Impersonator alleges Police corruption

A person posting on this blog under various names including that of a Carenne Special School whistleblower milly and using the email address of former Carenne employee Stephen Donno from IP address 101.161.180.115  has made an allegation on this blog  about corrupt Police in Bathurst.

The imposter claims to have been told by Police who they believe is behind this blog. When Police are conducting an ongoing investigation into this blog and those providing it information providing information to a third-party amounts to corruption.

This same person has then admitted to providing illegally obtained Police information to the media.

It's not the first time Police have leaked information. A parent who used this blog to raise awareness about abuse at the school had his Police record leaked and school staff were told who the Police believe uploaded documents to this blog.

The imposter's claims show real problems with Bathurst Police.

Parent claims she was "set-up"

The Carenne Special School parent who is facing court on charges relating to the alleged abuse of her child has spoken exclusively to Carenne Gate about her ordeal, claiming that she has been "set-up" by Carenne staff.

The parent has spoken of the horror of being persecuted by school staff after criticising the school for providing support to the children of staff while leaving her family out in the cold.  "We approached the school and asked if there could be some sort of fundraiser for (name) because of the financial difficulties we had at the time," said the parent. She says that after she posted on this blog asking why Janelle Kemp and Melinda Gavin were given financial support her life changed forever.

She claims that within weeks her child became to show signs of illness and a rapid deterioration of her condition. She went to doctors and eventually her child was admitted to hospital. While in hospital, the child had tests which showed she had been poisoned. "I couldn't believe it, I just wanted to know who could do this to my baby," said the distressed parent.

The child started to recover until she returned to school. "Within a few days of returning to the school she was sick again, whatever was happening was happening at school," said the parent. After discussions with school staff about the issue she was visited by Detective Findlay who accused her of poisoning her child. "Within days she was placed into care, I was slapped with a restraining order and charged," said the parent as she fought back tears.

The parent claims she has been told by other parents of the rapid deterioration of their children when placed in the classroom of a particular teacher at the school. "As soon as kids get placed in her class they go down hill, what is she doing to them?" asked the parent.

Unfortunately due to the case still being in court we are unable to name those involved as it will form a key part of the mother's defence. It demonstrates that those who speak out about the significant issues at the school are not only victimised themselves but their children become attacked.

Why Dick Spears lost the Oberon run

At the beginning of this year, Dick Spears lost his Oberon bus run to Carenne Support. With the 2012 school year coming to an end, Spears is attempting to shore up support with the Assisted School Travel Unit so he can be awarded the run for next year.

A whistleblower in the ASTU told Carenne Gate that Spears had been getting parents to complain about Carenne Support driver Lawrence and Travel Support Officer Gerri after he lost some $310 per day this year.

The ASTU whistleblower told Carenne Gate that Spears lost the run after serious allegations of a sexual nature were made against him. Despite evidence that the student in question had been sexually interfered with inquiries by JIRT were unable to establish whether the offender was Mr Spears or another person.As a result there is a cloud of suspicion over Mr Spears.

While Carenne Gate believes Spears should not be in a position where he is around children, he should not be given a run out of the urban area where there is less oversight of his behaviour.

Carenne Support places lives at risk

Carenne Support's complete lack of regard for student safety has never been more obvious than it was last week. Ever since Dave Graham and Geoff Salmon had the vehicles shipped to Victoria to have gearbox conversions both vehicles have had a series of never-ending problems resulting in Carenne Support having to use hire vehicles.

On Thursday an even more dangerous situation occurred when Carenne Support's Oberon bus's brakes failed whilst driving down Oberon Mount. Fortunately for the students on board the driver was able to control the vehicle even though the brakes had failed.

A spokesman for Clancy Motors told Carenne Gate that the issue was caused by two bolts attaching the brakes to the vehicle snapping. He said "the driver would have noticed the first bolt coming off, there would have been a noise from it hitting parts of the car, instead of checking he kept driving until the second one came off which caused the failure."

When asked what would have caused the problem, the spokesman said "Not being checked properly when the brake pads were replaced, we didn't do those - the brake pads used were cheap, not what we use."

It's time for Carenne Support to explain how this incident occurred.

Michael Auld's cloak of Omerta

According to a number of staff at the besieged Carenne Special School, Michael Auld is hiding behind his duties with the St Vincent de Paul Society to spend time with students out of hours.

 Michael Auld has come under notice several times for developing inappropriate relationships with students outside of school. Many of these relationships have involved gifts and other favours to the students involved. Auld has often lied to parents about what he is up to placing another cloud of suspicion over his head.

Auld has now found a new excuse for spending time with students out of school - his involvement in Tyne St Vincent de Paul Society. Preying on disadvantaged families, Auld advises them through the school that they can get assistance from the society. When they do, Auld uses this as an excuse to frequent the family's hpme to spend tine with the student.

Once this commences, Auld takes the student places on weekends and showers them in gifts. When questioned by departmental staff, Auld hides behind St Vincent de Paul claiming the activities are unrelated to his job as teacher.

Parents should be concerned about Auld's infatuation with their children and his need to lie about it.

Carenne Support, Peter Williams breach SNTS rules

The Department of Education and Communities needs to explain to other SNTS operators  how Carenne Support and Peter Williams are able to get away with not having suitable relief vehicles as required by the SNTS guidelines.

According to Carenne staff, both Carenne Support and Peter Williams run the most unreliable vehicles to the school. Carenne Support has routinely had to hire vehicles when its Oberon and Lithgow buses broke down. Both Ford buses used by Carenne Support have had a plethora of issues this year from failing transmissions to blown turbos to major electrical faults.

Peter Williams' Toyota has also had its share of problems, with Williams falling back on his old vehicle. According to nedkelly, Williams has sold his old bus and now has no relief vehicle.

The allowed beach of the rules is a slap in the face to contractors like Dick Spears, Cheryl Chaplin and Capebase who always have sufficient relief vehicles. When the department review its contracts for next year it should look at those who have not complied and offer them nothing.

NSW Police censor comments about dirty cop

Once again you can't let the truth get in the way with the NSW Police. As you would have read on this blog by now dirty cop Scott Russell has been named NSW Police Officer of the Year (I wonder how much it cost to bribe the judges).

As always with Carenne Gate Blogger, Julie Brown sought to bring the truth about Scott to the masses. She posted on Facebook last night -

The posting was removed almost immediately after.

This morning, Julie made another posting on Facebook -

This posting has been removed and Julie is now banned from commenting on the NSW Police Facebook page.

Julie must have hit a raw nerve with them!

UPDATE 12:10PM
As at 12:10PM today all postings about Sergeant Scott Russell winning officer of the year on Facebook have been removed. 

Useless organisation rewarded

It was reported in the bought and paid for media of Bathurst on Tuesday that Interchange Bathurst had been given $80,000 to fund ten new respite places despite other organisations with a proven track record being snubbed for the funding.

Staff from another respite organisation in Bathurst contacted Carenne Gate to complain about the funding being given to Interchange. They claim that Interchange had a history of financial mismanagement under Nola Ramsay, that one staff member had a sexual relationship with a client and that clients were placed at risk by dangerous drivers.

Interchange has long been known to employ inexperienced staff and to give them insufficient training. The level of supervision by management is also seriously lacking. According to the manager of another respite organisation many clients have left and gone elsewhere as the environment at Interchange is not safe.

The government shouldn't be supporting an organisation as useless and inept as Interchange.

Police attack Carenne Gate

Police carried out a morning raid on Carenne Gate blogger Mark Lindbert's home in Liverpool almost a month ago on 30 July 2012. Police searched the home looking for information related to this blog for which it obtained a warrant for as Police allege it contains material which promotes child abuse.

Following the raid, detectives asked that we refrain from posting new stories on the blog for a short period until they knew what they could do about the blog. My colleagues also agreed to this request.

On Friday, Police advised that they would be returning all seized material and would be taking no further action as they could not find any evidence of illegal activity raising serious concerns about why the Police raided Mr Lindbert's home to begin with. It looks as though it was an intimidation tactic carried out on behalf of the Department of Education and Communities to cover up what is happening at Carenne School.

Students catch Ryan, Molenkamp in the act

Sex education was taken to a whole new level at Carenne School last week when two senior students walked into a classroom during lunch and caught Adam Ryan having sex with Karina Molenkamp. The students reported the incident to Barracus, who said she was unable to report it to Neil Moon as he would not take it seriously.

Barracus instead contacted Peter Harvey, who dismissed the complaint as being "made-up" by the two students, despite them being able to describe in detail what they saw.

It is more inappropriate behaviour from Carenne staff who know they can get away with it due to the ignorance shown by senior departmental officers.

Travel Support Officer's party would make you Quiver

A concerned parent has contacted Carenne Gate alleging that the Travel Support Officer used by Cheryl Chaplin and Nathan Carter held a party where sex toys were sold and underage children were invited to. The parent claims that Railene Case held a sex party at her house for her 17 year-old daughter.

At the party, Quiver Parties hostess Kristy demonstrated some of the sex toys, with at least four underage children present. The youngest child was 14.

The parent says he reported the party to Neil Moon but it was ignored.

When someone who works with children has a sex party fir children you can be certain that they are completely unfit to work with children. Cheryl Chaplin and Nathan Carter should accept full responsibility for Case's behaviour and have her permanently banned from working. To fail to do so shows the duo have no spine.

Department in damage control mode over TSO

In moves not seen since the sacking of Jenny O'Neill, Cheryl Chaplin sacked one of her Travel Support Officers, Railene Case on the last day of last term. The move, intended to stop any attempts by Railene to seek information from the department are more in line with what Carenne Support do.

Chaplin told Carenne principal Neil Moon that she was going to sack Case after she discovered she was friends with Julie Brown on Facebook. Moon told her she would look into it and contacted Chaplin to tell her that there was no reason why Case couldn't continue working.

Chaplin then sacked Case despite Neil Moon's advice. Chaplin's attempts to gave Case placed on the department's black list have been ignored.

The department is trying to figure out how to avoid any legal action bought about by Chaplin failing to follow Moon's advice.

Carenne rapist strikes again

The male student of Carenne Special School in Bathurst which raped a younger female student some time ago, leading to her being transferred to another school and being covered up has struck again according to Carenne whistleblower Chello.

Chello claims that she was told that the student had raped another student last week while undertaking a holiday program cleaning up parks around the Bathurst area and claims that Neil Moon contributed to the rape by not dealing with him raping a student some 18 months ago.

Chello said "I blame Neil Moon, he knew what (name removed) was like and he covered it up. He crucified the family of the poor girl that was raped last time. He could have done something then and prevented this."

Loonie Moon should face the parents of this latest victim and explain why he did nothing in the past.

Peter Williams caught out defrauding the department for over $18,000

Long-time Assisted School Travel contractor, Peter Williams has been caught out rorting the system to the tune of $190 per day by claiming that he travels more than double the kilometres his run can be done in.

Peter the Pretender has been unable to explain how his run, which the department has determined should take no more than 45 kilometres per day is taking him 100 kilometres to complete. He has also been claiming that he is traveling out of his way to collect his Travel Support Officer, June Crawford who is the mother of a student on the run and who should be picked up at the same time.

Williams' claims are nothing less than a blatant attempt to rip off the department and instead of being reprimanded and asked to pay back the money he should have his contract torn up and have the matter referred to the Police.  Just this year, the department has discovered that he has defrauded them for over $18,000. It's time that the department do something about this criminal ripping off the taxpayers of New South Wales.

Assisted School Travel claim forms being incorrectly signed at Carenne

Following the dismissal of travel support officer Railene Case by Cheryl Chaplin last Friday, the Assisted School Travel Unit has found serious problems with claim forms approved by Helen Windsor and Neil Moon at Carenne Special School.

The ASTU has discovered that forms are being signed in the morning, despite the requirement that they be signed after the last day of the payment period. Operators and travel support staff are able to defraud the system if a change happens part way through the day, allowing them to be paid extra than they are entitled to.

The issue was highlighted after Railene Case, who claimed to work last Friday morning and afternoon was dismissed. Her claim was for both the morning and afternoon runs even though she didn't work the afternoon - highlighting a serious problem with how payments are being managed at Carenne.

It's yet another screw up by the Loonie Moon.

Audit finds two-thirds of transport contractors rip the department off

Following the debacle of the Assisted School Travel Program at the beginning of the year when students were left stranded at the side of the road, Education Minister Adrian Piccoli has ordered an audit of every single Assisted School Travel Program run in the state in order to rein in costs.

During the audit, it was found that of all the contractors across the state, the majority of them were overclaiming the number of kilometres traveled each day in order to hike up their payments despite the average payment per run from the department being $300 per day for what is only a few hours work.

The program has been open to abuse by rogue operators for a long time, with many overclaiming, using unsafe vehicles and unsuitable staff. You only have to look at the operators that service Carenne in the afternoon to see the quality of contractors there - an old bus that should have been put off the road 20 years ago that's full of rust, a bus too small for the run, buses that blow smoke and buses that have unrepaired damage.

Stay tuned to find out which Carenne contractor is rorting the department for $190 per day!

Sit on students to make them listen says Moon

Neil Moon has today been caught out encouraging the physical assault of students at Carenne Special School by staff. In an audio recording, Neil Moon can be heard encouraging Di Klavins to sit across the legs of a student while Michael Auld spoke to them.

Moon can be heard in the recording saying "Just sit on the bastard Di, Michael needs to talk to him and he needs to listen."

In the recording, the student can be heard screaming in pain saying that his legs are numb from having Klavins sit on him. According to Carenne Special School staff, Mrs Klavins weighs approximately 160 Kg, a similar weight to a small cow. Anyone who has had their toes tread on by a cow would know it can be quite a painful experience. Imagine that cow laying across your legs.

Moon, obviously knowing that the method of restraint was wrong told Klavins "Make sure you don't bruise him."

With a principal like Loonie Moon at the helm of Carenne there is no wonder that the school has serious issues with staff abusing students. It's time for Heavy Harvey to take serious action and clean the school out.

Second Assisted School Travel training day a farce

One of the attendees at the second Assisted School Travel training day has spoken to Carenne Gate about her experience, claiming the day was a "farce" and a "complete joke". After being ousted on this blog for speaking about confidential student information in front of all present and being reprimanded by the department, Neil Moon altered the way the training was ran - inviting only those staff who needed to be there instead of all involved in the program at the school.

The attendee told Carenne Gate that school staff were trying to avoid "snitching" by changing the way the program was ran and discussed some matters in front of everyone but most were between school and travel staff. The attendee claims she had to sit in a cold room waiting for her turn because of the poor way the day was ran.

The attendee raised concerns about the training sessions being one-off due to changes to travel arrangements which frequently occur. She told Carenne Gate that the sessions were "useless" when new students are allocated to a run that bus staff know nothing about. "You can't believe how stupid this lot are, they haven't even considered what happens if a new kid starts - there's no training then," said the attendee.

Once again Neil Moon has demonstrated his poor organising and educational leadership casting doubts over his ability to run Carenne.

Moon: Unlucky or just plain dumb?

When looking at the tenure of Neil Moon as principal of Carenne School in Bathurst you could be forgiven for thinking that he is either extremely unlucky or completely stupid. His time has principal has been beset with issues, allegations and reprimands.

After being reprimanded for not supplying drivers and travel support officers of the Assisted School Travel Program with critical student information, Neil Moon has now been reprimanded for his approach to solving that problem.

As reported by Julie Brown, Neil Moon held a training day on the 4th June where confidential student information was discussed in front of all present, not just those who needed to know. Following Julie's posting, a number of parents made complaints about the way information was handled, some to the Privacy Commissioner and to Peter Harvey, Bathurst's School Education Director.

Staff at the school supported this blog's claim that confidential student information was discussed in front of all 15 attendees, with one teacher claiming she took leave for a week because she didn't want to take part in the training and breach department policy.

The second training day has been modified, with only selected people invited to a meeting with teachers at particular times to avoid the issue of student information being discussed in front of people who have no right to know.

As a result, Neil Moon has been reprimanded for breaching student privacy and departmental policy, just one in a long string of reprimands he has been given. The question that needs to be asked is why do they keep this guy around? Is he an example of what not to do or is Carenne a stinking mess that nobody else wants to run?

Auld's newest weekend program

Following being caught out lying to a parent about a weekend Rural Fire Service program, Michael Auld has continued inappropriately spending time with students on weekends. Today, Michael Auld is spending time at the Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) with a student.

The behaviour breaches the department's code of conduct and child protection guidelines and raises serious concerns as to why Mr Auld has to spend time with students on weekends.

It's time an end is put to the bizarre behaviour of Mr Auld.

Moon reprimanded over improper Assisted School Travel medical plans

Following a report on this blog in March that Assisted School Travel Unit manager Catherine Naismith ignored complaints about Carenne Support and Neil Moon over their handling of an incident where a student had a seizure and suffered from hypoxia while being transported home from school.

In that article, Julie Brown was critical of Neil Moon for failing to follow department policy by not making information available to drivers and Travel Support Officers. As a result of the article, the Bathurst Schools Office received a number of calls from concerned parents and launched its own investigation.

The investigation found that Neil Moon had negligently failed to provide bus staff with health care and behaviour management plans and that he had failed to have staff trained in their implementation. Neil Moon was told he was to arrange for information to be communicated to bus staff and to arrange training for bus personnel.

As a result of the blog posting and subsequent investigation, Neil Moon has arranged training for bus personnel for a total of five hours on two separate days. Despite the first of those sessions not being carried out properly, with confidential student information being discussed in front of all present staff were trained in high risk areas and provided with the behaviour and health care plans required under departmental guidelines.

The outcome is a testament to what can happen when issues are reported on this blog, complained about by parents and action taken.

Moon's confidentiality hypocrisy

Regular readers of this blog would long have known that the principal of Carenne Special School, Neil Moon is a hypocrite and a liar. His training session for drivers and travel support officers under the Assisted School Travel Program today showed how much of a hypocrite the man is and his complete disregard for the privacy of student information.

Moon led a farcical training day today where he warned Assisted School Travel staff that what was said during the training was not to "leave these four walls" as it was confidential. Moon then allowed his staff to discuss medical and behavioral matters related to particular students with the 15 attendees. One attendee told Carenne Gate she was horrified at how it was ran:

"It was a complete waste of my time and everyone else's there. I couldn't believe it when the medical needs of kids on my run were discussed in front of the other people there."

The day showed that Neil Moon has no idea how to manage a school and can not be trusted with sensitive personal information about students.

Slippery Mick and his weekend rendezvous

Imagine allowing your child to go with one of the teachers from their school on Saturdays to carry out a program which the teacher claims to be part of their program only to find out that the teacher had been lying about what the student and teacher had been doing. This is the horror faced by one parent of a Carenne student with poor verbal communication skills today.

The parent contacted Carenne Gate after being told by the local Police that there was nothing they could do. The parent had been told that Carenne teacher Michael "Slippery Mick" Auld had been taking the student to do his fire service training on a Saturday only to discover that the Rural Fire Service knew absolutely nothing about it. When the parent went looking for Slippery Mick and his son, he found his car parked outside the local cinema.

The parent confronted Auld who said that the RFS program had been postponed today due to bad weather. When the parent said that the RFS knew nothing about his slippery antics, Auld said that the parent had been lied to.

These antics raise very concerns about just what Auld is doing with students on weekends and why he feels the need to lie to parents if he is doing nothing wrong.

Changes

The Carenne Gate team is always looking for ways to improve the site and the exposure of the problems at Carenne Special School. With local Police and the department allowing the debacle to continue the only real way to protect students and staff is to publicly expose what is happening at Carenne.

Welcome to our newest writer

The Carenne Gate team would like to welcome respected independent media journalist Mark Lindbert who will be contributing the occasional article about the mess that is Carenne Special School.

Merge with 'Inside Carenne'

Carenne whistleblower 'savecarenne' created her Inside Carenne blog where she exposed underage drug and alcohol use in Lee Churches' home, underage drinking at the Russell home and rorts of the worker's compensation system by Simone Russell. They can be read here.

Guest writers

Over the next few months Carenne Gate well begin publishing material written by guest writers on the ground within Carenne Special School and the education department. These articles will give readers a unique perspective into life at the coalface.

So keep us bookmarked and keep informed about what really goes on in NSW's school from hell.

DEC's $13 an hour job

One of the major issues with the Assisted School Travel Program has long been the amount of pay given to Travel Support Officers who escort students on vehicles to school and back everyday. In 2012, this amount of pay has risen to $13, much less than the officer would get paid working in a similar job somewhere else.

One Carenne Travel Support Officer has decided to speak out about the appalling conditions she faces everyday for miniscule pay and the lack of support she has received from the department and others.

The TSO says that on a daily basis she has to deal with students biting, hitting and kicking her as well as keep an eye on those with behavioural needs. She helps students get on and off the bus and ensures that they are correctly seated and restrained. She says that School Learning Support Officers are being paid in excess of $25 per hour for a similar job while she is being 'robbed' at $13 per hour.

'The department can't justify paying someone $13 an hour. It's not right. It has to be against the law', said the TSO.

The TSO claims to have approached the department which told her if she didn't like the pay offered she was free to leave and to have contacted the Assisted School Travel Contractors Association who told her they were not interested in helping TSOs when there are so many contractors who are being short changed by the department.

The TSO is now asking for anyone who believes that it is unfair to work as a TSO for $13 per hour to contact local member Paul Toole and show their support. He can be contacted by email paul.toole@parliament.nsw.gov.au or telephone (02) 6332 1300.

Neil Moon ignores dangerous parking by Minshull

Incompetent Carenne Special School principal Neil Moon has once again failed to address a serious issue showing that he is more interested in ensuring he looks good and his detractors look bad than he is in dealing with issues at the school. For months, staff have reported concerns about Steve Minshull, Capebase bus driver and Carenne music teacher parking on the grass behind the school office.

After months of having their concerns dismissed by Neil Moon, yesterday those concerns were shown to be completely valid when Steve Minshull almost hit a worker at Glenray next door to the school as he was leaving. Staff allege that Minshull was texting on his phone when he drove along the front lawn of the school and out Glenray's driveway where a worker was standing. The worker was forced to jump out of the way to miss being hit by Minshull.

Staff are concerned that a student could be hit by Minshull if he is allowed to continue parking where he does and that Neil Moon must take action.

Students subjected to exhaust fumes by Carenne Support

Just weeks after the muffler fell off Carenne Support's Oberon bus its Lithgow bus suffered from a similar issue with a hole in a muffler. Carenne Support is known for using defective vehicles and having quick fixes done on their vehicles without any consideration to student safety.

Parents report that for the last two days, Dave Graham has driven the bus with a hole in its exhaust, leaking exhaust fumes into the vehicle. One parent claims when she put her head inside the bus yesterday to speak to Robyn Graham that she could smell noxious fumes in the vehicle.

According to sources close to Carenne Support, Dave Graham has asked Mary Housler to source a relief vehicle but refused to do so placing students at serious risk.

Despite the leaking exhaust Neil Moon is still allowing classes to use the vehicle through the day, exposing more students to dangerous fumes.

More bizarre behaviour by Adam Ryan

One of the staff at Carenne Special School has placed himself in another inappropriate situation by becoming heavy involved with a student in his class' family in breach of the department's child protection guidelines.

We can reveal that Adam Ryan has been driving a student to and from school in his personal vehicle and has been observed at the student's house after hours. The department's policies forbid such behaviour as it can blur the staff/student relationship. Ryan has also said that he spends time with the student on weekends as they have become 'good friends'. The situation is reminiscent of the relationship that developed between Carenne teacher Anna Blackburn and student David Withyman, which progressed to a sexual liaison.

Ryan's behaviour, despite being against policy raises serious concerns due to allegations against him both at Bathurst High and Carenne. How Neil Moon can continue to place students at risk and Mr Ryan at risk of further allegations must be thoroughly investigated.

Isolation booth used by Nadine Dwyer and Adam Ryan

Serious concerns have been raised about behaviour management techniques used at Carenne Special School in the past including the use of a pig pen to house students, locking students in storerooms, sitting on them or calling the Police on autistic students to harass them. Another technique can now be added to the list with Nadine Dwyer and her School Learning Support Officer using an isolation booth to menace students.

On the outside wall of Dwyer's classroom she has a desk between two notice boards used as partitions. When a student becomes agitated they are taken to the area where a third partition is pushed against the other two, creating a cubicle no larger than 2x2 metres. Students are told to sit and be quiet and if they stand up they are hit on the head by Ryan or other students in a game he calls "Whack-a-Mole".

At times students have thrown the partitions, narrowly missing others. When they do so they are tackled and pinned against the wall by either Ryan or Dwyer. Dwyer justifies this behaviour by claiming that she has the "uncontrollable bastards" of the school.

The practice is against department policy and a breach of child protection guidelines, yet principal Neil Moon is well aware of it and does nothing to stop it.

Moon threatens parent, tells them they can't be trusted

Carenne Gate has learned that a complaint has been filed at the Bathurst SEA by a parent posting on this blog as "Mr Irate" about Neil Moon's behaviour towards him. The parent alleges that he has been told by Moon he is not to be trusted and has been threatened with an Inclosed Lands Notice and his child to be transferred to another school if he continues to comment on this blog.

Mr Irate claims that he has been told by Neil Moon he will not speak to him without two additional staff from the school being present as he "can not be trusted" and is "nothing more than a trouble maker". Mr Irate alleges that when he speaks to Moon that he is not taken seriously and that Moon would rather fob him off than to deal with his concerns.

Whistleblowers at the school claim the behaviour isn't isolated towards this one parent. Nedkelly told Carenne Gate she knew of at least five parents who were suspected of posting on the blog that have been treated exactly the same way. "Neil Moon isn't certain who some of the parents are on here, so the most vocal ones are harassed," said nedkelly.

Instead of addressing issues, Neil Moon would rather silence his critics and continue to run Carenne into the ground.

Paul Knight resigns from Carenne Support

The mouth of Carenne Support Limited, Paul Knight has resigned from the board of directors following a disagreement with Geoff Salmon, Terry Mahony and Mary Housler. According to a source inside the organisation, the disagreement related to Salmon and Mahony's plans for a fundraising campaign to purchase replacement buses.

Knight believes that it wasn't right for Carenne Support to call for donations to purchase vehicles when it already has $150,000 in the bank and had been using them to make money. He believed to do so would bring more negative publicity to the organisation.

Carenne Special School conducted a fundraising appeal in 2004 and 2005 to purchase new vehicles for the school. Those vehicles ended up in the hands of Carenne Support instead of the school as they were purchased for. The falling out with Paul Knight shows how quickly those in control will turn on those who disagree with them.

Di Klavins in the firing line

Carenne Gate can reveal that the KLAN at Carenne School are planning on removing Dianne Klavins from her School Learning Support Officer position after she made a series of complaints about Michael Auld.

Klavins has made a series of complaints about Auld's favoritism of some students, ineffective classroom discipline, lack of structure and poor teaching style. Klavins has reported several occasions where Auld has left the classroom for over half an hour during teaching times. Neil Moon's response to the complaints has been to claim they are baseless or that he investigated and found nothing.

It has long been known that Auld is being protected by school staff, with parents complaining about his lack of results with most students. He has been described as ineffective yet remains a teacher. Auld has a history of poor results and students going backwards. Unfortunately got anyone who complains about him, they soon find their job in jeopardy, with the complainant being persecuted.

In the case of Klavins, her dismissal won't be difficult with her past history of student abuse.

Adam Ryan's behaviour has long been a cause of concern

Adam Ryan now subject of more allegations

Carenne School Learning Support Officer Adam Ryan has previously come under Carenne Gate's attention for his inappropriate behaviour with students at Carenne. Carenne Gate can now reveal that during his involvement with students of the emotional disability and mild intellectual disability units at Bathurst High, his behaviour was also inappropriate and he had come under notice.

A whistleblower contacted Carenne Gate to report that Adam Ryan was quietly asked to have limited involvement with students at Bathurst High Campus of Denison College by Head Teacher Darren Hamilton. The whistleblower claims that Ryan used to hang around female students in the special education classes "like a bad smell" and often had discussions with them of a "sexual nature".


The whistleblower also claims to be aware of a relationship between Ryan and a student who is now at Carenne. The whistleblower told Carenne Gate -

"I was aware that there were concerns about the relationship between Adam and ........ and reported this to Gaye Dunshea. When I heard he was working at Carenne, I thought bloody hell, this bloke is obsessed with her because he started not long after she started there."

The whistleblower claims that it is "common knowledge" at Bathurst High that Ryan takes an unusual interest in vulnerable female students. "If you have a girl who has low self-esteem or has difficulty conducting herself, Adam Ryan will be there," said the whistleblower. The whistleblower also says that a number of students have claimed to have had sexual relations with Ryan, but these were dismissed by Dunshea as the students are "disturbed" and "distort reality".

It's time for a full and proper investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct surrounding Adam Ryan and for him to be stood down until the investigation is properly carried out.

Ros Luther in the firing line

Carenne School's infamous child abuser, liar and trouble-making Assistant Principal Ros Luther is in the firing line with the Serious Misconduct Investigation Team of EPAC taking an interest in her conduct. Carenne Gate can reveal that SMIT investigators are starting an investigation into the assistant principal.


According to senior departmental staff, Neil Moon has requested that Luther be investigated following her leaking of information about a meeting between staff and a bus driver to this blog. As a result of that request, complaints made to Bathurst SEA about Luther recently will also be investigated.

One complaint about Luther was made by a member of staff at the school after she attempted to harass a bus driver by making her look as though she wasn't properly carrying out her job. According to the whistleblower, Luther told the bus driver that a student had gone home early and that he wouldn't be on the bus in the afternoon. When the bus driver drove off, Luther was heard saying "I fooled that bitch, now to tell Neil" to Michael Auld. During this time, the student was locked in the school hall unsupervised until the bus driver returned.

The second complaint concerns allegations of Luther and her aide Jasmine Ryan locking a student in a store room and teasing him when he became upset. The parent spoke to Neil Moon and Ros Luther about the incident but was told that the student was lying and that they wouldn't look into complaints which had come from a student via a parent. Ros Luther is reported to have said that the student is a "known liar" and that he would "say or do anything to get out of trouble".

It is hoped that the investigation will also look at Luther's past conduct which involves locking students in a pig pen, locking students in a store room, encouraging students to look at pornography and leaving students unsupervised.

Capebase caught out on cheap modifications, unlicenced driver

Capebase was caught out on it's cheap and illegal vehicle modifications today after Police discovered that  the bus used for Capebase's Blayney run had seats removed without being checked by an engineer and updating it's seating capacity. Inquires by Police discovered that the vehicle was listed as having 14 seats with the RTA.

Due to Les Ross' incompetence in having the vehicle modified without an engineering certificate it can not be driven on a car licence legally. Unfortunately Steve Minshull found out the hard way when he was told by Police he can't drive the vehicle on his licence. This afternoon Minshull was forced to use a hire vehicle while Ross made arrangements to have the vehicle re-certified.

It is yet another blotch on Capebase's record which the department will do nothing about.

Assistant Principal Ros Luther leaks school information

Carenne Special School's incompetent assistant principal, Ros Luther has once again attempted to provide information to this blog to further her own Agenda. Luther, who has a history of leaking confidential information, encouraging students to look at pornography, neglect of students and torture contacted Carenne Gate to inform us of allegations made against her by Cheryl Chaplin.

In her email, Luther details an incident at the school on Monday involving a student being left behind and the response by the driver and a complaint made about her by the bus driver.

It shows how Ros Luther will side with whoever she can to gain an advantage. It's time this evil woman is sacked.

Neil Moon defrauds the public

In years to come when people look at the history of Carenne Special School in Bathurst, Neil Moon's principalship will be remembered as being one of cover-ups, lies, incompetence and stupidity. Neil Moon showed his tendancy for the last during his interview with Radio 2BS today.

During the interview, Mr Moon mentioned the upcoming Variety Club Bash and how the school owes them a debt of gratitude because Variety gave the school financial support  to purchase two buses. What Moon didn't realise is that his slip has quite significant ramifications for Carenne Support. Here you have yet another principal claiming that the funds raised for the Carenne bus appeal were actually raised for the school.

If Variety donated to the school (which is what the rest of the Bathurst community did, as they were led to believe the buses were for the school), why did the school give the money to Carenne Support? Why does Carenne Support own the buses and use them for business?

The issue raises very serious concerns about Terry Mahony, the school's principal at the time. Why did he allow the money to be siphoned to Carenne Support? Why did he lie to the community? 

It's time the Bathurst Detectives actually do their job and charge every director of Carenne Support at the time with fraud.

Dick Spears breaches ASTP guidelines further

Carenne Gate has been alerted to breaches of the Assisted School Travel Program guidelines by parents and staff at the maligned Carenne Special School. Mr Spears has a past history of breaching departmental guidelines - having transported Geoff Salmon's son to an unapproved address making his run much shorter than claimed for a number of years.

In mid-April, an audit carried out by the Assisted School Travel unit discovered that Mr Spears had been overdeclaring the distance of his run by 10 kilometres per day, resulting in significant overpayments. Spears is now being forced to repay the department for his fraudulent claims.

Carenne Gate can reveal a possible student safety breach by Mr Spears involving the escort on his vehicle. Under ASTP guidelines, the escort is required to travel in the rear of the vehicle with the students being supported. Parents and staff claim that Spears' escort travels in the front of the vehicle.

When questioned by one parent, Spears said that he couldn't have his escort in the back of the vehicle because there wasn't enough room. Spears told the parent that an escort wasn't really needed on the bus and that he only wanted it so he could claim the 15% escort bonus on top of his normal pay.

The parent reported their concern to Neil Moon who told them that he was aware of the issue and that it was being addressed.

If Mr Spears is using a vehicle that isn't up to the task then the department should require that he supply one that is or assign his run to another contractor.

Peter Williams protected by Police

Last month, Peter Williams was involved in an accident in his Nissan Civilian bus involving a parents car at their home in Windradyne. Williams reversed into the vehicle, causing moderate damage and took off. The parent reported the incident to Carenne School principal Neil Moon and local police.

The parent then contacted Williams who is alleged to have said "I didn't hit your car but if you want to push it I have June as a witness to say I didn't."

Neil Moon interviewed Williams and his travel support officer June Crawford, who denied that the accident even occurred. According to Moon's report, Williams told him that he noticed the car was damaged when he got there and didn't think anything of it and that the marks on the rear of his bus were from reversing into a pole a few weeks ago.

As Williams failed to stop and exchange details, Police commenced an investigation with several people coming forward to say they witnessed the incident. One witness told Police that she had no idea why he did a three-point turn where he did when he only needed to go to the end of the street where there is a turning bay. She claimed that she had seen Williams almost run children over a number of times when he hasn't been watching what he is doing.

Despite there being numerous witnesses to the accident, Williams has not been charged by Police with failing to exchange details after an accident or negligent driving - showing that there is obviously some level of protection for Williams. A source at Bathurst Police told Carenne Gate that Williams was known to investigating officers and they felt sorry for him as he claimed his business would fail if he was charged as the department would revoke his contract. This should have no effect on the matter.

The fact is that Williams damaged another person's car, took off hoping nobody could see, lied to Neil Moon, lied to Police and remains a driver/operator to transport disabled students too and from school. Something is seriously wrong.

Digging deeper into Salmon and Speck's affairs

Carenne Gate can reveal a number of issues with Carenne Support director Geoff Salmon's own company - Salmon and Speck Pty Ltd which is currently in administration after racking up millions of dollars in debt. After digging into the affairs of the company, Carenne Gate can reveal that Salmon may have breached his duty as a director and could be personally liable for debts of the company.

Carenne Gate can reveal that Salmon 'self-dealt' with the company, using it to pay for items for himself and hide them in the company's books, without the knowledge of his business partner Peter Speck.

These debts include:

Alert Monitoring Service for 335 Foleys Creek Road, Oberon	$223.95
Atherton Tableland for work done at 335 Foleys Creek Road, Oberon	$66,705.64
Clark Tanks for water tank installed at 335 Foleys Creek Road, Oberon	$6,544.00
Elgas for LPG service at 335 Foleys Creek Road, Oberon	$1,994.10
Integral Energy for electricity service at 335 Foleys Creek Road, Oberon	$7,871.59
Optus for mobile telephones used by Salmon	$13,891.68
Telstra for home telephone at 335 Foleys Creek Road, Oberon	$562.64
Wright Express for fuel cards issued to Geoffrey and Gillian Salmon	$13,029.27
Minimum amount misappropriated by Salmon:	$110,822.87

These are the amounts which are easily identifiable to have been self-dealt by Salmon. There may be more.

Of even more concern is that some of these debts have been outstanding since 2008, meaning that since that time Salmon has racked up more debt that he knew he couldn't pay. It's time that ASIC does a full and proper investigation into whether Salmon breached his duty as a director and if the company while insolvent.

Geoff and Gillian Salmon defraud administrators

Directors of corrupt charity Carenne Support, Geoff and Gillian Salmon appear to have either lied during the preparation of a Report As To Affairs (RATA) used in the liquidation of Salmon and Speck Pty Ltd or have attempted to gain more from the company than they are entitled to.

Carenne Gate can reveal that as of last month, Geoff and Gillian Salmon jointly claimed to be owed $450,000 by Salmon and Speck Pty Ltd, despite a RATA figure of nil. At the same time last year, the RATA figure was just over $117,000. That's an increase of around $333,000. Geoff Salmon separately claims to be owed $450,000 with his business partner Peter Speck claiming another $450,000.

Even without the Salmons and Mr Speck's claim, the amount owed by the company is in the millions of dollars - with a RATA amount of $2,000,000 owed to the National Australia Bank and over $1,000,000 owed to Asphalt Haulage.

The fall out from the collapse is vast, with businesses struggling due to the massive amounts owed to them by Salmon and Speck, one company - Comet Foods has gone bankrupt after carrying massive debt raked up by Salmon. Labour Hire companies and employees are owed  over $170,000 with an insurance company also owed for worker's compensation.

By looking at how Salmon runs his own company, it's not hard to see why Carenne Support is in such a shambles. Geoff and Gillian Salmon are conartists who should be nowhere near a charitable institution like Carenne Support.

Neil Moon covered up child sex assault at Holman Place

Neil Moon, the incompetent and corrupt principal of Carenne Special School has been accused of covering up a sexual assault between students at Holman Place Special School in Cowra during his tenure as principal.

Neil Moon took over as principal at Holman Place, first in a relieving capacity then permanently after Terry Mahony was promoted to principal at Carenne in 2004. Within months the Holman Place community began talking about the differences between the school with Mahony as principal and that under Moon. The behaviour of students worsened, staff morale was low and parents described Moon as "pompas" and "unapproachable".

In 2008 an incident occurred at the school where an older student sexually assaulted a younger student. With only 15 students in the entire school, the victim had to face the attacker everyday. The parents of the victim spoke to Neil Moon, who persuaded them not to involve the Police because their daughter would be seen as the one instigating the assault. "He told us not to report it to the Police because they wouldn't believe (name removed) and would think she instigated it," said the child's mother.

In a shock to the victim's parents, Moon then said "Nobody likes a dobber, she is disabled, she will get over it."

The incident was never reported to senior department officials and was kept a secret by Neil Moon, similarly to how he runs Carenne.

Neil Moon is an ineffective principal and should be demoted or dismissed, his history at both Holman Place and Carenne is appalling and demonstrates his complete lack of regard for student welfare and departmental processes.

Interchange worker uncovers Neil Moon's plans

A vacation care worker with respite organisation Interchange has uncovered a series of plans by Neil Moon to increase school numbers in an effort to rid the school of a long-time staff member and to recommend the allocation of additional runs to Carenne Support.

The worker has supplied Carenne Gate with documents left laying around the school by Neil Moon. One is a letter written by Moon promoting the school, claiming it to be the "best available option for students with special needs" and saying that "the school is well resourced and supported through Carenne Support Limited". The letter appears to be directed towards special education units and parents in the Bathurst district. The letter is the precursor to two other documents found by the care worker.

The second is a report on long-time General Assistant Peter Taylor, who Carenne staff have rumoured to be at risk if being dismissed for Doug Rowe. In the report, Neil Moon mentions that by the end of the year he plans on having the numbers to support 16 classes at the school which would increase the General Assistant's position to five days per week. In the report, Moon states that "Peter Taylor does not have the requisite fitness to be able to perform the role on a 1 FTE basis and would either have to remain on a 0.4 FTE basis with a second person sharing the position or preferably replaced by someone capable of performing a 1 FTE position."

"The level of confusion and disruption by students in having two General Assistants lead me to believe that the best solution is to medically retire Mr Taylor and hire another General Assistant."

In the final document, an email between Neil Moon and Sandra Marsic at the Assisted School Travel Unit, Neil Moon mentions that he is planning on an increase of one class next term with at least 8 new students. He says that he would "strongly encourage as many of these students as possible to be allocated to runs with Carenne Support to support the school's programs."

The documents should be of concern to parents when Neil Moon can't manage a school with 12 classes and he plans on increasing them to 16. Such an increase would require an increase of around 30 students. Carenne Gate will call on Neil Moon's plan to be ignored and for students to be allocated to support classes in the district.

Les Ross threatens Carenne staff

Owner of Assisted School Travel operator Capebase, Les Ross has contacted staff at Carenne over the weekend complaining about an email sent to operators by Kerry Jackson. Ross told the person that he believed that the email had come from someone at the school or Brian Carter.

The staff member, who was distressed by the call claims that she was threatened by Ross and told that when he finds out who wrote the email that he will go through the whole school until he sorts them out. He threatened that he would make sure that they could never make complaints about him again and would break their neck.

The incident shows that Les Ross believes he is beyond the rules of the system and can do what he likes.

Staff question Ros Luther's promotion

Staff at Carenne Special School have once again called staffing practices at the school into question with the promotion of Ros Luther to Assistant Principal last year. Staff claim that Neil Moon was nepotistic with the promotion and that Ros Luther should never have been promoted.

A series of Carenne whistleblowers have complained that Ros Luther is not properly qualified, not having special education qualifications. Nedkelly told Carenne Gate "Michael Auld is an incompetent fool but at least he has special ed qualifications, this bitch has nothing."

Other staff claimed that there were far better suited people in the school than Luther to take the position. Sunbeam said -

"Kylie McDonald, Janelle Kemp and Anne Baskerville all would of made better Assistant Principals than Ros Luther, she is a liar who can only control kids by locking them away."

Former Carenne Assistant Principal carennetruth told Carenne Gate that she was disappointed to hear that Luther had received a promotion - "This is a woman who has caused nothing but trouble, that locked students in the pig pen, had big Di sit on them and who implemented the program that led to Brian Carter's sacking,"

"Ros should have been reprimanded along with Terry Mahony about the travel of Jamie Hussey to Lithgow one day per week, she was the one who implemented it but instead they scapegoated Brian Carter," said carennetruth.

Given the serious allegations made against Ros Luther, staff at the Bathurst Schools Office were amazed that the MERIT Selection Panel chose Ros Luther. It was only in 2010 that she was under investigation by the Employee Performance and Conduct Directorate for using straps to hit children and lock them in the pig pen. It had also been reported to EPAC about her having students sat on by staff and the implementation of the "tranquility room", better used as a torture room.

Ros Luther has no place in the NSW education system and with her appalling record of service should face dismissal.

Carenne double-crosser exposed

Carenne Gate has received evidence showing the games being played by a member of the Carenne Special School executive who has been supplying information to both disgruntled ex-employees and members of the Carenne KLAN. The information was obtained by an employee at the school after Assistant Principal Ros Luther left her laptop and internet stick laying around while logged into Hotmail.

Mrs Luther's roslyn.luther@hotmail.com account showed a number of emails sent between herself and two Carenne Saviours which are no longer employed at the school. She had also sent emails to members of the Carenne KLAN including Nadine Dwyer, Angie Cranston, Michael Auld, Mary Housler, Geoff Salmon and Christine Porter.

The emails, dating back to 2010 provide an insight into the activities of Carenne's newest Assistant Principal who has been accused of physically abusing students, locking them in a torture room, locking them in a pig pen and lying to departmental investigators. For at least the last two years, Ros Luther has been playing all sides off against each other in an attempt to further her own career. These games have paid off well, given that Mrs Luther went from a casual classroom teacher in 2009 to a permanent Assistant Principal in 2011.

The emails show Mrs Luther's complete lack of respect and contempt for Carenne Principal Neil Moon. In many of her emails, Mrs Luther promises rewards for favours she asks others to do "when she takes over as principal from Neil Moon".

In her emails to the two Carenne Saviours, Luther asks them to report certain issues at the school, claiming that she is unable due to "her position as Assistant Principal and her future career prospects."

In her emails, Mrs Luther has leaked confidential information to people outside the school including:

• Personal information about students and parents
• Issues amongst staff at the school
• Details of incidents at the school
• Complaints made about staff and those working under the Assisted School Travel Program

A common theme in Luther's emails is to encourage people to make complaints about staff at the school - particularly Janelle Kemp, Karina Mollenkamp, Margaret Rowe and Neil Moon.

In other emails, Luther has openly slagged students, calling some of them cunts, arseholes, fuckwits, sluts, whores and drama queens. Luther has also made threats against a number of people, with the most serious being "I will have that Brian Carter taken out if I lose my job over Jamie Hussey, I don't care, I know people who will kill him" in an email to Christine Porter.

It is now up to the department's Employee Performance and Conduct directorate to take action against Luther for serious breaches of the departmental Code of Conduct after I emailed the evidence to them. Carenne Gate will keep a close watch on what they do next. Carenne Gate calls for the immediate suspension of Ros Luther until such investigations are completed.

Neil Moon hiding issues from senior officials

Neil Moon has come under notice for failing to follow department policy when dealing with serious issues by failing to report them to senior departmental officers. Knowing that his ability to manage Carenne would be called into question if more issues surface, Moon has instead covered them up.

Neil Moon was made aware of serious issues involving Dick Spears racially discriminating against an indigenous student which became so serious that the student refused to travel on Mr Spears' bus, having to be transported home by Ros Luther against department guidelines. Instead of reporting the issue to Peter Harvey and the Assisted School Travel Unit, Mr Moon decided to deal with the matter "in house", despite it clearly being a matter which was more appropriate to be dealt with by senior officials and which contained allegations of reportable conduct.

It is not the only recent issue that Neil Moon has covered up in order to save his own reputation, which is rapidly declining among senior departmental officials due to his inability to resolve serious issues at the school.

18 months on, still no charges against Carenne sex teacher

Today's story about a Tasmanian teacher being imprisoned for 18 months for having a sexual relationship with a 16 year-old student has me wondering why after over 18 months of Judge Elkaim finding that Carenne Special School teacher Anna Blackburn had a sexual relationship with student David Withyman no charges have been laid.

Despite being an intellectually disabled 17 year-old at the time and there being laws in place prohibiting a sexual relationship between a teacher and person under the age of 18, there have been no criminal charges laid against Anna Blackburn.

It comes as no surprise that charges have not been laid, given that Bathurst Police have a history of covering up issues involving Carenne Special School. In 2003, Constable Erin Lloyd knew of the affair and did absolutely nothing about it. Events since have shown that Police in Bathurst will do anything to protect the school and its staff.

It's time that charges are laid against Anna Blackburn, a sex fiend who preyed on an intellectually disabled 17 year-old.

Naismith refuses to investigate Carenne Support, Neil Moon over medical incident

A medical incident on Carenne Support's Lithgow bus driven by Dave Graham and escorted by Robyn Graham last week highlighted serious issues with how Carenne Support trains its drivers and escorts. The duo were caught completely by surprise when a student had a seizure on the bus last Wednesday, not knowing the correct way to deal with the issue.

According to Barracus, Robyn Graham told her that she didn't know what to do so left the student strapped to the seat while they had a fit. She said she "watched the child turn blue" and called the ambulance, which Dave Graham rushed to meet. Barracus told Carenne Gate this was not the proper way to handle the situation, which came down to Mr and Mrs Graham not being properly trained by Carenne Support.

When the incident was raised with Neil Moon, Barracus was told to keep their mouth shut and act as though it never happened.

Investigations by Carenne Gate can reveal that the principal and school staff are responsible for ensuring that bus staff have proper information and training to deal with such situations and all drivers and escorts should have health care plans detailing what to do in certain situations. According to Barracus and Save Carenne, Neil Moon has never made this information available.

When approached by Save Carenne, Catherine Naismith refused to deal with the complaint, further showing her complete lack of regard for the safety of disabled students being transported under the assisted travel program.

Manager of Assisted School Travel ignores serious complaints

Catherine Naismith, the manager of the department's Assisted School Travel Unit has ignored serious complaints about issues involving the travel program at Carenne Special School. This week, departmental whistleblower Save Carenne informed Naismith of a number of issues involving the program at Carenne to be told:

I also note that you claim to be an employee of the Department which therefore places obligations on you in regard to your employer and how you notify the Department of complaints. I strongly recommend that you familiarise yourself with the complaints handling processes of the Department and the Code of Conduct. If you believe that your complaints are of such a nature that the Department ought to take them seriously, then please provide them in the appropriate manner.

If you hold concerns regarding identifying yourself in making a complaint, please familiarise yourself with the Department’s policy Public Interest Disclosures - Internal Reporting Policy

Obviously, Naismith is not aware of the culture that exists within the department in Western NSW from Carole McDiarmid down. Those who complain and speak up routinely face harassment, intimidation and other reprisals. For Naismith to refuse to investigate what are serious issues against a number of people is frightening.

Savecarenne alleged that unapproved escorts had been used by Cheryl Chaplin, Capebase, Carenne Support, Dick Spears and Peter Williams and that the only vehicles meeting department standards were operated by Carenne Support.

Of particular concern was the unapproved use of medically retired assistant principal Lee Churches on Capebase's run given that she was retired due to cognitive and mental health problems. She was subsequently approved despite being a person on the department's Not To Be Employed list.

Savecarenne's complaint raised both safety and child protection issues and has been flatly rejected by the manager of the Assisted School Travel Unit who presided over the unit when 700 students were left stranded at the beginning of the year. It's time the department take action and sack Naismith for gross incompetence.

Carenne Support secretary's venom shows

Regular readers of this blog would have seen many postings by "Mary H", known in the real world as Mary Housler, the secretary of corrupt organisation Carenne Support. Most of these postings are derogatory, incorrect and frankly plain disgusting.

I can confirm that over the past several weeks, Mary Housler has also posted under the names of Busmaster and Boomer as well as impersonating Larry the Llama and Blog of Lies.

To assist any person investigating or considering taking action against Mary Housler I am taking the unprecedented step of making public identifying information for Mrs Housler.

Mrs Housler has registered the email address maryjhousler@bigpond.com with her "Mary H" account.
She has posted from the following IP addresses:
27.03.2012 101.161.152.204 and 58.168.4.125
25 - 26.03.2012 60.229.161.109
21.03.2012 121.216.135.66

This should be sufficient for people to take action

Blog changes

You may have noticed that from this morning, Libertarian's name no longer appears in the list of contributors in the right-hand side panel. You will all recall that I invited Libertarian to write for this blog after some personal issues affected the amount of time I had to work on this blog. Now, Libertarian has advised me that they need some time out from the blog and will not be contributing for the foreseeable future.

I would like to thank them for their service and wish them well in the future.

Neil Moon told staff about investigation: nedkelly

Turncoat Carenne whistleblower, nedkelly has once again exposed the KLAN mentality existing among staff at Carenne Special School by revealing to Carenne Gate that she was told by Neil Moon this afternoon of an investigation into a bus driver.

Nedkelly alleges that Neil Moon told her that an investigation was being carried out by EPAC to determine if fraud had been committed by the driver. Nedkelly says that Neil Moon told staff that it was because of the 'vigilance' of the school's office staff that the fraud had been detected as they noticed that she had declared that she worked on days that she had other people who were unauthorised work for her.

Moon then told staff that if they could remember any issues with the driver to let him know as he was putting together a file on her for EPAC.

Nedkelly said:

"I couldn't believe the c---, standing there telling us all that she was under investigation and what for. He had a smug fucking look on his face like he was happy about it. He laughed when he said that she was being investigated by EPAC."

The incident shows that Neil Moon does not have the integrity to be principal and that he will happily give out information to his staff when it suits him that he should keep confidential.

Cheryl Chaplin breaches SNTS rules

Carenne Gate can reveal that Cheryl Chaplin, the long-time bus owner who transports disabled students to and from Carenne Special School has seriously breached the Special Needs Transport Service rules by using an unapproved escort on her vehicle.

Carenne whistleblower "Jake Rosenberg" reported that yesterday, Cheryl Chaplin used Roy Bligh, a former department employee as an escort on her Trunkey bus. She claims that she was told about it by Neil Moon after he discovered that Bligh was not an approved escort. Rosenberg claims that Moon had an obligation to report the incident but instead asked her to do so.

Another Carenne whistleblower, known as the "Aurtistic Saviour" told Carenne Gate that it is just one breach in a long line of breaches by Chaplin. "I can't believe this woman to be honest, she is a complete fool for doing something so stupid when she is despised at Carenne."

The incident shows that the department needs to clean out operators at Carenne.

LSLD more like LSD to Carenne

Barry O'Farrell's highly supported Local Schools Local Decisions (LSLD) program, which aims to give principals more control over staffing and school finance will be result in further issues at the maligned Carenne Special School in Bathurst according to staff.

Carenne Gate has been supplied with meeting minutes discussing what to do when the program begins to be implemented on Day 1 of Term 2. Under the program, Neil Moon will be able to make purchases under $5,000 from his choice of supplier. According to the meeting minutes, a number of people associated with Carenne staff will be rewarded:

• Stephen Smith will be given building work despite being a director of Carenne Support,
• Avairs Klavins will be given electrician work as his wife is an employee at the school,
• Christine Porter will be paid for upto 25% of speech therapy services at the school, with the remainder to be paid by Carenne Support,
• Joe Mancia will become the school's supplier of computers and maintain the school's computer system, Mancia is a close friend of Michael Auld and Lee Churches,
• RDA will receive payment directly from the school for the therapy farm and horse riding programs.
  

Moon has also discussed a plan to pay hire fees for buses used by the school belonging to Carenne Support with the school executive .

Nedkelly told Carenne Gate that staff were already discussing how to get their friends into jobs and how to make sure friends and family benefited from the new supply arrangements. She said the arrangements were a return to the "early days of Terry Mahony's principalship."

"As usual that fuckwit Michael Auld is involved in deciding who should get the task of supplying things to the school. He is a corrupt bastard and leads Neil Moon around by the nose,"

"I don't care, if this fucking shit goes on, I will be making a complaint to ICAC. I'm over these cunts dragging the school's name through the mud," said Ned Kelly.

It shows that Neil Moon is an ineffective leader who can be easily corrupted by staff at the school.

Escort rules unfair: Operator

A bus operator under the troublesome Assisted School Travel Program has spoken out about the new escort arrangements introduced as part of the changes for 2012, calling them unfair.

Under the previous system, bus operators were paid from the time they collected the first department approved passenger - which could be a student or escort until they dropped off the last passenger. This allowed for longer runs to be paid exorbitant amounts, while unescorted runs only got paid from the first student to the last student.

Under the new system, bus operators are paid a 15% bonus for having an escort, with the pay being determined from the first student picked up to the last student dropped off. They are no longer paid for the time an escort is on the bus.

One operator told Carenne Gate they considered the changes unfair.

"We have a 300 kilometre a day run, that we used to be paid the whole amount for. Now we are paid for 175 kilometres a day, with each kilometre paid far less than before," said the operator.

"If it keeps going, we will just stop our bus runs and find something else to do. It's no longer viable."

A source in the Assisted School Travel Unit told Carenne Gate that she believed the tender process and the new rates were bought in to stop rorting. "You can not believe how complicated the old system was, and how easily you could rort it," said the whistleblower.

"The new system was supposed to simplify how everything worked and stop the rorts."

Another departmental official told Carenne Gate that the new system was bought in as a recommendation of the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

"The ICAC received a number of complaints involving the former special student transport and looked into how it was ran. They found it was poorly ran and was open to corruption and favourtism,"

"You would have rouge operators such as one in this area which would put down more kilometres than they were traveling and who were getting in some cases double what some of the others were getting,"

"The ICAC said it was befit with massive issues," said the official.

Once again, the NSW Department of Education and Communities has failed a key program for disabled students in the state.

Police called on alleged sex assault victim

Carenne Special School's relieving principal, Terry Neal called Police on an 11 year-old student today after he became agitated and violent towards staff and other students. The student claims that he was sexually assaulted by an older student at the school and became agitated when Nadine Dwyer refused to listen to him about the assault.

The student's parents were called, telling them that he had an "episode" at school. The real reason was not told to the parents. When parents refused to collect their son from school, he was taken to Terry Neal who told him that nobody would believe him that he was sexually abused because he was a known trouble-maker. When the student become even more agitated, Police were called.

Office staff overheard Mr Neal tell the student prior to the Police arriving that he would "make your time at Carenne hell if you tell them about [name removed] having sex with you." and that "You will have to come back sometime, so think about that you little cunt."

Police arrived and threatened the student with criminal charges if he continued his behaviour before taking him home to his parents.

It is yet another example of the cover-ups, incompetence and deception going on in Bathurst involving the Police and the Carenne Special School.

Auld under investigation

Michael Auld, the Labor party stooge who is no stranger to being in hot water is once again being investigated by the department's EPAC branch according to senior document officials.

The officials claim to have received reports from Auld's former aide Melinda Gavin that he has leaked confidential school information, misappropriated school funds and property, sexually harassed staff and assaulted students.

Gavin gave an interview to EPAC officers at the beginning of term claiming that -

• Auld had accessed confidential information on school computers in 2009 and 2010 and had leaked it,
• Auld planted evidence on staff computers to implicate staff,
• Destroyed documents implicating Lee Churches, Margaret Rowe, Simone Russell and himself,
  
• Diverted funds to RDA,
• Stolen school property,
• Had inappropriate conversations of a sexual nature with make students,
• Gave students pornography,
• Showed pornography in class,
• Inappropriately touched female students,
• Made unwanted sexual advanced towards her, including exposing himself

These allegations come as no surprise given Auld's bizarre behavior. Auld's conduct places students at serious risk of harm. Despite being covered up by the school, Mr Auld had a checkered history with the department, having a number of issues recorded on his file for misconduct.

Carenne Support Director's wife makes submission to Boston inquiry as an 'impacted parent'

A report into the failures of the Assisted School Travel Program's operation for 2012 has been released by the Department of Premier and Cabinet. In the report, it is mentioned that corrupt and incompetent director and self-confessed carjacker Geoff Salmon's wife Gillian made a submission to the inquiry as an 'impacted parent'.

Investigations by Carenne Gate have been unable to discover just how the Salmons were impacted, especially when their son Phillip is being transported by Carenne Support Limited in 2012, a company that Geoff is a director of.

Did Salmon tell Dr Boston that she was the wife a director of the contractor transporting her son? What exactly did she say in her submission? These are critically important questions given her close association with the program (through Carenne Support's involvement).

ASTU officer George Kalinin identified as corrupt

Following Libertarian's expos'e of Capebase Pty Ltd and its close relationship with an officer of the Assisted School Travel Unit (ASTU) known as George, Carenne Gate was flooded with details about the corrupt officer.

Carenne Gate can reveal that George Kalinin, a senior transport officer at the ASTU has been heavily involved in rorts surrounding the Assisted School Travel Program (ASTP) for years.

One such rort is a system of mates rates for particular bus operators, hand selected by Kalnin himself. These rates mates were referred to as the department standard rate. The department standard rate in 2011 for a bus such as those used by Carenne Support and Capebase was $3.12 per kilometre, with a daily minimum of 100 kilometres (or $312 per day). Preferred operators such as Carenne Support, Capebase and TRAILS were paid the standard rate while other operators were not even told of its existence.

Kalinin is heavily involved in the allocation of runs at the ASTU and has rewarded his mates with lucrative runs, despite their history of major issues.

Kalinin was also known to bully drivers and operators, telling them if they complained about the system they would lose their run and it would be allocated to another operator. These re-allocations were ordinarily made to Capebase or other operators paid according to the department standard rate.

Kalinin has threatened drivers and operators who reported safety issues with both vehicles and individual students. Kalinin told these people making complaints to mind their own business and if they pushed the issue they were warned that there would be serious consequences.

Kalinin has also bullied parents, telling them if they complained too much he would just end their eligibility for transport and they would have to take their own children to school.

Numerous complaints about Kalinin have been made to both Gail Vasic (former ASTU manager) and Catherine Naismith (current ASTU manager) with no action being taken. His corrupt activities at the ASTU have been reported to politicians on both sides of the political divide and has been referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption, yet no action has been taken against him.

George Kalinin is yet another officer at the ASTU that should be in the dole queue, instead of looking after his corrupt mates.

Capebase exposed

One of the many shonky and corrupt assisted school travel operators across NSW, Capebase Pty Ltd has been reported in recent days as refusing to cater to the special needs of students in the Blue Mountains. The company has been reported on this blog a number of times for defrauding the department, having incompetent and dangerous drivers and student abuse.

Despite the many issues, the company is repeatedly praised by Neil Moon - who told parents in Blayney at the beginning of the year that the new bus operator would provide a far superior service to their former operator and that there is no problems with driver Steve Minshull, who is also the school's music teacher.

A former Capebase employee has spoken to Carenne Gate about the company, exposing its manager Les Ross.

According to the former employee turned whistleblower, Capebase consists of two parts - its Pacific South West Shuttle service and its assisted school travel service. According to the whistleblower, when vehicles are no longer suited to the shuttle service in Sydney they are retired to become assisted travel vehicles.

"On some of his buses you can see where he took the stickers off with a hairdryer, they are just the old shuttles used for student transport. I remember asking him why he didn't use his good vehicles for the school runs and I got told that 'we use the shit for the schools because we are only transporting retards anyway, Wollongong doesn't care, my mate George looks after me'", said the whistleblower.

The whistleblower said the standard of some of the vehicles used to transport disabled students was appalling. They claim to have made Les Ross aware of issues with vehicles, only for him to wait until the school holidays to fix them himself. They claim that most major work was done in his backyard at Moorebank. According to the whistleblower major alterations were done by Ross himself and never cleared by the RTA.

The former driver claims to have been told by transport manager, Lyn Ross (wife of Les Ross) not to 'take shit' from parents and to tell them to call her if they had any problems. She said there was a standing agreement with George at the assisted school travel unit that troublesome parents would have their children allocated to another run.

How Capebase can continue to operate under the ASTP and receive glowing reports from Neil Moon is bizarre given this history.

Who is Capebase?

With Capebase Pty Ltd engulfed in scandal surrounding the assisted school travel program, it is appropriate to provide the public (and mainstream media) with information related to the company.

Capebase was formed in February 1991 to provide business services to clients. It started providing a shuttle bus service around Sydney before entering into contracts with the education department for assisted school travel. It's history with the department has been colourful but it appears to be protected by an officer known only to Carenne Gate as George. The organisation has over 25 runs under the assisted school travel program.

The company's directors are Les Ross, a 65 year-old from Moorebank who was raised in the Lithgow area and his wife Lyn, aged 63, raised in Sydney. Mr Ross also directs two other companies - Halsend Pty Ltd and Lcross Pty Ltd.

Capebase has a touring vehicle accreditation from the Ministry of Transport and uses its accredited vehicles for its shuttle bus operation before retiring them to student transport.

Capebase refuses to cater to special needs, rewarded by DEC

The NSW Department of Education and Communities has once again shown its complete incompetence in relation to its administration of the Assisted School Travel Program (formerly known as the Special Needs Transport Service) with the revelation that Capebase Pty Ltd, an organisation which has featured on this blog for defrauding the department, having dangerous drivers and abusing students has taken over a run in the Blue Mountains formerly serviced by Katoomba-Leura Cabs.

Parents vented their anger to the Blue Mountains Gazette which has named and shamed the organisation for refusing to guarantee that they can guarantee to be able to cater to the special needs of students.

Les Ross and Capebase have been given special treatment by the department for years. It is well aware of the issues surrounding it, yet like Carenne Support it continues to be rewarded with lucrative transport contracts.

It's time for the education minister to sack Catherine Naismith, the manager of the Assisted School Travel Unit and to announce an inquiry into why organisations such as Capebase and Carenne Support were awarded contracts given their past poor performance.

Readers interested in past stories about Capebase may read them by clicking this.

DEC misleads local media over Assisted School Travel Program

An unnamed spokesman quoted in today's Western Advocate has misled the newspaper, claiming that only six students out of 65 were affected by problems with the Assisted School Travel Program (ASTP) on Monday with problems resolved soon after.

The account by the spokesman is entirely incorrect with four students eligible for ASTP assistance still not having transport arrangements as of Friday. The problems come down to a number of contractors refusing to go out of their way to transport students.

Once again, the local media is being duped by employees speaking on behalf of the education department who are paid to spin and reduce the damage of this kind of problem.

Housler and Salmon's latest Carenne Support rort

With the Assisted School Travel Program in disarray due to changes to contracts between the department and contractors and the inability to secure travel support officers, Geoff Salmon and Mary Housler have found new ways to rort the system. Under the old scheme, Carenne Support was paid around $600 per day for its Lithgow run, while under the new scheme it should be paid around $370 per day.

This year, Robyn Graham - the travel support officer who assaulted an indigenous student last year has been forced to resign, with many in the Carenne KLAN claiming that she was dismissed over the allegations against her. This is incorrect. Mrs Graham was forced to resign as part of Salmon and Housler's exploitation of a loophole, allowing them to increase the amount received from the department.

A loophole under the new scheme allows contractors to claim an extra 15% per day if they have to travel more than five kilometres to collect their travel support officer. With Mrs Graham arriving at the school with her husband of a morning and afternoon, Carenne Support would not be entitled to the extra bonus but with Robyn Graham no longer working as travel support officer, Dave Graham now has to collect an escort at an additional cost to the department of $55 per day (or $1,100 per month).

Once again, Carenne Support have shown they can not be trusted and that they will exploit any loophole they can for their own gain.

Independent inquiry into assisted school travel bungle

Today, NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell has announced an independent inquiry into the Assisted School Travel Program following its bungled handling of transition to new contractual arrangements.

The move for an inquiry has been criticised by Labor leader John Robertson, who's party while in government instigated the tender process.

Transport providers under the scheme (formerly the Special Needs Transport Service) have had to tender for runs under the new scheme, with the tender process commencing in late 2010. After the department realised it didn't have enough contractors in all regions it issued another tender in November 2011.

According to a source in the Assisted Travel Unit, the tendering of placement on an eligibility list every five years was supposed to weed out those defrauding the department and not providing an adequate level of service.

Instead, a number of operators around the state have been left short by the department, either not being awarded contracts or making their contracts financially unviable. These honest operators have been shafted while corrupt organisations such as Carenne Support Limited and Capebase have been rewarded.

Carenne Support, an organisation which has ripped off the former SNTS program, has refused to transport certain students, is under investigation by the ICAC, had a director assault a former employee, failed to comply with company law, has ripped off its employees and allowed staff to assault students has been awarded three runs this year, while Capebase, another organisation who defrauded the department has been awarded at least 25 through-out NSW.

One parent with a student on Capebase's Blayney run was contacted on Sunday and told her daughter couldn't attend school today because an escort could not be found and would not be able to travel on transport ordinarily provided by the department until one was found. There has been a long-standing problem getting escorts, which are paid just over $12 per hour.

The problems with the assisted school travel program are long-standing and all aspects of it should be reviewed.

Parents demand answers from Interchange after accident

On Tuesday, an accident involving one of Interchange Bathurst's buses occurred on the Great Western Highway East of Bathurst. At the time six disabled teenagers were on board the vehicle, which was being driven by 19 year-old P-plater Matthew Daley.

According to a statement in the Western Advocate, Police believe that the driver lost control of the vehicle when he veered into loose gravel on the shoulder of the road. The vehicle left the road hitting a tree and rolled two or three times.

The driver and all passengers in the vehicle were taken to Bathurst Hospital as a precautionary measure.

A number of parents have contacted Carenne Gate dismayed with Interchange management's handling of the accident. One parent said "I can't believe Melinda Phillips believes this is a non-issue, she said it could of happened to anyone. Well it wouldn't happen if they had experienced drivers driving their vehicles. They don't care about the safety of our children."

Another parent claimed to have been badgered by Phillips. "She called me up to tell me there had been an accident and my son was being taken to the hospital. I was quite panicked and she then said 'I need to ask will you be suing us, if you sue we may not be able to provide a service to your son'", said the parent.

Carenne Gate spoke to Bathurst Police who said investigations were continuing into the accident and they believe the statement provided by the driver was inaccurate. Police said that Daley would be charged with negligent driving over the accident.

A whistleblower at Interchange told Carenne Gate that there had previously been complaints about Daley's driving. The whistleblower said that he was aware that Daley had been observed driving in erratically and in excess of the speed limit on a number of occasions. The whistleblower said that he himself had made a complaint to Phillips about Daley's maturity. "He is only 19, 20 next month and of course he is still pretty immature, he has a good rapport with the kids but he should be better supervised."