Carenne's temporary executive, a family affair

With the absence of Terry Neal and Neil Moon who are both taking leave and Lee Churches due to illness only one member of the school's ordinary executive remains - Louise Smith. Due to the absences, the school has two staff who are assistant principals in a relieving capacity.

Laurie Healey has been appointed to relieve Terry Neal's executive position to the end of term and Janelle Kemp has been appointed to relieve Lee Churches' executive position until she returns.

Staff at the school are concerned about the relieving assistant principal appointment process due to Janelle Kemp being a close friend of Louise Smith's and Laurie Healey's aunt.

Barracus told Carenne Gate that Janelle Kemp and Laurie Healey were both inexperienced and were incapable of performing a management role. "Janelle has only had special ed qualifications for about two years, she got the teaching position initially because she had a disabled son and was a friend of Louise Smith's from Eglinton school,"

"Janelle was part of the corrupt merit selection last year that Lyn and Lee rigged, the job was all fixed up before the interviews, there is a secret list on who will be appointed to the next permanent position at the school and it is always followed."

Barracus was also scathing of Miss Healey and her position at the school. "Laurie is another one whos job was fixed up, it was preplanned that she would get a permanent position. She hasn't been a teacher all that long and there have been serious concerns about her conduct around teenage boys, she dresses inappropriately for work and is over-familiar with some. That is why she has a mostly female class now,"

"I couldn't believe it at the end of last term when Neil Moon said she would be relieving for Terry Neal, she has minimal teaching experience and from what I hear even had a history of issues at Bathurst West, why would you place her in an executive position?"

A number of staff have said they are concerned that of the present three executives at the school, two are related and the only non-relative is a close friend of one of the others. Staff have also complained about Janelle Kemp performing the principal's job today, believing that Louise Smith would have been the most appropriate person to fill the role, as she has executive experience.

"The school is becoming an even bigger joke every day because of the complete stupidity of allowing someone as inexperienced as Janelle Kemp lead the school," said whistleblower Gretel.

The Police Questionnaire

Following uproar about the Police questionnaire and claims in another thread that there was no such survey, I have decided to post it here.

Police questionnaire not voluntary or confidential: nedkelly

Carenne Special School klansmen turned whistleblower, nedkelly has told Carenne Gate that the police questionnaire that staff are being asked to complete is anything but voluntary or confidential due to the actions of Carenne principal Neil Moon.

Nedkelly, one of the targets of the Police in the questionnaire claims that Neil Moon went from class to class today, badgering staff for their questionnaire, saying that he knew who had returned them and who hadn't. She alleges that Neil Moon told her that he would be forwarding a list of names of people who didn't complete the survey to Peter Harvey so that action could be taken against them. Nedkelly also says that Neil Moon told her that anyone who didn't complete the form or who refused to give permission for the Police to examine their computers would be suspects.

In the covering letter for the questionnaire, Detective Senior Constable Steve Innes states that "Your participation in completing the questionnaire is completely voluntary and all information will remain confidential." Neil Moon's actions show that this is not correct, at least on his part.

According to Nedkelly -

"Every return envelope is numbered and there is a list of who took which envelope, Neil knows exactly who returns them and who doesn't and when he comes around to your class while you are working, demanding it and threatening them if he is told that they were thinking of not returning it, it's so obvious that it isn't confidential. He knows who is handing them back and who isn't."

Nedkelly told Carenne Gate that she was concerned that Neil Moon told staff what he wanted written on the form. "He told us that we should write all the same people on the form so that they can be blamed, he said that he wanted to make sure the attention was on a few former employees, a few parents and a couple of problematic 'current' staff."

Unions have advised staff not to complete the questionnaire, however staff are concerned about their jobs and being hassled by Police and many have not followed their union's advice.

Staff claim that they are were bullied and harassed by Neil Moon about completing the form and what to put on it.

Unions intervene, Neil Moon blamed for placing "undue stress" on staff over Police questionnaire

The Teacher's Federation and Public Service Association have advised Carenne Special School staff to not take part in the questionnaire being undertaken by Bathurst Detectives relating to this blog.

One of the Carenne Saviours told Carenne Gate that she had contacted her union after receiving the questionnaire from Carenne principal Neil Moon, who told her that it was inappropriate for Mr Moon to be supporting such an investigation when investigations should be carried out by the education department's serious misconduct unit.

The Teacher's Federation reportedly claimed that Neil Moon's actions of passing the questionnaires out and telling staff that if they didn't complete them their employment would be terminated placed "undue stress" upon staff.

An anonymous source told Carenne Gate that they believed the police were simply "fishing for information" for the education department, conducting the questionnaire with the intention of giving the findings back to the department. "The whole process is flawed, why have Neil Moon hand out the forms and receive them back? It's completely unacceptable."

It provides further evidence that the Police are not serious about dealing with real issues at Carenne and would instead prefer to silence dissenters.

Why are police forms being returned via Moon? staff ask

Over the past few days, Carenne Special School staff have been given a package, purported to be from Detectives Justene Priest and Steve Innes relating to this blog. In the covering letter, it states that Bathurst Detectives are conducting an investigation into this blog and invite all staff at Carenne to complete a questionnaire.

The letter states that the questionnaire is voluntary and all information will be kept confidential but goes on to request that they be returned to Neil Moon when they are complete.

The questionnaire, goes on to ask whether or not the person is aware of this site, how they found out about it, who they know to post on it, who posts under a myriad of names, whether or not they have accessed or posted on the blog and whether or not they consent to police examining their computer for evidence of accessing this blog.

A number of staff have expressed concern about whether or not the questionnaire will be truly confidential and about the form having to be returned to Neil Moon in identifiable envelopes.

Whistleblower nedkelly told Carenne Gate -

"Why ask if you have accessed it? Everyone at the school reads it, it's like the Carenne staff bulletin, if you want to know what is happening you read this blog. If you answer yes, are they goign to treat you as a criminal? If you answer no, they will know you are a liar"

One of the Carenne Saviours told Carenne Gate -
"We were told a different story by Neil Moon, he told us that if the questionnaire wasn't completed that he would have us sacked. This isn't what the police letter said. I am curious about whether or not the questionnaire was even written by the police, it looks very similar to documents which were generated while Simone Russell was SAM. It sounds to me more like something they are collating for the department than for an investigation. I can't believe they are so worried about this blog when it is all lies according to them and the KLAN."

Barracus told Carenne Gate -
"I find it amazing that they are more interested in finding out who is leaking information from the school and trying to shut them up than looking into some of the allegations made, there are serious problems at school and they have been covered up for years, just look at Withyman."

Barracus was also concerned about how the forms were to be returned, telling us "Why on Earth would you have the forms returned via the principal? I don't care that it has a security seal, he wouldn't care he would just open it up."

RDA still on hold due to Auld and Gavin's mistake

It's been almost six weeks since Carenne Gate exposed that the Riding for the Disabled Association in Bathurst, of which Carenne Special School staff Michael Auld and Melinda Gavin are on the management committee didn't have public liability insurance.

The RDA program has been suspended due to the error, with an RDA whistleblower telling Carenne Gate in July that Michael Auld didn't believe RDA needed the insurance and that the school's insurance would cover the association. Following the discovery that Michael Auld and Melinda Gavin had considered it unimportant to have public liability insurance, the association's president Nola Ramsay stood down, not wishing to be associated with such a poorly ran organisation.

Despite it being six weeks since RDA had to suspend its activities, proper insurance has still not been obtained, despite the school paying the association $80 per student who was to attend the program this term six weeks ago. Nedkelly told Carenne Gate "It's complete bullshit that RDA has been paid by the school for this term when none of the students can go there, what sort of ****wit would agree to that?"

Concerns have also been raised about the therapy farm, also ran through RDA, for which parents were asked to contribute $25 per term towards so students could spend 45 minutes per week there. Nedkelly said "The therapy farm is bullshit too, the students can't go to that because of the insurance, yet you have Auld going on about how great the animals at the farm are coming along and how his class are working there.

"How can Auld's class possibly be on-site when there is no insurance? He is doing what he calls work experience there."

It's high time that the members of RDA, who are being led astray by the likes of Mr Auld and Mrs Gavin sack the commitee and start elect new people to run the association.

Salmon attacked whistleblower because of Kemp and hatho, charges dismissed

Geoffrey Salmon, director of Carenne Support - the organisation at the centre of corruption claims engulfing Carenne Special School had charges dismissed against him on Tuesday in the local court.

Mr Salmon was charged with obstructing traffic and entering a vehicle unlawfully following his attack on whistleblower Brian Carter during a protest against corruption and child abuse at Carenne in December last year.

According to hatho, Mr Salmon admitted to attempting to carjack Mr Carter and assaulting him, but successfully claimed that he was distressed when it happened.

"Geoff said that he left the presentation ceremony to talk to Carter because Janelle and I were scared he might come inside and cause a scene. I was terrified that he would come into B-Mec and start telling people about his views on Carenne, it would have been embarrassing for us." said hatho.

Hatho claimed -

"Geoff was open and honest at court, he said he attacked Carter and tried to stop him driving his van embarrassing the school. He was distressed and wanted Carter to go home. "

"The magistrate dismissed the charges against Geoff because he was distressed because of how Janelle and I were."

Inquiries made by Carenne Gate with the local court registry indicated that Magistrate Jan Stevenson dismissed the charges against Mr Salmon due to extenuating circumstances. The court officer invited us to visit the registry to look over the file if we wanted more details.

Further information will be posted as it becomes known.

Carenne Public School under the spotlight as SMH reports on court finding that Carenne teacher had sex with a student

Carenne Public School has come under the spotlight in the mainstream media following Judge Elkaim's judgment yesterday where he found that former Carenne teacher, Anna Blackburn had a sexual relationship with student David Withyman.

The judge stopped short of finding that the department and Carenne had breached their duty of care on the basis that Ms Blackburn's behaviour amounted to ''an act of such unexpected 'madness' that a reasonable person would not have taken precautions to prevent it''.

The Sydney Morning Herald has a report here.