Ros Luther and Di Klavins change tactics in dealing with student.

Over the past several months, Carenne Gate has reported on very serious concerns surrounding the way in which Ros Luther and Di Klavins dealt with an autistic students. The duo first came to our attention when it was reported that they would sit on an autistic student and call the police on him (only to get off him when they were warned the police had arrived).

Commentators on this site also alleged that Mrs Luther had been seen pinning the student against a wall and locking the student in a storeroom.

It was reported by this blog two weeks ago that Mrs Luther and Mrs Klavins weren't applying these same techniques to another student in their class who's mother was involved in Carenne Support, the school's corrupt charity. Instead the pair would call the student's mother who would try to calm him down.

The student is now restrained and then locked in what we have identified as the torture chamber until his parents arrive to take him home. When his parents arrive at the school, office staff call the classroom and they take the student out of the torture chamber/sensory room/storeroom.

Carenne continues to sit on students, call police on them

Staff of the senior section of Carenne Special School continue to use outdated methods for dealing with autistic students.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

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

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

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

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

Concerns raised about Carenne's handling of autistic students

After a series of serious child abuse claims at Carenne Special School, fresh concerns have been raised about the treatment and handling of autistic students at the school.

It is claimed up to six staff were involved in restraining the student after he had an autistic episode today. Several staff were injured during the restraining. It is claimed that the staff were quite rough with the student at the time which distressed him further. The student appeared very tired following the altercation with Carenne staff.

The particular incident raises a number of serious concerns about the handling of autistic students at Carenne. If a large number of autistic students are becoming distressed, what is happening at the school to make them distressed? What are they being subjected to? Are staff adequately trained to work with autistic students?

Jasmine Ryan abusive to autistic students says staff

Carenne Special School staff and parents report disgusting abuse by a teacher's aide towards a student yesterday afternoon.

It is claimed that Jasmine Ryan, a casual teacher's aide at Carenne violently shook and screamed in an autistic student's face while he was having what is termed a "meltdown", which made his condition worse.

This abuse was carried out in front of a number of staff, none of which intervened.

One Carenne Saviour said:

Why Jasmine did this makes no sense to me, it's just child abuse. Jasmine is pretty poor at managing student behaviour but continues to be one of the school's preferred aides since Terry Neal took over staffing.

Documentary evidence demonstrates the Carenne pigpen was used as early as May 2007

Documentary evidence provided by 'hatho' shows that as early as May 2007 Carenne Special School established a yard to hold autistic students when they are distressed. Photographic evidence had previously been posted to this site but a number of staff from Carenne commented that the yard was only used for animals.

In a list of incidents for a particular student, it is shown that Carenne thought it was acceptable practice to lock an autistic student in a yard (called the "pig pen") when he was distressed. The list states that the student was placed in the yard until they had settled.

Update on the Carenne "pig pen"

On October 27, 2009 it was posted to Sydney Indymedia that Peter Harvey had ordered a cover-up of child protection matters at Carenne Special School. As part of this, Mr Harvey told staff to stop using the "pig pen", an area where autistic students were kept when they were distressed.

It has been reported that this area was established in 2007 at the end of the demountable classrooms and used primarily by Ros Luther and Di Klavins. Use of the area was supported by two principals - Terry Mahony and Lyn Duncan with the support of the school executive. The area was moved when the demountable classrooms were moved at the end of 2008. jrosenberg, a poster on this blog claimed that the staff of Mrs Luther's class would not supervise the children while they were in the yard but instead had a mirror on the outside wall of the classroom that they would use to watch them. Staff say that the way the ramps to that classroom are set up that a student could be severely injured in the time it would take staff to reach them.

As can be seen in the photograph top-left taken in April 2009, the area has no shade or other protection from the elements and students have to endure the heat and cold when locked in this yard which could be for hours at a time.


Following Peter Harvey's order, Doug Rowe stored some steel in the area to look as though it hadn't been used and was just used for storage. He also let the grass grow long (up to knee height at one point) and staff were concerned that snakes may be in there. The grass is still kept higher than the rest of the playground for appearance sake.

Staff then began using the Liberty Swing yard (shown under the blue cover to the left) to lock distressed autistic students in. There isn't even a mirror to supervise students in this area as there is no window nearby.

Carenne Special School not the only school to have a "pig pen"

It has been revealed by Chris Smith on 2GB this afternoon that another NSW public school uses a fenced off area referred to as the "cage" or "pig pen".

Seven Hills West Public School has been outed as using a caged off dirt area under a tree to lock special needs children in. The department claimed in a statement, read on air that the students are supervised by a Student Learning Support Officer, which is not allowed under department policies.

I now wonder whether or not special needs students at SHWPS are subjected to the physical and emotional abuse that students are at Carenne Special School.

An abuse of Privilige.The DET can now diagnose mental illness and reject professional expertise stating otherwise

An article from Indymedia Australia by casidhe on 28 Jan 2010

Imagine you are sane . You share the same stresses as anybody in the community...possible more because you have 2 children with types of Autism as do other members of your family but beyond this you are mentally well and have a high IQ. Now picture this strange and insane scenario. The Principal of a school decides you are insane and that your parenting is responsible for your children's Autism. Now imagine being held responsible for behaviours that are typical of a child with Aspergers. Thats right YOU are responsible for their anxiety ,learning difficulties ,melt-downs etc because the Principal has decided without YOU the children would be "normal"....You might then begin to imagine how I feel except it gets worse .MUCH worse.

Imagine the same Principal receives reports from other Health-Care professionals that demonstrate your capacity to care for your children and in fact commend you for your high quality of parenting .Understand also that the childrens psychologist has had regular home visits. However the Principal is not convinced by these reports by Experts with the essential expertise. She knows better. Despite only seeing you 4 or 5 times and NEVER with your children she somehow has a gut feeling that you are damaging your children.Now imagine a feeling of complete despair.

Under the safe blanket of " qualified privilige " the Principal can inform Docs and the Police,her own staff and the DET that she genuinely believes you are mentally ill and that the children are at risk in your care " She can do this without a shred of evidence and the DET won't expect her to provide any . In fact if you complain about this horrifying treatment the DET will also proceed to diagnose you under the same safe blanket of "qualified privilige" and all that will be needed is for you to demonstrate legitimate stress at a very distressing situation. Show any emotion and you will be damned.

If you dare to complain again you can these be accused of aggression, villification and creating conflict and fear ....these very powerful and damaging allegations can be made without a single specific fact or shred of evidence. The DET can and will ignore your requests for dates,times,names and refuse to inform you with ANY information. Your requests for mediation with these unnamed staff will also be ignored. Can you imagine how I felt and fell ? I can't even describe it.

If you were not mentally ill before this treatment you may feel yourself teetering on the brink . You will certainly become depressed and upset and appalled and this won't go in your favour at all ,it will serve as further fuel for the DET to burn you with. Plead all you like but not a drop of compassion will come your way ! Interestingly despite the DET stating and insisting you are mentally ill and that the Principal has every right to say so you will not be offered any extra support or assistance...instead you will be ridiculed and treated with increasing hostility and smothered with the stigma the DET seem to feel that anyone with mental Health issues deserves !

Then imagine the ensuing horror as it dawns on you that even if all your children's Health Professional support you the DET can and will ignore them all and proceed to write a 30 page review about you that carefully omits any reference to Expert opinion that contradicts their own. Now imagine the desperation that sets in as you are forced to take your children to other professionals in the vain hope that the DET may listen to them. Abandon all hope now because it simply doesn't matter that you have paid $700 to prove to the DET that you not mentally ill.If the DET states you ,you are. They don't need any psychiatric or psychologist training.

The fact is I have Aspergers.I am NOT mentally ill. Autism is not a mental illness.I have a High IQ.I am eloquent and expressive but I fail utterly to read between the lines,I am a dismal failure at sarcasm and fall for it all the time,I am trusting ,I rigidly tell the truth and do not lie, I am possibly fatally honest , I am horrified by lies but I will believe you unless I know the otherwise,I am naive, I am shy but outspoken, I am most likely to make a social gaffe , I am an eternal collector of trivia, but why is this grounds for such appalling discrimination and abuse .......what happened to my human rights ? What happened to my childrens rights ? Under this blanket of "qualified privilige" that the DET hides behind you can and will be stripped of all worth.You have NO rights at all.

There may be "qualified privilige" but an abuse of such a privilige by people in highly respected and powerful positions should not be possible. All people should be held accountable for their actions. I have a letter from the DET that accuses me of daring to question highly respected Officers in the DET. I have another letter stating these people are beyond question......are they? I believed Australia was a democracy. Nobody should be beyond question. Surely it is my right to question anyone no matter what their position of power,authority and respect . Where is the respect for me ? Where are the HONEST answers to my questions?.

How can this happen in Australia ?

Police called on students with Autism

Posted October 22nd, 2009 by jules85 on Sydney Indymedia

It was observed during a visit on Tuesday to Browning Street, Bathurst by a well-respected contributor to this site that the Police were at Carenne Special School. It has been reported that the Police attended the school after a student with Autism allegedly assaulted a teacher.

The student was unfamiliar with the new classroom environment and the change in routine and acted out. Those working in special education with such students should know that such things can happen to students with this disorder and should know how to diffuse the situation. Instead, the Police were called which scared and agitated the student further. Such intimidation tactics are clearly unacceptable and both the Police and School leadership team need to seriously evaluate the strategy.

Apparently, this is not the first time such an incident has happened. Another student with Autism had lashed out at his teacher in similar circumstances earlier in the year and was threatened by the Police. He was then suspended from school for a long period of time. When the student returned to school, he was quite agitated and confused and was only allowed to attend for several hours per week until he "settled back in." Staff observed that the arrangements were quite distressing to the student.

It has been alleged that some staff overstate incidences of violence by students in order to take leave. In these cases however, the student is still needlessly punished for an incident which was not as serious as claimed.

I am told that until the arrival of Lynette Duncan as principal at the beginning of this year, it was rare for students to be suspended. More students have been suspended in 2009 than had been over the period 2004-2008. In the past, it is claimed that the former principal, Terrence Mahony used to follow a time-out procedure where students could sit with him in his office and discuss their problems until they had settled down. Staff believe this to be a more effective strategy than suspension and using the police to threaten and intimidate students.

One staff member has said that she was told the next time a particular student "acted up" he would be charged by Police.

It would appear that the users of this website and whistleblowers are not the only ones threatened with the Police, students are too.

Peter Harvey orders cover-up prior to investigation

Posted October 27th, 2009 by jules85 on Sydney Indymedia

It has been revealed by a Carenne Saviour that the NSW Department of Education and Training's Child Protection Unit is making inquiries into matters at the Carenne Special School. The saviour alleges that the school has been forewarned by Bathurst Schools Director Peter Harvey who has ordered the destruction of evidence.

The saviour alleges that restraints used on students were removed from classrooms today at Peter Harvey's order due to the pending investigation. Staff have also been told not to use a fenced area, described as the "pig pen" where an autistic student was often left unsupervised when he was distressed.

It is beleived that one staff member commented on how they believed it was difficult to control students without the restraints and how she feared for her safety. These students are not criminals and must be treated in a humane and compassionate manner.

Questions must now be put to Carole McDiarmid, the Western Region Education Director. Did she know of Mr Harvey's order or did she issue it?

It is yet another example of the systemic cover-up and corruption at Carenne Special School and the Western Region at large.

A positive development - principal sends staff for Autism training

Posted November 4th, 2009 by jules85 on Sydney Indymedia

Amid all the drama at Carenne Special School which has been dubbed "Carenne Gate", a positive development has emerged. I have learned that relieving school principal Terry Neal had some of his staff attend Autism awareness training in Dubbo today.

This follows claims that autistic students are restrained, locked in a "pig pen", and/or have the police called on them.The Carenne Saviours claim this is a positive move towards better understanding students with the disorder and that Mr Neal should be congratulated.