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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Robyn Graham abuses student

Despite being under close scrutiny, staff associated with Carenne Special School in Bathurst continue to act inappropriately, unprofessionally and worst of all - continue to abuse children. Carenne Gate has learned of an incident involving Robyn Graham, wife of Dave Graham and escort on Carenne Support's Lithgow run at the end of November.

Without approval from the Special Transport Unit, and while claiming for running two buses, at the end of November Dave Graham combined the Lithgow and Kelso runs and performed it himself, with his wife as escort.

During the run, Robyn Graham hit an indigenous student across the face and forcefully held him to the seat while using racial slurs to refer to the student. When the student became agitated, Mrs Graham threatened to sit on him to ensure he remained seated. The student's parent noticed bruises on his arm that afternoon and asked Mrs Graham what had happened. She told the parent that he wouldn't remain in his seat so she restrained him.

One of the students on the bus then began to tell the parent what had happened and spoke of the language used by Mrs Graham towards the student.

The incident was reported to Bathurst Police, who advised that the school would need to look into the matter. A complaint was made to Neil Moon, who promised to look into the incident but as usual with child protection complaints at Carenne nothing appears to have been done. It appears to be Mr Moon's practice to drag these matters on so the evidence is destroyed or the complainant goes away. In this case, the parent took photographs of the bruises on their child's body as evidence of the attack.

Frighteningly, Mrs Graham remains as a SNTS escort on Carenne Support's Lithgow run.

According to Barracus and nedkelly, staff at Carenne were briefed about the incident by Neil Moon and told to say nothing if interviewed by Police or staff from EPAC.

It's time that the authorities get real and take action about the continued abuse being suffered by students at Carenne Special School.

Parent observes Melinda Gavin abusing student

A stunned parent has reported seeing Melinda Gavin striking a student while driving past the school today.

The parent claims that at 1:30PM today she was driving along Research Station Drive when she saw Melinda Gavin walking a student along the ramp near the demountable classrooms on the back oval. She saw Mrs Gavin raising her arm and then striking the student. The stunned parent stopped near the fence of the school and observed Mrs Gavin striking the student across the face and back another two times. She tried to get a photograph but having only a mobile phone on her it couldn't capture Mrs Gavin who was around 50 to 100 metres away.

The parent rang the school and asked to speak to the principal, Neil Moon but was told by Helen Windsor he was busy. She told Mrs Windsor that she was parked near the back fence and had observed the abuse of a student, to which Mrs Windsor said "rubbish" and hung up on her.

The incident is another in the long history of improper behaviour management techniques at the school amounting to abuse.

Abuse by Melinda Gavin ignored by Neil Moon

Staff at the Bathurst Christian Life Centre on Friday reported the physical abuse of a male Carenne student to Neil Moon on Friday, only to be told that they had "misinterpreted" the situation.

Christian Life Centre staff contacted Carenne Gate after being brushed off by Neil Moon. They claim they observed Melinda Gavin forcefully grabbing a student by the arm and pushing him into a bus, while telling him "stop your f---ing shit." The incident was witnessed by four staff, one of which immediately contacted the school.

One of the staff said -

"I couldn't believe the principal's attitude, he told me you don't understand how to deal with these sorts of kids, they need to be treated like this sometimes. You misinterpreted the situation."

According to the staff, Mrs Gavin was responsible for the supervision of a male and female Carenne student at the church, with no teacher present. This is a serious breach of the Department of Education and Communities' child protection policies and guidelines set by the Public Service Association. Even after repeated reports of these breaches on this blog, Neil Moon continues to ignore policy and allow aides to be solely responsible for the supervision of students.

Neil Moon has had numerous opportunities to fix the issues at Carenne and has done nothing and should be stood down and replaced by a real leader.

DOCS discontinues abuse investigation

The parent of a student who she alleges was physically assaulted by Terry Neal in May last year has told Carenne Gate that the Department of Community Services has discontinued its investigation after being unable to prove that he abused her son.

The parent claims that her son came home from Carenne one day and had bruises on his leg. When the parent called Yvette Smith, who she was friends with at the time, she was told her son had been hit on the leg with a bat by Terry Neal when he wouldn't do an activity in the mini-gym.

The parent reported it to Neil Moon, who told her she was a liar before then reporting it to DOCS. She was advised by the Allegations Against Employees Unit this week that DOCS had been unable to find any witnesses and had decided to discontinue the investigation.

It is yet another example of the abuse inflicted on students at Carenne Special School and the entrenched culture of silence.

Neil Moon uses former student to improve school's reputation

Staff at the problematic Carenne Special School in Bathurst have complained about Neil Moon's use of a former student to attempt to improve the school's reputation amongst the school community. The recent newsletter mentioned that former student Tim Seager from Seager Productions returned to the school to present a perpetual visual arts award to a student.

Staff were appalled that Neil Moon was so low as to use a former student who was abused by numerous staff to attempt to improve the school's reputation.

Gretel told Carenne Gate that there was no such business as Seager Productions and that the whole presentation was a sham. "There's no business and the student's mother should hang her head in bloody shame. This is a student who was continuously abused by Laurie Clifford and Juliette Van-Emmerick, Laurie didn't understand his unique needs and terrorised him while he was in her class."

It is well known that the student was one of the first to be suspended in years at Carenne, after allegedly assaulting staff. At the time, jrosenberg reported that the student was harassed by Clifford and Van-Emmerick.

It's apparent that Moon has no leadership skills and no sense and is not a fit or proper person to be principal of Carenne.

Carenne Support forces parent to pick up student

The corrupt organisation at the core of the Carenne Gate Affair, Carenne Support Limited has made a parent drive 120 Km return in order to pick up her son after driver Dave Graham said he wouldn't transport the student if he was the same in the afternoon.

After spending most of the day locked in Ros Luther's storeroom known as the "torture room", the student was highly agitated by the afternoon so Mrs Luther called his parents and demanded that they take him home because the bus driver refused to transport him.

Parents have a right to know how many students are being locked in this torture room and for how long. It is despicable for Carenne to terrorise a student in this way and then claim it is too hard to deal with the student and demand that his parents pick him up instead of being transported by the organisation paid to do it.

Terry Neal tells student to "get fucked"

A concerned parent from Carenne Special School contacted Carenne Gate this week to report vulgar behaviour by assistant principal Terry Neal.

The parent told Carenne Gate that their son had returned home from school on Friday and told her that there was an altercation between Mr Neal and another student. During the altercation, the student told Mr Neal to "get fucked", to which Mr Neal replied "You can get fucked too."

According to the Carenne Saviours, this abuse towards students is typical of Mr Neal. One Saviour told Carenne Gate:

"That is nothing. I have heard Terry Neal call students the c word, make fun of them when they haven't been able to perform a task in the gym and even threaten them. The man doesn't have the patience to be a teacher."

Another Saviour told Carenne Gate that this type of abuse towards students started when Jock Roxborough was principal. She claims that Mr Roxborough would use vulgar language himself and was even known to tell staff to physically assault students.

This is yet another incident which demonstrates the incompetence of Peter Harvey and Neil Moon who continue to do nothing about staff conduct issues.