometimes they aren’t. Rarely do general elections, outside of the presidency, reach the climax of insanity you see in primary elections. Especially in smaller local races.
Well, that’s about to change.
St. Joseph County Council District I is the hotbed of attention in Michiana. The primary was ugly for Republicans. For such a small race, it was all a bit out of proportion. However, what if I told you the general election race for District I was even MORE interesting?
Tami Springer has worked for the University of Notre Dame for 42 years. She’s raised 7 children and “coordinated our annual college food drive for 19 years in a row for the St. Vincent DePaul Food Pantry. I served on the Board of the South Bend League of Women Voters and I was President of the Staff Advisory Council at Notre Dame.”
Pretty vanilla political stuff. But …
She’s also the power of attorney for Joe Freakin Exotic, the Tiger King!
Yes, this guy:
The ‘that B!tc# Carole Baskin!’ guy.
Yeah, and you thought the District I primary was spicy.
In July, 2022, she went on the I Helped Make That podcast (#19) to talk about her journey getting to know the Tiger King and becoming his power of attorney.
In the podcast, she tells you how she became prison pen pals with Joe Exotic after watching the show. She thought he was innocent, was set up, and was mad he was in prison. After the fourth letter, Joe Exotic started emailing her. A few months later they started speaking on the phone. Eventually, Joe Exotic wanted an online store to cash in on his new fame. He also wanted to change his power of attorney to someone ‘he could trust.’ That person was Tami Springer. On the podcast, she says they talk on the phone every day. She became his power of attorney after season 2 of Tiger King.
An Indiana University journalism professor said that Indiana will work its way into every story. Happy, sad, good, bad. There is a Hoosier connection. Probably not all the time, but it does seem to come up that way.
Here’s the next one: “Tiger King.” Yes, that one. Tami Springer, of Osceola, manages the website store for Joe Exotic and is his executive assistant and power or attorney. “No one believes me. They think I’m crazy,” she said. It all started when she began to write to him.
South Bend Tribune
Just last year she helped Joe Exotic in a public feud with Florida Seminoles quarterback Jordan Travis.
She doesn’t seem to mention this on her campaign site. I guess taking over as power of attorney for an ‘innocent’ man to help get him out of prison isn’t campaign-worthy in St. Joseph County.
Tiger King was good fun and very entertaining. I still use the memes from that show regularly. Many might think it’s a far cry from engaging in the lore of the show to actually becoming pen pals and taking over as power of attorney for a guy sitting in prison. Especially considering what his convictions are for. Let alone his other accusations of grooming young boys.
Also, Joe Exotic is accused of being pretty racist.
Accusations have been made that Tami Springer may be defrauding Tiger King fans.
Please keep in mind, I have no way of knowing if this is true or not. The whole realm of Joe Exotic stuff is shady as hell.
There are several more accusations online about Tami Springer and potential fraud. I’m looking into it further. There’s even reports that Joe Exotic himself isn’t happy with how Tami Springer always seems to be looking for media attention.
Stay tuned to this one folks. Make sure you sign up for my free newsletter.