What the DEC and Police did about Russell school sex allegations

An email between Lyn Duncan and a member of Bathurst SEA staff shows what was done regarding the allegation that Jeremy Russell had sex with Melissa Harris at Carenne. In the email, Duncan outlined what had been done since the allegation surfaced.

The email is consistent with the chat transcript leaked by Anonymous to their blog.

Frighteningly, the email shows that Carenne were aware of the allegations the day after the incident is alleged to have occurred, however in contravention of child protection policies, it was not reported to EPAC by the person receiving the complaint (Terry Neal) or Duncan herself. Only when a whistleblower at the school contacted Gary Bevan did EPAC become aware of the very serious allegations.

The email indicates that there was an allegation that the student was offered a bribe if she said that she was raped by a student and not by Jeremy Russell and that Duncan had been managing the issue of inappropriate messages between Russell and the student.

The incident and subsequent events were investigated by Constable Haertsch and Senior Constable Rasmussen who after interviewing only Lyn Duncan decided that nothing had happened. Duncan then contacted Detective Fred Hennessy who gave her the email address of the whistleblower who made the complaint to EPAC, once again showing the complete disregard for confidentiality in the local Police.

Once again, Carenne failed to follow proper protocol and procedure. Duncan should have reported the allegation to EPAC as soon as it became aware of it, but instead chose to deal with a serious sexual allegation locally in order to cover it up.

Carenne continues to break departmental guidelines on work experience transport

The executive of the troubled Carenne Special School continue to breach departmental child protection policies with its transport arrangements for taking students to and from work experience according to whistleblowers at the school. Carenne has been beset with child protection issues for some time, from the poor supervision of students, locking them in a torture room, physically abusing them and the sexual relationship between a teacher and student that was proven in court.

Despite Carenne's history of child protection issues, the school executive continues to breach child protection guidelines relating to the supervision of students by requiring School Learning Support Officers to transport students to and from work experience by themselves. Under departmental guidelines, SLSOs are not to be solely responsible for supervising students, a teacher must be present at all times.

Concerns about work experience arrangements have been raised by staff over a number of years with former principals Terry Mahony, Lyn Duncan, Terry Neal and current principal Neil Moon. According to savecarenne, she was told by Mr Mahony that the travel arrangements were approved by staff at the district office and that the rules had been bent for Carenne.

It's time that Carenne starts taking its duty of care to students seriously, that the department forces it to comply with child protection policies and that the entire executive of the school which is obviously incompetent is replaced.

Neil Moon keeps it in the family

The principal of the embattled Carenne Special School has been accused of further nepotism despite staunch criticism about it in the past. Carenne Gate has learned that Moon employed Doug Rowe, husband of teacher's aide Margaret Rowe as a General Assistant to help move furniture at the school.

Carenne Special School has a history of nepotism with Janelle Kemp being related to Laurie Clifford, Lyn Duncan employing her husband Steve Duncan, Anne Baskerville's partner Lee Graham being given work and Brian and Nathan Carter working at the school.

One of the Carenne whistleblowers told Carenne Gate that Neil Moon is too paranoid to employ other people. "Neil is more paranoid this year than ever, he will only employ people who will keep the secrets in the school," said the whistleblower.

It shows that despite the massive issues surrounding Carenne that Neil Moon continues with his stupidity.

Responsibilities blurred at Carenne for years: Rosenberg

Carenne Special School whistleblower, "Jake Rosenberg" has spoken out about teachers leaving aides unattended with students in direct defiance of their role statement, child protection rules and against the advice of their union.

Rosenberg reports that it is common practice at Carenne for teachers to leave the classroom for extended periods and expect for the aide to supervise students. Rosenberg also says that aides have been asked to use their own vehicles to transport groups of students to and from work placements. She claims that this practice has been supported by successive principals from Jock Roxborough through to Neil Moon.

When Rosenberg raised the issue with Mr Moon, she was told not to be a "whinger" and to just do her job.

Rosenberg claims that the worst culprit for leaving their aide unattended with students for extended periods is Anne Baskerville. "She leaves her aides all the time, she might get a call from Neil Moon to go to another class to settle a student down but most of the time she is outside speaking, cuddling and kissing [name removed]."

Rosenberg says she is concerned about what would happen if there was an incident in the class while Baskerville was off doing something else. "It's the class for the really disabled kids, the ones that need to be looked after more than the rest, she shouldn't be off frolicking with other students or being called to other rooms, it's wrong."

Rosenberg says that the problem is spread throughout the school. "Peter Richards, Michael Auld, Ros Luther, they all leave aides unattended with students. On work experience days aides and teachers take kids to work in their own cars."

Barracus told Carenne Gate that the practice of taking students to work placements by both teachers and aides needed to be re-evaluated.

"I have told Neil Moon that it is asking for another allegation to be made. There were allegations that Anna Blackburn and David Withyman were getting intimate to and from work and TAFE, what's to stop that happening again. Nothing. Of course, you know what Moon did? Blew me off!," said Barracus.

According to documents by the Public Service Association, School Learning Support Officers (formerly teacher's aides) are not to supervise students. They are also not to take them to and from work experience or other activities. Only teachers can supervise students. The PSA recommends that any SLSO who is pressured to do this should contact them.

What it shows is that once more, the executive of Carenne are incapable of following the department's child protection guidelines. It also shows the appalling leadership qualities of Mr Moon who will not listen to concerns from his staff.

Inside the Klan: Nedkelly exposes Lee Churches' plan to ruin whistleblower

Carenne Special School whistleblower "nedkelly" has told Carenne Gate that Lee Churches told her of complaints made about her by dismissed whistleblower Brian Carter and masterminded the plot against him. She claimed it was just one of a series of dirty tricks pulled by the klan.

"nedkelly" claims that she was warned by Miss Churches that Mr Carter was blaming her for his dismissal due to complaints made about him by her.

Nedkelly told Carenne Gate -
"Before he was sacked, I was told to make complaints about Brian Carter by Lee and Michael, they wanted him gone because he knew about many of the scams and child abuse going on."

"The quickest way to discredit him was to have him sacked. Lee told me I would be one of the first to go down and I panicked."

Nedkelly says that when her and another Klansmen's complaints went nowhere they changed tact.

"By that stage Michael wanted Nathan Carter out of the way too. Nathan had reported him for something and Michael said he had to go. Anyway, the main target was Carter so we bribed Terry. We threatened for him to sack Carter or we would expose his wrongdoing. This was entirely Lee's idea."

It is claimed that outgoing principal took the bait and eventually sacked Mr Carter. When Mr Carter protested and said he knew of the group who underlaid his dismissal, Mr Mahony allegedly told assistant principal and fellow Carenne Support director Lee Churches who warned nedkelly and others about Mr Carter's complaint.

"Lee told us to have someone make mischief first day back so that Carter looked bad to the new principal. She knew he would be blamed."

Nedkelly then claims that her and a number of others approached Lyn Duncan at the insistence of Ms Churches claiming they were concerned about their jobs following Mr Carter's claim that they had caused his dismissal.

After this, Nedkelly claims to have written anonymous letters to the school and School Education Director Peter Harvey at the direction of Lee Churches.

"I would write these letters defaming myself and the rest of the klan because Lee said it would look like Carter was doing it, Lyn fell for it, " said nedkelly.

DET ignored its duty of care over allegations against Churches: SEA Snitch

SEA Snitch, a whistleblower in the department's district office in Bathurst, from where School Education Director Peter Harvey is based claims that the department deliberately neglected its duty of care surrounding allegations made against Lee Churches.

SEA Snitch claims that towards the middle of 2009 a letter was received by Peter Harvey with photographs of Drew Churches and another young male drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes at the Churches family home and engaging in high-risk activities such as showing off on an abandoned building in Bathurst. SEA Snitch claims these are similar to the ones leaked to Sydney Indymedia by a Carenne Special School staff member in October last year. SEA Snitch says that the photographs were date stamped 2008, at which time Drew would have been just 15.

SEA Snitch told Carenne Gate that the department had a duty to investigate Lee for child abuse and neglect even though the allegations involved her own son. He claims that Lynette Duncan was also aware of the allegations and deliberately hid them from the Employee Performance and Conduct division of the department.

SEA Snitch said:

"What should have happened is that Lee should have been stood down pending investigation, the investigation would have been swift given the photographic evidence and she should have then been sacked. It shows that there is a history of child neglect even with her own son and she is unfit to teach."

SEA Snitch alleges that Ms Churches has received special treatment from Peter Harvey and Carole McDiarmid who are protecting her. He also claims that both are aware that she is "carennetruth" and a plethora of other aliases on this blog.

Why the Bathurst community can say Neil Moon is a liar

Once again Carenne Special School turns to the Western Advocate, Bathurst's local newspaper to try and counter the effect of this blog.

On Tuesday, an article, written presumably by Neil Moon appeared in the "Update from the Principal" section on page 12 appeared in the newspaper. The article goes on to discuss how much the school has benefited from the Building the Education Revolution funding (or Gillard School Building debacle) which has paid for a new library, connector classroom, high support needs student classroom, toilet renovations and a roof over the centre quadrangle of the school. Mention is also made of the new senior classrooms which opened last year, full of problems which the saviours blamed on Michael Auld having the rooms allocated differently to how they would be used in an attempt to get more from the education department.

Mr Moon fails to mention that only the cover over the quadrangle is part of the BER funding and that the other upgrades have been planned since Terry Mahony was principal and will be funded by the state government, as were the four senior classrooms. Once again, Carenne Special School is attempting to prop up the Labor Party and counter the effect on the blog.

After the new building opened last year, Terry Neal, principal at the time was on the local news saying how the school needed to replace the demountable buildings the school had. Almost immediately, the Carenne Saviours came out swinging saying that the school now has nowhere to build new facilities because Michael Auld had arranged for the land at the rear of the school to be leased to Riding for the Disabled, an organisation he is on the committee of. While Carenne will be receiving a new library and high support needs classroom, these are being built in the school's connected classroom and home economics room. It is a refit not a completely new building program. The high support needs classroom is currently a demountable building which leaks and is full of mould. This refit is being funded by the state government, not the BER program. Neil Moon obviously has no idea what is going on or he is just plain out lying.

The article then goes on to praise the Riding for the Disabled program, claiming that it is "traveling along wonderfully", despite claims that certain students are excluded and it being postponed while Melinda Gavin took a holiday. Mr Moon then says about how the school has a therapy farm behind it, despite this being operated by RDA and is presently on hold as the school had been wrongfully funding it. At the staff meeting on 31 May 2010, staff were told that funding was being investigated and that there could be a fee for each student who attends the farm. Once again, Neil Moon is trying to mislead the Bathurst community.

The article ends by mentioning that the school looks forward to working with Denison College on the Trade Training Centre next year. The centre was originally supposed to have been completed much earlier, but the Carenne TTC committee, comprising of Lyn Duncan and Michael Auld managed to have part of the funding allocated to RDA. It is unknown how much RDA received out of the $3.7 million when it was entitled to nothing. This appeared to be just another desperate attempt by Neil Moon to counter what is already on the blog for all to see.

When are you going to admit you have some real problems inside Carenne Neil?

When will Neil Moon, the current principal of Carenne Special School who is facing criminal charges in the local court along with two of his assistant principals show the courage to admit that the problems at Carenne are coming from inside the school?

Only last week, Mr Moon and his boss Peter Harvey were provided with evidence showing that Michael Auld has been leaking information from the school. Both of them of course did nothing.

Over the past week we have seen "carennetruth", widely known to be Lee Churches post disgusting comments about parents including one's alleged criminal history which she claims to have received from Simone Russell. We have also seen Ms Churches post that a specific parent would be being prosecuted for not sending their child to school.

Last night, we saw postings on this blog from Seymour and carennetruth indicating that they were aware that parents had made complaints yesterday to Kate Price at the Bathurst Schools Office.

We have also seen posted information about an issue with Lucy Thornton allegedly changing a student in class against the rules and when interviewed by Neil Moon about it claimed there was nowhere nearby to do it. Who else would know this besides Carenne staff?

My question to you Mr Moon is if these problems are all caused by outsiders how do they know so much detail?

In Mr Moon's staff bulletin for Term 2 Week 8 he said -

"I know it is tough at times with outside influences. We need to maintain our focus on the students. The other will disappear in time"

Mr Moon also noted that a team of personnel from DET Security, IT Security and Legal Branch are working on the email and ongoing issues from "last week". According to the minutes of the meeting held on 31 May, this blog was discussed and staff were told to keep their passwords and emails secure.

My second question of the day to Mr Moon is if all these problems are caused by outsiders how do I have a copy of your meeting minutes for nearly all meetings this year and how do I have your staff bulletin?

I think it is time that you look at the obvious instead of you keep running with the ridiculous.

When will Lee "carennetruth" Churches be stood down pending an investigation into her leaks of personal information to this blog?
When will there be a full and proper investigation into child abuse claims at Carenne?
When will the persecution of those who speak out end?
When will Neil Moon be man enough to admit that there are problems at Carenne?
When will Neil Moon admit that his SS Carenne leaks like a sieve?

... and one final question for Mr Moon - are you an imbecile to believe there are no problems at your school and that all the issues are coming form these "external influences"? I don't believe you are Mr Moon. I believe you are an intelligent man who is just too scared to be screwed like former Carenne principal Lyn Duncan was.

Lee Churches' unprofessional behaviour

nedkelly has once again provided some evidence about unprofessional behaviour exhibited by Lee Churches, assistant principal of Carenne Special School and alleged leader of the Carenne KLAN in an email she claims she was forwarded by Churches.

nedkelly claims that she was with Churches when she was told by principal Lyn Duncan that there was a complaint about her and Margaret Rowe for swearing in the staffroom. After being told of the complaint, Churches said "That fucking slut Coleen, I am fucking sick of her bullshit, she is nothing but a trouble making slut, I am going to make life so hard for that bitch". nedkelly claims that Margaret said nothing about the allegation.

nedkelly says that Duncan then printed and showed Churches a copy of an email that Coleen Leis had sent her complaining about the conduct of staff in the staffroom.

That night, Churches sent another rant to Duncan about the aide who had complained about her, firstly apologising for her unprofessional behaviour and then launching attacks on Mrs Leis, saying she was "nasty to many staff members and is a difficult aide to work with".

The email and her conduct show how assistant principal Lee Churches will cause trouble for anyone who dares to complain about her.

hatho provides partial proof of email being leaked

Former member of the group of staff at Carenne Special School identified as the Klan turned whistleblower, "hatho" has provided Carenne Gate with partial proof that special transport manager Gail Vasic and Carenne principal Lyn Duncan leaked a complaint email to a hacker via Carenne Support CEO and then director Christine Porter.

We reported last month that Vasic had been involved in the leaking of a complaint by "Jake Rosenberg"

In the email, Duncan acknowledges that the contents must remain confidential as a student is named. Hatho claims that Duncan provided the complaint email to Porter so that a hacker known only as "Nick" could trace who Jake Rosenberg was.

It shows the dirty tactics senior DET staff will go to to protect themselves.

Jrosenberg claims that the department's child protection unit threatened her

A Carenne Special School whistleblower, jrosenberg alleges that the education department's Employee Performance and Conduct unit (which includes the Serious Misconduct Unit and Child Protection Unit) threatened her for making a series of anonymous and serious complaints anonymously about her concerns at Carenne.

Rosenberg told Carenne Gate that she had previously made complaints about certain staff at Carenne in the same manner and that it was encouraged by Meredith Brown, Peter Harvey and Gail Vasic. She was told by her union that the only way to be certain of protection was to make the complaints anonymously.

Almost one year on from the threat, Rosenberg has decided to go public about the threat made by Malcolm Barnett, who describes himself in the email as "Chief Investigator".

In the email, Barnett tells Rosenberg that he is concerned about her continued claims for anonymity and that failure to come forward and assist the department could be considered to be misconduct. Rosenberg believes that Barnett was threatening to have her investigated for misconduct due to making the complaints.

The NSW Ombudsman acknowledges that complaints may be made anonymously and that anonymous complaints still receive protection under whistleblower legislation. There was no reason why the complaints could not have been dealt with by Barnett, he instead turned a blind eye to them and threatened the whistleblower involved. Mr Barnett should be criminally charged under the whistleblower legislation, but as we have seen on this very blog, the authorities are uncomfortable in taking action against certain DET staff.

When Rosenberg asked Barnett what protection could be offered to her if she came forward, Barnett didn't reply further showing how disinterested he was in the complaints.

Rosenberg states that by this stage she had heard a number of remarks made about her pseudonym Jake Rosenberg by Lee Churches, Simone Russell and Lyn Duncan. Some of these included threats to choke Rosenberg, to make sure she was dismissed, to ruin her or to attack people in her family.

The behaviour of Mr Barnett and senior Carenne staff show that they will do anything to suppress complaints.

Student has been allowed to smoke on school grounds from the age of 8

Carenne Gate has learned that Carenne Special School staff have allowed a 10 year-old male student to smoke cigarettes on school grounds and in the park opposite the school. There have also been allegations that the school and its staff have supplied the student with cigarettes to smoke.

The student who started at Carenne in Kelly Thompson's class in 2008, aged just 8 was already smoking when he commenced at the school. Immediately after he started at the school the student would to withdraw from the classroom and smoke on the back steps. From time to time the student would run out of the front door of the school (past the principal and Simone Russell) and into the park opposite, across busy Browning Street to smoke. He would sit in the park smoking during school hours in his school uniform. This arrangement continued under the same teacher in 2009 until he was placed in the class of Nadine Dwyer.

Ms Dwyer and her aide Karina Molenkamp have allowed for the student to smoke both in a relatively hidden area of the school and in the park opposite the school where he is often observed unsupervised.

One Carenne staffer claimed that when she questioned Dwyer on the practice, Dwyer said "It's the only way we can keep ........ calm". Whistleblower "Karachi" says when she asked Molenkamp why the practice was allowed, she was told that the student would smoke at home because that's what people like him do. Karachi believes that Molenkamp was making comment about his ethnic background.

Under the department's "Drugs in Schools Policy", smoking is prohibited on school grounds -

Smoking on school premises, including school buildings, gardens, sports fields and car parks, is prohibited. This includes students, employees, visitors and other people who use school premises, including community groups. In the case of cross-sectoral sites (e.g. joint school/TAFE sites), a decision regarding the extent of ‘school premises’ will need to be made in the local context.

The 2004 Guide for managing drug related issues in school states "The school discipline code must include a statement that tobacco is prohibited in schools." When you have the school's principal and staff supporting a 10 year-old student smoking it is difficult to send a message that it is prohibited.

The incident further demonstrates the complete disregard for student's health at Carenne Special School.

Lee Churches implicated in FOI suppression at Carenne

It has been reported by "nedkelly" and "hatho" that Lyn Duncan was not the only person at Carenne involved in suppressing information requested under state Freedom of Information laws and that Lee Churches was heavily involved in the cover-up.

Last night, nedkelly posted the following comment on this blog -

4.6.09 Lee sends the following email to a long list of people: "Oh my god - I cannot believe the hide of the man!!!!Does he really think we could work with him after all
those complaints against staff and with a law suit pending -AS IF"

Following this, both nedkelly and hatho sent further information about Ms Churches, Mr Auld and education director Peter Harvey being involved in the cover-up. They claim Churches was the first to raise the possibility of people obtaining documents from Carenne under Freedom of Information after it was discussed at a staff meeting early on into 2009. Following this it is claimed that Lee Churches, Lyn Duncan, Peter Harvey and Michael Auld devised a plan to use pseudonyms and vague references to people who may be the subject of FOI requests. If Churches found out staff were using people's real names in documents she would remind them that it could be obtained under FOI and not to to it again.

nedkelly claims -

Michael told us all that if we used psuedonyms in emails that the person wouldn't be able to do a Freedom of Information request because the department would just search for that person's name on their end. If they can't search the name they can't get the person's information.

hatho claims -

Lyn got the blame for it all but Lee was really key to the FOI cover-up. Peter Harvey and Michael Auld came up with the whole idea of using initials and vague references to avoid FOI laws. Michael was concerned that complaints made could be released to journalists under FOI.

Lee was the standover man. If her or Lyn found out someone hadn't been using the names then Lee would go and harass them.

Lee was the one who refused to comply with FOI requests and didn't release documents where she had made a number of defamatory statements and documents where she had even gone so far as to threaten Mr Carter. Jake Rosenberg had made a complaint about this to Peter Harvey which I confirmed was true but nothing came of it.

For some reason unknown, staff at Carenne Special School continue to break the rules and keep getting away with it.

Christine Porter knew student may require surgery due to negligence months before

On 3 October 2009 I reported that a student required surgery following the negligence of therapists and staff at Carenne Special School/Carenne Support Limited. Following the release of a document by "hatho", it can be proven that Christine Porter, Marion Baker and Lyn Duncan knew of this possibility as early as 29 April 2009.

In an email between Mrs Porter and Mrs Duncan, Mrs Porter pointed out that the student was supposed to be in his walker twice a day and had only been placed in it three times per week by classroom staff. Mrs Porter said that the student's therapy had "slipped significantly" in his new class. She warned Mrs Duncan noted that the student may require corrective surgery if their therapy regime isn't followed. Mrs Porter also claimed that the student had demonstrated a "marked decrease in muscle length and tone."

hatho reported that the email was supposed to be destroyed but she kept a copy of this valuable evidence.

It demonstrates the complete negligence displayed by Carenne Support's therapy leader and Mrs Duncan when they were aware of the issue six months before the student required surgery.

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.