Carenne principal not properly trained

The Carenne Saviours have expressed concern at Neil Moon not being trained in crisis intervention techniques, for which he is going to Sydney for next week. The Saviours claim that it is completely unacceptable that a principal of a special school not be trained properly, particularly when Mr Moon was the principal of Holman Place School in Cowra before arriving at Carenne.

One saviour told Carenne Gate -

"It's not like Lynn Duncan who didn't come from a position at another special school, you could understand it, this man was the principal of another special school and isn't properly trained."

"No wonder this guy thinks it's OK to sit on students, something Terry Neal started last year, he isn't even trained!" said another.

When the principal of a school isn't appropriately trained and is only sent for training in July of the year that he started it shows there are serious problems with the special education system, particularly when he was the principal of another special school for years beforehand. It shows the continuing incompetence of Carole McDiarmid and her Western NSW staff.

RDA Program suspended, Auld and Gavin failed to have proper insurance

The maligned Riding for the Disabled Association of Bathurst, which has Michael Auld and Melinda Gavin sitting on the management committee of once again been suspended, this time due to the incompetence of the committee.

In June, Carenne Gate reported that the RDA program had been suspended due to Melinda Gavin taking a holiday, causing students to miss out. At that time, a number of people commented that the association was overly reliant on Mrs Gavin and that Mrs Gavin and Mr Auld were afraid of other people coming in and discovering the maladministration and corruption going on at RDA.

RDA has had to close its doors after it was realised that the management committee had not obtained proper public liability insurance. According to an RDA whistleblower, the organisation had not had proper insurance since it moved from its old site to the new site behind Carenne.
"Michael Auld told us that because the land was government land but given to us we didn't need public liability insurance and that the school's insurance would cover us," said the whistleblower.

"The first we knew it was wrong was just this week when we got told we had to suspend the program because there was no public liability insurance."

Only last month, we heard how RDA is paid $80 per student who attends and how they wanted to charge parents for their students to access the therapy farm which had been corruptly receiving funding from the school itself.

More evidence that Lee and Drew Churches post on this blog

It has been known for months that Lee Churches is a number of different users on this blog who bully, harass and threaten parents and staff who raise concerns about Carenne Special School. The Carenne assistant principal has also leaked information she illegally obtained from the police to try and discredit those who speak out about Carenne.

Last night, a user claiming to be Drew Churches posted defending his mother claiming that neither of them had posted comments on this blog. Unfortunately for Drew, the logs show otherwise. Logs show that Drew or Lee had been posting well before his rant.

In the past we have records of a computer running Windows XP used by Lee but last night, postings were made from an Apple.

It provides those investigating the people behind the posts on this blog with further evidence that the bully is in fact Lee Churches.

Police claim they are being fed with false information

According to a whistleblower from the police force who must remain anonymous due to the possibility of harassment from others has said that police are being misled by Carenne staff following the admission by senior departmental staff on Monday that most of the information on this blog was being supplied by staff of the school.

The officer said that Neil Moon, Simone Russell, Lee Churches, Peter Richards, Kelly Thompson and Michael Auld have made complaints to Police and said that they claimed that the blog is full of lies and is being fed by people outside of the school. The officer claims that they were told by several Carenne staff that the department has conducted an investigation and found that nobody at Carenne was supplying information or posting on this blog. The officer said that Simone and Scott Russell had made claims to police that they hired a private investigator who had traced everything to Brian Carter. The officer told Carenne Gate -

"It's pretty bad when you have a senior police officer making allegations he knows are false to try and set up someone they don't like."

The officer told Carenne Gate he was concerned about the detectives who were investigating this blog -

"One is a friend of the Russell family who helped Scott get his promotion, another is a close friend of Mark Smith's and the third has a grudge against certain people involved in this mess,"

"The police investigation will get nowhere because it is engineered to protected certain people and nothing else."

Carenne P and C President must stand down: Saviour

One of the Carenne Saviours is calling on Carenne P&C Association President Janelle Kemp to stand down from her position following her comments at a meeting about this blog at Carenne yesterday. Janelle Kemp has been mentioned on this blog in the past for receiving transport for her son over a parent who lives some distance from the school and for having Carenne Support pay for a $6,200 walker for her son.

When DET legal official Patrick Quinn told the meeting that he believed the leaks to this blog were coming from staff at the school, Mrs Kemp said that she believed that parents were providing information to the blog and needed to be warned against using the site. Mrs Kemp said many parents were "easily influenced" by people outside of Carenne and that she believed parents, not Carenne staff were responsible for information leaks at the school.

The Carenne Saviour claims that these comments show that Mrs Kemp can not possibly remain as president of the school's P&C no matter how dysfunctional it is after making allegations against Carenne parents.

Criminal charges against Carenne executive staff will be dropped: Patrick Quinn

During his meeting with Carenne staff today, Patrick Quinn said that the charges against Lee Churches, Terry Neal and Neil Moon would be dropped within two weeks after discussions with the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Mr Quinn claims that the DPP had made a mistake and the charges would be dropped. If this turns out to be true, it would provide yet another example of how the NSW government provides no protection to whistleblowers and let their tormentors continue without consequence.

If the charges are dropped, there will be no clear finding that those involved were guilty or not guilty. A lawyer who spoke to Carenne Gate said that under the charges against the trio there is a presumption of guilt and that those charged must prove their innocence.

High level DET staff visit Carenne

In a demonstration of just how seriously the Department of Education and Training takes this blog, a team of high-level officials consisting of Director of Information Services Tim Anderson, Legal eagle Patrick Quinn, a departmental OHS officer and Peter Harvey met with Carenne and Carenne Support staff to discuss this blog.

During the meeting, claims made repeatedly by Michael Auld and Lee Churches in the past that a hacker was leaking school information were refuted with staff being told that the leaks were coming from within the school. The department's position is that only Carenne staff can possibly know what is happening to post it here.

Staff were told they needed to be security conscious with their computer as someone inside the school was accessing information, perhaps when they leave their computer unattended. Carenne whistleblower Gretel told Carenne Gate: "there is no point being security conscious, Michael Auld can override me locking the computer or he just goes in on a weekend when nobody is around and snoops."

Gretel claims Margaret Rowe became defensive when Mr Quinn said the leaks were coming from inside the school.

Staff were told that the department can do nothing about this blog because Google refuses to take it down or provide details of who is posting on here.

Some staff lamented that they had spoken to Bathurst detectives about the blog and that they felt as though they were disinterested. Mr Harvey was asked why police weren't at the meeting and told staff that it was "pointless" and that "Tony is useless."

Gretel claims that Michael Auld became agitated when the police were mentioned and asked what they were doing and said how he wanted to see the person behind the blog charged. He was told by Mr Quinn that even if there are no charges that the department would take disciplinary action against staff found to be contributing to this blog.

Perhaps if the department looked into some of the allegations on this blog instead of trying to discover who is providing the information some of the issues could be resolved.

Confidentiality means nothing to police

Last week I was contacted by a police officer who was concerned about some of the allegations on this blog. He told me that he supported the work of Julie Brown and I before then attacking both of us, claiming that I was "peddling lies" and that I had no idea what went on at Carenne.

When I asked the officer who was leaking police records he denied that any leak had occurred and claimed that people were leaking their own information to try and set the police up. The officer said he had spoken to Scott Russell, the officer who harassed staff at a Bathurst restaurant for CCTV footage in October last year and who has been implicated in the supply of alcohol to minors was "most upset" at the allegations made that he was inappropriately using police information.

I raised with this officer claims that Scott Russell had used the police computer system to look at data on houses he was looking at purchasing. The officer said that such use of the system is "above board", despite the Police Integrity Commission telling me otherwise.

The officer, quite disturbingly told me that he had spoken to two people and named them. He went into details about one of the complaints the was investigating and was more interested in what I knew about who was leaking information from the school. He told me he was of the view it was disgruntled ex-employees and when I told him we had sources inside Carenne he said I was a liar. This is despite me having meeting minutes and staff bulletins sent to me every week!

The officer told me that Julie Brown didn't exist because he tried to speak to her 2 years ago and she wouldn't talk. When I asked why he would have tried to of talked to her well before her involvement in Carenne he changed the subject!

Our conversation ended with the officer telling me he would love to get me to come to Bathurst so he could sort out my problem. He told me that I was supposed to visit Bathurst and meet someone at McDonalds on Monday but didn't show up making the other person wait all day for nothing. This was never arranged and I guessed the officer was just lying.

It shows that the police will use dirty tricks to attack anyone who goes public with their concerns about Carenne and local police. The local police in Bathurst don't want to do anything other than protect themselves and would rather give details of their witnesses out willy nilly rather than talk about the problems at Carenne or look at documentary evidence. Only a full and open inquiry can investigate the problems at Carenne.

Carenne Court Update

With the actual number of cases against Carenne Special School staff and associated persons unknown it is hard to provide a complete list. There are both criminal and civil cases before the courts about this school.

David Withyman case
The case of a former Carenne Special School student who alleges he had a sexual relationship with a teacher will continue in the District Court in Sydney on Monday. It will be heard in room 13C of John Madisson Tower before Judge Elkaim. The case has been heard for four to five weeks now.

Criminal charges against Carenne executive staff
The criminal charges against Carenne principal Neil Moon and two of his assistant principals Lee Churches and Terry Neal were again before the court on Monday. According to court staff Nathan Carter has been replaced by the Director of Public Prosecutions as the prosecutor. The case returns to court on 27 July 2010.

Criminal charges against Carenne Support Director
The criminal charges against Carenne Support director Geoff Salmon will be heard on 7 September 2010 after he plead not guilty.

If you know of any other cases before the courts surrounding Carenne Special School staff or associates please email me so we can report on them.

Carenne keeping the department in the dark on serious incidents

Carenne whistleblower nedkelly has claimed that Carenne Special School staff have been failing to report serious incidents at the school to the department.

According to departmental guidelines, the principal is required to notify the School Safety and Security Unit when a major incident occurs. Major incidents required to be reported are the assault of students or staff, the presence of Police due to an incident and unfavourable media or community attention on the school.

Nedkelly said that she has been told that the school doesn't report incidents as required by the department because it "makes the school look bad". Nedkelly said that when the Police are called on students the department is usually not aware of it. Nedkelly claims to have questioned Neil Moon about this and was told that it was none of her business.

Nedkelly also claims that when a student overdosed on a teacher's pain medication last year and needed to be taken to the hospital that staff were directed by Lyn Duncan and Lee Churches to keep quiet about the incident. The local school education director only became aware of the incident after another whistleblower contacted him.

Carenne Special School continues to defy department policy and cover-up the truth about what is happening at this school of horrors.

Only half of all teachers found to be corrupt sacked

Our main focus on this blog is on Carenne Special School and the issues there but a report by the Daily Telegraph indicates that there are problems with corruption among teachers in NSW.

The Telegraph claimed that of the 73 teachers referred to the ICAC, 22 were found guilty and one half of those were sacked. The other 11 were cautioned or demoted.

Three teachers were reported for accessing or distributing pornography with one found guilty and ordered to take counseling as a result. Two sexual misconduct allegations were reported but could not be proven.

The most prevelant concern in the teaching profession is theft and making fraudulent claims, something we have reported as occurring at Carenne. 21 staff were investigated and 9 were found guilty. Of those 9 there were 2 sackings, one forced resignation, one casual withdrawal and 2 cautions.

In the Telegraph, a departmental spokesman was quoted as claiming that the education department takes misconduct seriously and report matters where appropriate, they also said that matters referred to the ombudsman were relatively small compared to how many people the department employs.

The article doesn't talk about how many investigations were carried out by the department itself and how many of those resulted in referrals to other agencies.

Why is DET representing a contractor with $95,000 in the bank?

With the NSW Department of Education and Training funding the legal defence of its contractor and corrupt Carenne Special School charity, Carenne Support you could be forgiven for thinking that perhaps the company is in a weak financial position. The truth is at the end of the 2009 financial year, it had $95,000 in the bank and was worth $180,000.

This cash in the bank was after it spent $48,050 on a new bus.

Why then is the department representing it in court? It's time that Carenne Support is let to stand on its own two feet instead of bludging off the public teat.

DET heavyweights visit Carenne to discuss Carenne Gate

Yesterday afternoon, relieving School Education Director Kate White, human resources manager Peter Seligman and legal officer Patrick Quinn met with Carenne Special School staff to discuss this blog.

Prior to their arrival, Carenne Principal Neil Moon told staff to make sure they complained about the blog and the effect it is having on staff. Mr Moon also told staff that they needed to tell the high level departmental staff that they feel as though the department is ignoring staff concerns and leaving Carenne to fend for itself.

One attendee at the meeting told Carenne Gate that Mr Quinn said the legal department was close to a "breakthrough" on closing the blog down while Mr Seligman claimed that he knew no Carenne staff were on the blog or feeding authors information and that it had all came from external sources. Of course, readers of this blog would know this to be completely delusional. As I wrote a few weeks ago, Mr Moon continues to claim that his staff aren't leaking information despite Carenne staff supplying me with copies of meeting minutes and staff bulletins.

If the blog is full of lies and misinformation like Ms White, Mr Seligman and Mr Quinn claim why is it that as soon as something is posted on this blog action is taken to fix it? Why is it that Neil Moon feels the need to counter it with his own lies in the local news?

The department has been made aware of Michael Auld's leaks and use of confidential information and has decided to do nothing and its obvious to any intelligent person that "carennetruth" and her aliases is a member of the Carenne Special School executive. It doesn't take much to figure out (even without her public admissions) that "carennetruth" is Lee Churches. The department has been provided with logs indicating the IP address of "carennetruth" and her associated aliases and has done nothing.

The plain and simple fact is that if there were no problems at Carenne there would be no need to discuss it in public. Instead, because of the cover-ups, lies, abuse and corruption there is a need to hold the department and individuals responsible accountable for their actions.

Luther and Klavins allow student to menace others

Ros Luther and Di Klavins, staff who have been identified as sitting on an autistic student, calling the police on him to menace him and locking him in a storeroom continue to be selective in their practices with another student in their class being allowed to wander the school and menace other students.

Mrs Luther and Mrs Klavins have already been exposed for giving special treatment to the particular student because of who his parents are.

The student is allowed to assault staff and wander through the school grounds menacing younger students. Some younger students are afraid to leave their classroom to even go to the toilet because of the student. Some are even beginning to become apprehensive about going to school for fear that they will be attacked by the student.

The difference in treatment between students at Carenne is frightening. During Lynette Duncan's tenure as principal, she suspended another autistic student for a period lasting months for behaviour which was far less serious as this student, again the student's parents were not closely associated with the school.

It is about time the Department of Education and Training look at the inconsistent and unfair discipline procedures at the school.

Why the Bathurst community can say Neil Moon is a liar

Once again Carenne Special School turns to the Western Advocate, Bathurst's local newspaper to try and counter the effect of this blog.

On Tuesday, an article, written presumably by Neil Moon appeared in the "Update from the Principal" section on page 12 appeared in the newspaper. The article goes on to discuss how much the school has benefited from the Building the Education Revolution funding (or Gillard School Building debacle) which has paid for a new library, connector classroom, high support needs student classroom, toilet renovations and a roof over the centre quadrangle of the school. Mention is also made of the new senior classrooms which opened last year, full of problems which the saviours blamed on Michael Auld having the rooms allocated differently to how they would be used in an attempt to get more from the education department.

Mr Moon fails to mention that only the cover over the quadrangle is part of the BER funding and that the other upgrades have been planned since Terry Mahony was principal and will be funded by the state government, as were the four senior classrooms. Once again, Carenne Special School is attempting to prop up the Labor Party and counter the effect on the blog.

After the new building opened last year, Terry Neal, principal at the time was on the local news saying how the school needed to replace the demountable buildings the school had. Almost immediately, the Carenne Saviours came out swinging saying that the school now has nowhere to build new facilities because Michael Auld had arranged for the land at the rear of the school to be leased to Riding for the Disabled, an organisation he is on the committee of. While Carenne will be receiving a new library and high support needs classroom, these are being built in the school's connected classroom and home economics room. It is a refit not a completely new building program. The high support needs classroom is currently a demountable building which leaks and is full of mould. This refit is being funded by the state government, not the BER program. Neil Moon obviously has no idea what is going on or he is just plain out lying.

The article then goes on to praise the Riding for the Disabled program, claiming that it is "traveling along wonderfully", despite claims that certain students are excluded and it being postponed while Melinda Gavin took a holiday. Mr Moon then says about how the school has a therapy farm behind it, despite this being operated by RDA and is presently on hold as the school had been wrongfully funding it. At the staff meeting on 31 May 2010, staff were told that funding was being investigated and that there could be a fee for each student who attends the farm. Once again, Neil Moon is trying to mislead the Bathurst community.

The article ends by mentioning that the school looks forward to working with Denison College on the Trade Training Centre next year. The centre was originally supposed to have been completed much earlier, but the Carenne TTC committee, comprising of Lyn Duncan and Michael Auld managed to have part of the funding allocated to RDA. It is unknown how much RDA received out of the $3.7 million when it was entitled to nothing. This appeared to be just another desperate attempt by Neil Moon to counter what is already on the blog for all to see.