"Auld told me to say nothing or lie": hatho

Carenne Special School employee hatho has told Carenne Gate about an conversation she claims to of had with Michael Auld on 29 January 2010 where she claims that Auld told her to say nothing about the circumstances leading to Nathan Carter's stress leave in 2009.

hatho claims that Auld told her that Carter had been sacked from Carenne and that he expected there to be some "fallout" from the decision to sack him. hatho then alleges that Auld showed her an email which Lee Churches had received informing her that Carter had a solicitor looking after his harassment claim. hatho claims that she had already been shown a letter from Carter's solicitors about it by Neil Moon.

hatho says that Auld then told her "the same thing applies as last year, just do what Janette said and we will be OK, if you are asked anything say nothing, you cant comment on anything because of all the other stuff going on."

Auld is alleged to have then said "if something does happen with all this, you might have to think of who we are going to blame for this, if we have to blame Lyn and say she told us to do those things."

Carenne Support puts teacher/parent before others again

One of Carenne Special School's newest whistleblowers "Karachi" has claimed that Janelle Kemp, a teacher at Carenne who received a permanent appointment under suspicious circumstances (much like her niece who also teaches at Carenne) was given special treatment by Carenne Support when it purchased a walker for her son valued at $6,200 last year.

Karachi claims that this purchase, authorised by Carenne Support CEO and director at the time Christine Porter took precedence over students who had been waiting for equipment for much longer with one student's equipment needs being valued at $800 still not being purchased due to the student's parents not being popular with Ms Porter.

Janelle Kemp first came to Carenne Gate's attention when it was revealed that she had been given special transport assistance through Carenne Support while a parent who lived out of town had been refused.

Open letter to the Serious Misconduct Unit

To Whom it may concern,
Over the past year, the taxpayers of NSW have had the opportunity to get an insight into the malfeasance, corruption and child abuse going on at Carenne Special School in Bathurst. Over this past year, your unit has joined in with the government in conducting a smear campaign against those releasing this information such as myself, Julie Brown and other well known activists while also trying to discredit anyone who comes forward with information.

Throughout all this, one name keeps surfacing - your assistant principal at Carenne, Lee Churches.

Churches has been accused of slamming kid's fingers in doors, shaking them and yelling abuse at them. She is a director of Carenne Support Limited, an organisation which has been shown to be abusing the SNTS, have misled the Bathurst community to obtain two buses which were purchased for the school, have had the CEO and director bully and harass parents, have a therapy program for a select few, been leaked confidential information from within the department, had a director charged over an attempted carjacking and who ran a bus for three days with human faeces on the front seat.

Churches, through her IP address has been identified as carennetruth who bullies and harasses whistleblowers and parents on internet forums. Her IP address as shown in logs for January and most of February was 124.179.35.120 and from February to early May was 121.217.216.41.

Churches has been implicated in the suppression of documents under FOI, supplying her son with alcohol when he was aged 15, ranting and raving about staff who complain about her, telling the principal that a well known whistleblower's employment should be blocked and that he has an evil plan, being involved in questionable staffing arrangements and making racist comments.

Besides this, she is facing serious criminal charges in Bathurst Local Court, believed to be prosecuted by another whistleblower and has circulated an email claiming that a student was a "slut" and that a young student was to blame for an alleged sexual liaison.

All these allegations and the woman is still employed by the department. Why?

Given the serious allegations surrounding this assistant principal which you continue to ignore she should be stood down pending a full investigation.

Joel Atkins.

Lee Churches calls student a "slut", claims to have been "burned" by family

Once again, former Carenne Klansman turned whistleblower nedkelly has provided evidence showing how Carenne Special School assistant principal and Carenne Support director speaks about people when she believes they can not hear or see what she is saying.

This new piece of evidence also gives us an insight into the operation of the Carenne KLAN. In the email, sent to seven people, Churches calls on them to go to the principal next week and tell them that the placement of a student who she calls a "slut" is a bad idea after Churches' discussions failed.

Churches also claims that the student should not be at Carenne but Bloomfield, which nedkelly tells me is the local mental hospital in Bathurst. She says that the student would ruin "our beautiful school."

The email goes on to provide copies of emails sent to the principal by Churches about the student, presumably to keep her Klansmen informed of where she is up to.

Churches claims there to be a "deep history" with the child from their previous enrolment at Carenne, that she had a "worrying and intense" family and claims that they certainly got their fingers burned with this student before.

Churches goes on to blame the student about an alleged sexual liaison and claims that the student made it up and instigated it and claims that "some of our beautiful boys will be at risk of serious accusations."

Lee Churches' unprofessional behaviour

nedkelly has once again provided some evidence about unprofessional behaviour exhibited by Lee Churches, assistant principal of Carenne Special School and alleged leader of the Carenne KLAN in an email she claims she was forwarded by Churches.

nedkelly claims that she was with Churches when she was told by principal Lyn Duncan that there was a complaint about her and Margaret Rowe for swearing in the staffroom. After being told of the complaint, Churches said "That fucking slut Coleen, I am fucking sick of her bullshit, she is nothing but a trouble making slut, I am going to make life so hard for that bitch". nedkelly claims that Margaret said nothing about the allegation.

nedkelly says that Duncan then printed and showed Churches a copy of an email that Coleen Leis had sent her complaining about the conduct of staff in the staffroom.

That night, Churches sent another rant to Duncan about the aide who had complained about her, firstly apologising for her unprofessional behaviour and then launching attacks on Mrs Leis, saying she was "nasty to many staff members and is a difficult aide to work with".

The email and her conduct show how assistant principal Lee Churches will cause trouble for anyone who dares to complain about her.

hatho provides partial proof of email being leaked

Former member of the group of staff at Carenne Special School identified as the Klan turned whistleblower, "hatho" has provided Carenne Gate with partial proof that special transport manager Gail Vasic and Carenne principal Lyn Duncan leaked a complaint email to a hacker via Carenne Support CEO and then director Christine Porter.

We reported last month that Vasic had been involved in the leaking of a complaint by "Jake Rosenberg"

In the email, Duncan acknowledges that the contents must remain confidential as a student is named. Hatho claims that Duncan provided the complaint email to Porter so that a hacker known only as "Nick" could trace who Jake Rosenberg was.

It shows the dirty tactics senior DET staff will go to to protect themselves.

Carenne Support acknowledges faeces in bus

On 15 February 2010, parents were sent home a letter from Bus Co-Ordinator Christine Porter acknowledging that there had been a "faeces stain" on the front seat of the bus for the afternoon run on 8 February 2010 as reported on this blog.

In the letter Ms Porter apologises for students being subjected to a "health risk" and for having to "endure the smell for the duration of the trip". In the letter, Ms Porter also states that Carenne Support has introduced new procedures to ensure that students would not be exposed to health risks.

SNTS approved student has to be bought to school by parent, bus broken

A student who has been approved for transport under the Special Needs Transport Scheme has had to be bought to and from Carenne by his parent while the bus, operated by Carenne Support is in Sydney having repairs, possibly using another cheap fix.

Carenne Support has a history of using cheap fixes on their buses, with Geoff Salmon in 2009 having the vehicle fixed in Sydney, later to dangerously leak hydraulic fluid as the line was routed incorrectly and a minor electrical fire in another bus which had the hoist installed on the cheap, again in Sydney.

Hatho claims that on Friday Carenne Support's new bus supervisor, Dave Graham wanted to reallocate the student to another bus temporarily without the education department knowing but was told he could not by principal Neil Moon because it was against transport policy.

Why couldn't the bus have been fixed in the holidays when it wasn't being used without disadvantaging students who need the service?

Jrosenberg claims that the department's child protection unit threatened her

A Carenne Special School whistleblower, jrosenberg alleges that the education department's Employee Performance and Conduct unit (which includes the Serious Misconduct Unit and Child Protection Unit) threatened her for making a series of anonymous and serious complaints anonymously about her concerns at Carenne.

Rosenberg told Carenne Gate that she had previously made complaints about certain staff at Carenne in the same manner and that it was encouraged by Meredith Brown, Peter Harvey and Gail Vasic. She was told by her union that the only way to be certain of protection was to make the complaints anonymously.

Almost one year on from the threat, Rosenberg has decided to go public about the threat made by Malcolm Barnett, who describes himself in the email as "Chief Investigator".

In the email, Barnett tells Rosenberg that he is concerned about her continued claims for anonymity and that failure to come forward and assist the department could be considered to be misconduct. Rosenberg believes that Barnett was threatening to have her investigated for misconduct due to making the complaints.

The NSW Ombudsman acknowledges that complaints may be made anonymously and that anonymous complaints still receive protection under whistleblower legislation. There was no reason why the complaints could not have been dealt with by Barnett, he instead turned a blind eye to them and threatened the whistleblower involved. Mr Barnett should be criminally charged under the whistleblower legislation, but as we have seen on this very blog, the authorities are uncomfortable in taking action against certain DET staff.

When Rosenberg asked Barnett what protection could be offered to her if she came forward, Barnett didn't reply further showing how disinterested he was in the complaints.

Rosenberg states that by this stage she had heard a number of remarks made about her pseudonym Jake Rosenberg by Lee Churches, Simone Russell and Lyn Duncan. Some of these included threats to choke Rosenberg, to make sure she was dismissed, to ruin her or to attack people in her family.

The behaviour of Mr Barnett and senior Carenne staff show that they will do anything to suppress complaints.

Student has been allowed to smoke on school grounds from the age of 8

Carenne Gate has learned that Carenne Special School staff have allowed a 10 year-old male student to smoke cigarettes on school grounds and in the park opposite the school. There have also been allegations that the school and its staff have supplied the student with cigarettes to smoke.

The student who started at Carenne in Kelly Thompson's class in 2008, aged just 8 was already smoking when he commenced at the school. Immediately after he started at the school the student would to withdraw from the classroom and smoke on the back steps. From time to time the student would run out of the front door of the school (past the principal and Simone Russell) and into the park opposite, across busy Browning Street to smoke. He would sit in the park smoking during school hours in his school uniform. This arrangement continued under the same teacher in 2009 until he was placed in the class of Nadine Dwyer.

Ms Dwyer and her aide Karina Molenkamp have allowed for the student to smoke both in a relatively hidden area of the school and in the park opposite the school where he is often observed unsupervised.

One Carenne staffer claimed that when she questioned Dwyer on the practice, Dwyer said "It's the only way we can keep ........ calm". Whistleblower "Karachi" says when she asked Molenkamp why the practice was allowed, she was told that the student would smoke at home because that's what people like him do. Karachi believes that Molenkamp was making comment about his ethnic background.

Under the department's "Drugs in Schools Policy", smoking is prohibited on school grounds -

Smoking on school premises, including school buildings, gardens, sports fields and car parks, is prohibited. This includes students, employees, visitors and other people who use school premises, including community groups. In the case of cross-sectoral sites (e.g. joint school/TAFE sites), a decision regarding the extent of ‘school premises’ will need to be made in the local context.

The 2004 Guide for managing drug related issues in school states "The school discipline code must include a statement that tobacco is prohibited in schools." When you have the school's principal and staff supporting a 10 year-old student smoking it is difficult to send a message that it is prohibited.

The incident further demonstrates the complete disregard for student's health at Carenne Special School.

Salmon mentioned again in court

Today I again made the trip to Bathurst to attend the Local Court while someone associated with Carenne Special School was facing charges. Today it was Geoff Salmon, director and secretary of Carenne Support Limited, the company at the centre of the Carenne Gate Affair who was facing the court.

Salmon is facing a charge of obstructing traffic and unlawfully entering a vehicle after an alleged attempted carjacking of whistleblower Brian Carter in December.

The matter was mentioned briefly where the court was told that representations to have the police drop the charges had failed and that Mr Salmon would be pleading not guilty. Police were ordered to serve a brief within four weeks and the matter was adjourned until 28 June 2010.

"Nathan Carter has to go": Michael Auld

After weeks of comments on this blog stating that Michael Auld should have also been charged under whistleblower protection laws, former Carenne Klansman turned whistleblower "nedkelly" has provided evidence that Mr Auld had conspired to have Nathan Carter relocated from Carenne.

Supporting this, nedkelly claims that she has an audio recording of a conversation she had with Mr Auld in May 2009. The relevant part of her transcript appears below:

Ned Kelly: "How are the complaints about you going?"
Michael Auld: "Good. I think Gary Bevan bought my story about the whole thing. It doesn't matter anyway, I know who it was that put me in"
NK: "Really, who?"
MA: "Nathan Carter"
NK: "But I thought you two were pretty close"
MA: "Yeah well since the beginning of last year he changed"
NK: "What are you going to do about the cunt?"
MA: "I am going to make sure he pays for what he has done, he has to go"
NK: "Mmmmmm"
MA: "I have something up my sleeve"
NK: "If I can do anything to help get rid of that little cunt let me know"
MA: "Put it this way, I am going to make sure that he knows that I know it was him that put me into the ICAC. I will do whatever I can to make his life difficult here."

Nedkelly claims that following this conversation that she was asked by Mr Auld to make complaints about Mr Carter to the principal which were false. She also says that she would hide CDs and other materials that he needed to do his job to try and make him look foolish.

Nedkelly said "Michael and Lee's plan was to make sure that he would leave so that they didn't look bad. They just wanted him to walk."

Nedkelly claims that Michael Auld, along with other staff made work difficult at Carenne for Mr Carter.

Carenne continues to sit on students, call police on them

Staff of the senior section of Carenne Special School continue to use outdated methods for dealing with autistic students. It has been reported that once again today, a student in Ros Luther and Di Klavin's class was subjected to being sat on by a number of staff before having the Police called on him to terrorise him further.

Staff complain that it has become a regular occurrence supported by principal Neil Moon for autistic students to be sat on by much larger adults.

When Police arrived at the school, staff which were sitting on top of the student were warned by office staff that Police had arrived and to get off the student indicating that they are well aware that their actions are probably illegal and are child abuse. Staff refused to tell Police that they had been sitting on the student for almost an hour until they arrived.

It has also been reported that Ros Luther has asked for a male aide to work with the student, who she described as being a "bastard" but Neil Moon would only approve an aide for a few hours every week.

It shows the continuing child abuse and neglect going on with the support of senior education department staff, Verity Firth and Gerard Martin at Carenne.

Carenne teacher falls into drain

From the Western Advocate with commentary from Carenne Gate
A woman was taken to hospital after getting her leg stuck in a stormwater drain while delivering the free weekly newspaper yesterday.

The woman, a teacher at Carenne Public School, was with a group of students delivering the Western Times.

As she put her foot down where the cement drain meets the grass on the corner of Rankin and Browning streets, her leg disappeared into the drain.

Carenne principal Neil Moon said the children went back to the school to let someone know what had happened.

Read on.

Commentary

According to "hatho" Angela Cranston, the School Learning Support Officer stayed with the injured teacher while students walked back to the school unsupervised in a serious breach of child protection guidelines. Hatho claims despite it being school policy to take a school phone with them when leaving the school with students, neither Ellen Sutton (the injured teacher) or Angela Cranston took one.

Carennetruth lies about DVD player on blog

On Monday, Paul Welsh - The Good Guys Bathurst donated a portable DVD player to Carenne for use in its minibuses despite Carenne already having two of them. It isn't known if it was donated to Carenne Special School or Carenne Support.

A number of Carenne staff emailed me and said that they weren't sure why a portable DVD player when it already had one for each of the two Ford Transit buses.

Last evening, serial liar, bully and member of the Carenne Klan carennetruth posted:

"We did not lie to Paul Welsh and as usual you idiots are lying about him being friends with people. It's always a conspiracy with you lunatics isn't it? The DVD player that was in the bus was stolen when the side window was broken and Paul Welsh - The Good Guys Bathurst came to our aid and gave us a replacement DVD player for the bus as it keeps some autistic children on the bus calm during the long trip from Lithgow to Bathurst.

The DVD player has been reported stolen and a COPS Event number exists as proof that it was stolen."

The comment, which reads more like a press release was completely fabricated. Many have now questioned whether or not Carenne lied to once again take advantage of people's generosity and obtain something else by deception. The DVD player used in the bus was never left overnight and the bus was insured.

Paul Welsh was contacted today for comment but was not available.

Staff complain about new bus driver after 4 days

After just four days in the job, Carenne Support's new bus driver/supervisor has created tensions with Carenne Special School staff.

Former Carenne Klan member turned whistleblower, nedkelly told Carenne Gate -
"David Graham thinks he can push Carenne staff around but I have news for him. How dare he push school staff around as though he is the principal of the school and then abusing someone else for not parking the bus where he wanted it"

After just four days it appears that Carenne Support's decision to employ Mr Graham wasn't as popular as they had thought.

Mayoral visit barely rates in local media

Following Paul Toole's induction of captains at Carenne Special School yesterday and mentioning his support on local radio, Mr Toole has mentioned Carenne in a small section of the "Mayor's Say" column in the Western Advocate.

In his column, Mr Toole says:

Carenne is an institution that has been doing great work with disabled students for decades here in Bathurst, and everyone associated with the school is to be commended for their dedication and enthusiasm.

On the following page, there was a photograph of Mr Toole presenting Kindy Kit bags containing information about road safety and caring for the environment. The article was far more prominent than the bare mention of Carenne.

Carenne staff claim that in the past it was usual for MPs and the Mayor to present school captains with their badges which usually featured in the local newspaper.

Bathurst mayor spruiks support for Carenne

Following inducting Carenne Special School's school capitains today, Bathurst mayor and the man tipped to go up against Gerard Martin for the Nationals at the next state election Paul Toole took to the local airwaves to spruik his support for Carenne Special School.

Mr Toole told listeners of 2BS that he has toured the school and was impressed with the programs the school had implemented for disabled students and how he strongly supports the work of the school.

Mr Toole neglected to mention that some staff were facing criminal charges, that there were allegations of fraud and concerns about inhumane treatment of students.

Is Verity trying to distance herself from Carenne?

Bathurst residents have informed Carenne Gate bloggers that the Western Advocate, a newspaper renowned for its preferential treatment of the notorious Carenne Special School published an almost hidden article about Verity Firth's ministerial visit to Carenne.

The article, at page 12 of the paper taking up a tiny corner (the birthday party on the same page received more coverage) had a photograph of the minister with Labor MP Gerard Martin and Carenne principal Neil Moon. The article said that Firth was visiting the school to inspect the new facilities the government had paid for.

The usual spiel about how great Carenne and its staff are was missing from the article causing many to question whether or not Verity was still a staunch supporter of Carenne Special School.

Terry Mahony lied to DET about transport eligibility

A further allegation of how Carenne Support is rorting the Special Needs Transport Scheme has been revealed, again involving former Carenne Special School principal Terry Mahony.

Independent investigations have revealed that a large number of students on Carenne Support's smaller bus run are not eligible for transport under the SNTS. One of the conditions for the Department of Education and Training to approve travel under the SNTS is that there must be a demonstrated inability for a parent or carer to provide transport either fully or in part.

Questionable transport arrangements were first revealed on this blog in February when it was revealed that Carenne teacher, Janelle Kemp had been granted SNTS transport for her son who attends Carenne despite a parent being unable to do so.

It is alleged that Terry Mahony would write letters for parents to submit to the education department explaining why they can not provide transport. Mr Mahony would then recommend that students be allocated to one of Carenne Support's run.

It demonstrates yet another serious breach of guidelines and another carefully planned rort by Carenne Support.

Carenne trio represented by Crown Solicitor in court

Charges against three senior Carenne Special School staff were mentioned before the local court in Bathurst today. Lee Churches, Neil Moon and Terry Neal are facing charges of taking detrimental action against a whistleblower.

Prosecutor Nathan Carter wasn't present in court due and was excused by Magistrate Jan Stevenson. The three defendants didn't appear but were represented by barrister Anna Mitchelmore on behalf of the Crown Solicitor. At the last mention, the court was told that the defendants had applied for representation by the Crown Solicitor which has now been granted.

The defendants have made a plea of not guilty to the charges.

The magistrate ordered that evidence be served and listed the charges for further mention on 29 June 2010.

Why was Gillian Salmon on the interview panel?

A Carenne Support whistleblower has questioned why Gillian Salmon was allowed on the interview panel for the bus supervisor/driver position which appointed Dave Graham to the position and caused the dismissal of Jenny O'Neill.

The whistleblower claims that there had been a serious grievance made about Gillian's husband Geoff Salmon by Mrs O'Neill and that Mrs Salmon would have had a bias against Mrs O'Neill.

One interviewee told Carenne Gate that when he was interviewed he was told that Gillian was an "independent" parent. This claim was clearly false when Mrs Salmon's husband is a director and the company secretary.

It would appear that Carenne Support is continuing to act in an unprofessional and deceptive manner.

Carenne Support shaft another driver, escort

It has been revealed by one of the Carenne whistleblowers that Jenny O'Neill has been dismissed by Carenne Support and replaced by Dave Graham. The whistleblower said that they were told that Jenny has been banned from being at the school and that she had made numerous threats against Carenne Support directors. The whistleblower claims that these allegations are completely untrue and are without any substance.

It has also been revealed that Terry Neal will be the temporary escort on the bus despite not being approved by the Special Transport Unit.

"We were ambushed by Peter Harvey": Parents

A group of parents who attended the Mother's Day Afternoon Tea at Carenne Special School yesterday while Education Minister Verity Firth was there says they were "ambushed" by Peter Harvey who took them to another room and kept them talking until the Education Minister had left.

One parent said "I thought we were going to meet the minister but instead we went and listened to Peter Harvey ramble on until she had left."

Another parent told Carenne Gate "I had quite a bit to say to Firth but Harvey knew that and ambushed us, I even ended up missing out on my afternoon tea, I wasn't happy."

The parents claim that the only parents who got to meet the minister were parents who would say positive things about the school, one parent said "They had it all scripted I am certain of that, only parents who would say favourable things were allowed to meet the minister."

Carenne electrical work performed by relative

It has been revealed by Carenne whistleblower "nedkelly" that former principal Terrence Mahony bypassed the department's proper maintenance procedures by using the husband of a teacher's aide to perform electrical work at the school.

Nedkelly has provided evidence that Avairs Klavins, husband of Dianne Klavins to perform electrical work at the school despite work being supposed to be done by a department approved contractor. Terry Mahony bypassed departmental guidelines so he could pay Mr Klavins it has been revealed.

It provides further evidence that Carenne Special School will bypass department guidelines to ensure they can feather their friend's own nests.

Verity, Gerard go on morale boost at Carenne

Verity Firth and Gerard Martin made a 'surprise' visit to their friends at Carenne Special School today after opening a new block at Lithgow High School. The visit was an obvious attempt at boosting morale at a school beset with problems and endemic with corruption.

The delegation arrived after Police made a sweep of the area to ensure "Indymedia troublemakers" were not present. During the brief visit, Ms Firth visited a number of classrooms, told staff how great they were and how it is one of her favourite schools before inspecting the Riding for the Disabled site and the RDA/Carenne therapy farm where part of $3.7 million was siphoned to.

Staff claim it was nothing but a "farce".

Before leaving, an interview was held out the front by media.

Verity Firth to visit Carenne today

State Education Minister Verity Firth who first came to attention for misleading parliament over paying for legal representation for a contractor will visit Carenne Special School at 2PM today.

Ms Firth has been aware of the plethora of issues at Carenne Special School and has personally involved herself in the cover-up along with local Labor thug Gerard Martin.

Carenne Support breaches contract

Last month we reported that Carenne Support had advertised the position of bus driver/supervisor despite there being a driver in the position already.

On Monday, "hatho" sent Carenne Gate bloggers a copy of the contract Carenne Support drivers are expected to sign when they commence employment with the company. Hatho claims that Christine Porter, Paul Knight and Terry Mahony had designed it to try and have a particular employee forced out.

Hatho says that they recall Lee Churches, one of Carenne Support's directors claiming that she had concerns about the contract where Carenne Support had tried to place responsibility back on the school to keep drivers up to date on changes. Hatho claims that Lee wrote a complaint to Gail Vasic complaining about it.

As yet another example of the poor treatment gives its employees, the contract proves that Carenne Support is breaching it by replacing the Lithgow driver's job. The contract says -

I understand that while this is a casual position termination of this arrangement is
dependent upon (i) a failure to abide by the above items or (ii) Carenne Support Limited’s loss of the tender for the bus runs with Department of Education. In the event of a loss of tender Carenne Support Limited undertakes to give the driver as much notice as possible of the termination of the run.

Hatho claims that Carenne Support has changed the job to try and push bus driver Jenny O'Neill out of her position by making her redundant. Hatho claims that this was schemed up by Christine Porter and Mary Housler towards the end of last term during discussions at the school.

Christine Porter identified as being part of ICAC investigation in court

I made a trip across the mountains to Bathurst today where I sat in the back of the Local Court there to report on an Apprehended Personal Violence Order listing initiated by Carenne Support CEO Christine Porter against whistleblower Brian Carter before magistrate Jan Stevenson.

After hearing some of the other cases and noting the difference between proceedings in Sydney and Bathurst the case was briefly mentioned.

During the course of the proceedings, Mr Carter told the court that he would not consent to the order and that Porter had been involved in an investigation by the ICAC. The magistrate told Mr Carter "that just tells me you don't like each other very much."

Mr Carter said he was seeking to return to work and that the order may prevent that.

Mrs Porter then told the court that she had a letter from the principal of Carenne Special School telling the court that Brian Carter had no need to go near the school and has no authorisation from him to be there. The magistrate said she wasn't interested in what Mrs Porter was saying and that she would make an order with a provision to cover Mr Carter returning to work. Mrs Porter attempted to speak but wasn't allowed to by the magistrate.

The magistrate told the court she would make the order and mark it as being made by consent with no admissions.

Coutts-Trotter threatens striking teachers with the sack, does nothing about Carenne

Coutts-Trotter threatens striking teachers with the sack, does nothing about Carenne

A report in the Sydney Morning Herald by Anne Patty yesterday indicated that Michael Coutts-Trotter, Director-General of the Department of Education and Training has threatened teachers who obstruct NAPLAN tests with disciplinary action. The strikes led by the Teacher's Federation are in defiance of an order by the Industrial Relations Commission.

Coutts-Trotter told SMH -

''The question to school leaders is will you meet your responsibilities under the Teaching Services Act. It would be a very serious breach of professional and moral responsibility if you were to actively obstruct a child getting the assessment. Some people could react in a way that could trigger disciplinary action,''

Coutts-Trotter, who has been informed of the plethora of issues at Carenne Special School in Bathurst including child abuse, fraud and harassment has refused to do anything about it. Three executive staff of the school continue to work, despite being the subject of serious criminal charges in the local court.

One of those executives, Lee Churches is also a director of the corrupt organisation at the centre of the Carenne Gate affair, Carenne Support Limited which is accused of ripping off the Special Needs Transport Scheme, failing to do maintenance on its vehicles and using a vehicle for three days which had human faeces on the front seat.

There have also been allegations posted on this blog, with evidence, of other staff engaging in behaviour which would be considered misconduct without any action by the department.

It shows that Coutts-Trotter and his departmental colleagues support what is happening at Carenne Special School.