How to get sacked from Carenne - report Michael Auld

Carenne Gate has learned of the shafting of a casual teacher's aide who spoke out about Michael Auld. Zach Baker, a promising young aide at the school has been offered no work this term, after he posted the following to this blog on 3 April:

This might be a bit crazy because I'm under the weather. You
write about Mick hacking in as omerta but the guy is dumb like
real dumb so how did he do it. hes a jerk that bloke always
stuff arsing about.

Mr Auld's actions must have been weighing heavily on Mr Baker's mind prompting him to speak out while he was intoxicated.

It seems as though Michael Auld, known as one of Neil Moon's puppetmasters is protected at Carenne and has been under successive principals. According to nedkelly, a long list of people including Jane Booby, John Mackey, Brian Carter, Nathan Carter, Kelly Thompson, Jenny O'Neill and now Zach Baker have been shafted for complaining about Michael Auld.

"I was used to break a number of people because they had got on Michael's list," said nedkelly.

Carenne remains the place of cover-ups, deception and shafting as it has always been.

It's sad that a promising young person such as Zach Baker can be thrown aside to protect an incompetent and corrupt teacher like Michael Auld.

Inside the Klan: Churches and Housler wanted Jenny O'Neill gone

Former klansmen "nedkelly" has provided further insight into the operation of the group known as the KLAN which controls Carenne Special School in Bathurst. This time, nedkelly has spoken to Carenne Gate about how Lee Churches and Mary Housler wanted bus driver Jenny O'Neill dismissed from her job because she had made complaints about people.

Nedkelly claims that plans had been on foot to dismiss Mrs O'Neill as early as June 2009, but Ms Churches was concerned about how it would look with two bus drivers dismissed in the space of six months.

"Lee told me around June that she wanted Jenny gone because she was a snitch. She said that she had complained about the wrong people and we would have to come up with a plan to have her dismissed but it would need to be a long-term plan because two dismissals in a short period of time would be suspicious," said nedkelly.

She said at the end of 2009, Ms Churches began telling members of the KLAN to complain about Mrs O'Neill being on the blog. When this site was created in November 2009, Ms Churches printed fliers off using the school printer and gave them to Lucy Thornton to pass around to staff so they were aware of the new site.

"Lee printed off fliers using the school's printer and had them passed out by Lucy on the condition that when Lucy was caught out she would say Jenny told her about the new site, Lee said that this would end support for Jenny with Christine Porter who had been one of her supporters," said nedkelly.

Nedkelly says that when Carenne Support had a union representative turn up at a meeting with Mrs O'Neill they became cautious about sacking her. She said that Ms Churches would turn to hassling Jenny away from work.

According to nedkelly, earlier this year Ms Churches and Mary Housler became upset about complaints that Mrs O'Neill had made about Geoff Salmon and Ms Churches. "Lee then said we had to make sure that she went after that, she told us we got rid of two snitches we can get rid of her."

Mrs Housler had a disliking for Mrs O'Neill because she had refused to sign blank pay claims according to nedkelly. Mrs Housler was often heard by nedkelly in the officer rubbishing Mrs O'Neill to Simone Russell.

Nedkelly says a series of complaints were made about Mrs O'Neill but the board of Carenne Support were cautious of dismissing her. Nedkelly says that Christine Porter was asked to step down from her role as bus supervisor (which she took on as part of her role as CEO) so that Mrs Housler's friend Dave Graham could take the job.

"As always happens at Carenne, the job was already fixed up before the job was even advertised. Dave Graham was a friend of Housler's and the interview was just to look as though it was a genuine redundancy, it wasn't."

Nedkelly's tale shows that the KLAN who operate Carenne Special School will not tolerate anyone who dares to speak the truth about Carenne.

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.

Brian Carter's complaint was a protected disclosure

Over the past eighteen months, the NSW Department of Education and Training has refused to acknowledge Brian Carter's complaint about Carenne Special School as a protected disclosure, claiming that he was not an employee at the time of the complaint and therefore he was not entitled to protection.

In a letter obtained by Carenne Gate dated 14 May 2010, Jane Thorpe of the department's Employee Performance and Conduct unit informs Mr Carter that he is an employee as someone who is on the department's casual list and can therefore be investigated by the department. In the letter, Ms Thorpe advises that Mr Carter was an "employee" but not a "public official" as defined by the whistleblower legislation.

Carenne Gate has sought legal advice on Mr Carter's position and has been told that if Mr Carter is an "employee" which may be investigated then he is a "public official" under the whistleblower protection legislation.

We were directed to look at section 4 of the Protected Disclosures Act which says -

"public official" means a person employed under the Public Sector Management Act 1988 , an employee of a State owned corporation, a subsidiary of a State owned corporation or a local government authority or any other individual having public official functions or acting in a public official capacity, whose conduct and activities may be investigated by an investigating authority, and (without limitation and to avoid doubt), includes an individual in the service of the Crown or of a public authority, a member of the Police Service, a PIC officer or a PICI officer.

Under this definition Mr Carter would have been protected at the time of his complaint and therefore he is entitled to protection under whistleblower protection laws. This can't be taken away from him just because the NSW Department of Education and Training wishes it to.

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.

Lee Churches: Whistleblower's employment should be blocked, has an "evil plan"

Former member of the group of senior staff at Carenne Special School known as the Klan "Hatho" has provided another damning email send from Lee Churches to a number of staff. "Hatho" claims that Ms Churches will often write emails to one person at Carenne and then forward it on.

The email appears to be a follow on from the email mentioned by nedkelly about Brian Carter wishing to return to work.

In the email, Lee Churches admits to being obsessed about whistleblower Brian Carter and claims he has a hide for wanting to return to Carenne and claims that he has an "evil plan".

I can't get Mr BC out of my mind - and you must be the same - the hide of the man!!!!!Should you seek legal advice as to the implications if you are forced to put his name on a casual list - I just can't imagine what he is thinking because I guess us sane people can't even begin to think how these people think!!!!What has the man got planned next as this is obviously the next step in his evil plan.

Churches then says that Carter's casual number should be blocked, presumably so he can not work.

Does he actually have a casual number - i certainly hope not. if he hasn't can it be blocked at that end or certainly held up or lost in the mail.

The email provides further evidence of the complete and utter contempt Churches holds for whistleblowers and those who stand up for their rights and shows that she would resort to dirty tactics such as losing or blocking someone's casual number to stop them from working.

Three senior Carenne Special School staff charged and mentioned in court

Today, three senior staff of Carenne Special School - Neil Moon (Principal), Lee Churches (Assistant Principal) and Terry Neal (Assistant Principal) had criminal charges mentioned before the Bathurst Local Court. A Carenne Gate reporter was on hand as the matter was mentioned.

The trio are charged with taking detrimental action against a whistleblower under whistleblower protection legislation and were bought to court by a private prosecutor, Nathan Carter. Mr Carter's solicitor Tim Cain told the court that the Director of Public Prosecutions has been approached to take over the prosecutions.

The three defendants, none of which appeared in court were represented by Shane Cunningham. Mr Cunningham told the court that they have applied for representation by the Crown Solicitor's Office.

Magistrate Jan Stevenson told the court that she had never heard a matter like this before and was unsure on whether the local court is the correct jurisdiction for it. Magistrate Stevenson said as some matters were referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption there may be issues as the local court can not see documents from the commission.

The matter has been adjourned until 10 May 2010.

Photograph: Terry Neal (top), Lee Churches (centre) and Neil Moon (bottom). Used under fair use guidelines.