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.

Richard Webster suspended by Carenne Support

Nedkelly has contacted Carenne Gate concerned about the treatment of Carenne Support buds driver Richard Webster. Nedkelly claims that Mr Webster was advised by Dave Graham that he was suspended from duty pending investigation.

Nedkelly claims that Mr Webster is under investigation for being seen with Carenne Support competitor Cheryl Chaplin and his negligent driving charge. She also claims that an unapproved driver was used on the run with no escort even though one is required.

Helen Windsor, who has to approve payments to escorts was told of the arrangement and said she would sign Mark Sealey's form as the department couldn't know there was no escort.

Carenne Support has a history of shady employment practices with Brian Carter and Jenny O'Neill both suing them.

Parents may be called upon to keep class budgets afloat

According to information and documents received from Carenne Special School whistleblowers, a number of classes have used their budget for the year and now parents may be called upon to keep key school programs such as cooking afloat.

According to the information, Michael Auld, Peter Richards, Laurie Healey, Nadine Dwyer and Ros Luther have exhausted their class budget for this year, with another three months to go in the school year. According to an email between Helen Windsor, Carenne's new administrator and Neil Moon leaked to Carenne Gate last week several classes are close to or have exceeded their budget and parents may need to contribute money towards independent living schools programs for those classes if the programs are to continue until the end of the year.

According to one Carenne Saviour, a conversation took place between Mr Moon and Mrs Windsor last week where she told him that she was concerned about the amount of money Michael Auld had been putting down for work experience activities associated with the Riding for the Disabled Association.

Hatho told Carenne Gate that the problems were associated with Mrs Windsor not being creative enough -

"This write your class name on every receipt is rubbish, when Simone was SAM, if one class' budget was exceeded she would just allocate that to a class which wasn't and which had fewer costs, that way important programs can continue, she is just not being creative enough."

The comment by hatho indicates that under Mrs Russell's administration, much of the school's funding was being diverted away from where it should have been going. Instead of allowing teachers who routinely go over their budget to siphon funds from elsewhere they should be more careful of the public's money.

A saviour told Carenne Gate that Kelly Thompson had one of the best systems for classroom funds. "Kelly actually had the class deliver newspapers as part of both their PE and to receive money for classroom activities and reward activities. For other activities she would have the parents make a very small contribution which if not received would exclude the student from that activity like an ordinary school. Auld and Churches hated this because they said she was being too tough, but she claimed it taught the students to be responsible."

As we have seen far too often at Carenne, a few get a free ride and special treatment to the detriment of others.

Michael Auld wasting school resources: nedkelly

With Neil Moon telling his staff to reduce their use of the school's colour photocopier due to high costs, former klansmen turned whistleblower nedkelly claims that this misuse can be put down to a minority of staff not the majority.

Nedkelly told Carenne Gate that she is "fed up" with being leered at by school administrator Helen Windsor and questioned when she uses the colour copier/printer to make resources for her class. Nedkelly said she probably makes no more than 20 colour prints per week but she is made to feel bad for doing so, despite the resources needing to be in colour.

Nedkelly said -

"It really pisses me off being treated like some sort of criminal because I use the colour copier on occasion, a little misuse comes during school hours but most of it is after hours, this abuse is costing the school money which impacts on the school's programs."

Nedkelly went on to lay the blame with a number of Carenne staff. She claimed that she had often seen Michael Auld printing colour materials for the Riding for the Disabled Association and St Vincent de Paul using the colour copier. She also claimed that Auld asked for the security system to be modified so staff could enter the photocopying room after hours and over school holidays, something verified in part by meeting minutes obtained by Carenne Gate in Term 2.

"I have seen Auld print hundreds of pages at a time, all related to RDA. When I complained to Neil about it, I was told to mind my own business," said nedkelly.

nedkelly also says that the setup of some computers is to blame. She said that some of the new computers received by the school and set up by Michael Auld had the colour printer set as default. She claimed that most staff are so technically illiterate that they are unable to change the printer when printing and most students would make the same mistake when printing. Nedkelly told us -
"It shows the complete incompetence of Michael Auld, he has no idea what he is doing, he is a complete f--- up."

nedkelly went on to allege that Melinda Gavin, Janelle Kemp, Paula Hundy and Angela Cranston all used the colour printer to print personal colour photographs.