We are the teachers who refuse to be victims of the Northern Territory Education Department, and refuse to break our promise to the Indigenous parents who asked us for help. (
UPDATED DAILY AT THE PAGE BOTTOM
Thank you Alison Anderson for raising our case in Parliament. Will they Lie to Parliament? Scroll to the bottom of this page to find out
EXPOSING CORRUPTION AND DIRTY TRICKS BY THE NT EDUCATION DEPARTMENT & NOT BACKING DOWN
*************FOR THE VERY LATEST NEWS GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE*************
The site that is blocked to all NT Government Schools What are they afraid of?Anyone thinking of teaching in a Northern Territory government school, should read this.
WE CHALLENGE THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TO SUE US IF ANY CLAIM WE MAKE IS UNTRUE
We name the DET employees involved and offer them the chance to answer our questions. We will even post their responses on this website for all to see including the
following DISHONEST people:
Carol Ann Penglase, Head of DET HR
Paul Newman, Former head of Schools, Central Australia
Darrell Fowler, former principalJen Coad, former head of the Katherine School of the Air
And the unscrupulous Dr Kevin Gillan, former Acting DET CEO
People ask us: ‘Your allegations sound unbelievable. How do we know it’s true?’ Do you really think they would allow us to call them dishonest and get away with it? Our website has accumulated thousands of hits. It is an attack on their reputations. They cannot sue because the defence for libel is the truth. We can say anything we want on this website - so long as it's true - and there's not a damn thing they can do about it.
How can someone as unscrupulous as Carol Penglase serve as the Vice President of the NT Branch of the Australian Council of Educational Leaders (ACEL)? When we asked ACEL to see their executive Code of Conduct, they said we would have to get permission, and they didn't want to get involved. So much for transparency and being Educational Leaders on an important education issue.
Why Teach in the Territory when:
- A 2005 health inspector's report recommended immediate testing of suspected asbestos and Indigenous kids were said to have been tossing pieces about -- and there is no record of any testing taking place. Over one month later documents show that the material in question was still lying on the school grounds. We weren’t told about the report's existence – it was found lying in a back room.
- When confronted with this 3-year-old report and after promising prompt action, DET refused to tell me if my family and the children I had a duty of care over had been exposed to asbestos, my wife and I were blacklisted, and 63 days passed before an inspector went to the school – just 2 days after our claims appeared in the Darwin media. DET’s explanation – it was none of my business and they had trouble finding a contractor!
- DET’s investigation into our health and blacklisting claims was a sham. No one even talked to us or our witnesses; the then Education Minister Marion Scrymgour refused to discuss the issue – so we could not confirm that our school was safe.
- In The Weekend Australian of 19-20 April 2008, a DET spokesman “strenuously denied” my claims and said that all of the asbestos report’s recommendations were implemented. For 10-months, enquiries by an independent third party have been unable to confirm that any of the asbestos recommendations were conducted, due to missing documents and wiped computer files.
- To get rid of us after raising these and other concerns, DET claimed that my wife and I were incompetent remote school teachers – without telling us for 8-months. For 15-months my wife has been deemed incompetent to teach at remote schools – yet DET refuses to elaborate. For 15-months DET has deemed myself incompetent to work with Indigenous children in remote schools, yet has failed to provide a single specific example. How is this possible?
- DET can sabotage your career – even if you try to teach overseas. Read how they’re sabotaging ours.
- We can prove that we were blacklisted – yet there’s nothing we or the Teacher’s Union or the Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment can do about it. See our Blacklisting page.
- Why risk teaching in remote Territory schools that are filled with asbestos, when DET ignored our asbestos concerns and admits that they refused to discuss the matter with us? All I wanted to know was – had my wife and kids and the children I had a responsibility to protect, been exposed to asbestos? Then CEO Margaret Banks and Education Minister Marion Scrymgour dismissed our pleas without even talking to us or seeing our evidence. Would this have happened if the same threat had been identified in an urban school or if the Ministers' son or daughter had attended the school? Is it worth risking your health?
- Most Australian schools have asbestos – that’s not the issue. How many schools were built over an asbestos burial site and had a health inspector recommend immediate testing of suspected asbestos that kids were said to have been playing with – and when we raised the issue, DET refused to tell us if our school was safe, and we were blacklisted without our knowledge.
Education Department CEO Gary Barnes and Marion Scrymgour are in hiding, refusing to deny any of the statements below. Why? If they do, they will lose their jobs.
1. When I enquired as to whether our school was safe from asbestos, DET refused to tell me.
2. DET did not tell my wife or I that we had been listed as incompetent remote school teachers for 8-months – and during that time DET claimed they were trying to find remote jobs for us. Our Group Principal was not even told.
3. We asked Marion Scrymgour to investigate whether my wife and I had been blacklisted. The investigation findings, in the form of a vague letter, failed to mention that this was indeed true.
4. Within days of asking Marion Scrymgour to investigate our health and safety concerns – a letter was sent to Immigration stating that DET would not be offering us any teaching positions, and was sent without our knowledge – even before an investigation was untaken.
5. All confirming evidence that the asbestos was cleaned up from Alekarenge School in 2005 – is missing.
6. The pretend investigation that Marion Scrymgour oversaw, failed to interview us, look at our evidence or interview our witnesses – and when we pointed this out and asked for an urgent meeting – Ms Scrymgour refused to meet with us.
7. On 10 November 2008 my wife asked Charles Darwin University to enquire as to why she could not gain work as a teacher. DET responded by saying it was because there were no jobs. A week later when forced to reply in writing, DET said she was an incompetent remote school teacher.
We also charge that DET officials have fabricated responses.
–Fabricating responses. Pretend investigations. These are serious charges. Why doesn't Marion Scrymgour, Paul Henderson or Gary Barnes make a public statement denying each of them or call for a transparent investigation to clear up this mess?
Answer – because they're all true – and the last thing they want is a real investigation. Their strategy is to ignore it and hope it goes away. Not this time.
*****LASTEST UPDATE. DET KEEPS A BLACKLIST *****
On 16 July 2010, Alyssa Betts of the Northern Territory News revealed that the NT Education Department deems it necessary to keep a teacher blacklist: the policy took effect on 1 June but not even Rod Smith of the Teachers Union was aware! Don’t be fooled. The Education Department has kept a secret blacklist long before 1 June, but now it’s official. The person in charge of overseeing the new official blacklist is the dishonest Carol Ann Penglase (TRB # 5858), the Head of DET HR. Carol Ann is the same person who failed to tell us that we had been blacklisted even after asking her and her Department in writing on numerous occasions after we raised life-threatening health and safety issues including asbestos exposure at Alekarenge School), and when we asked her and her staff, in writing, for the reason why we were losing out on jobs during this period, we were lied to and told that DET HR was trying to place us in remote teaching positions. An investigation that we called for, overseen by then Education Minister Marion Scrymgour, concluded that our claims of having been secretly flagged, were baseless. This denial continued even after we specifically asked Ms Penglase and DET HR in writing if we had any performance or suitability issues. We even requested interview critiques as to why we suddenly lost jobs that were offered to us by two Katherine principals. These critiques were denied under the pretext that we were never interviewed or offered the positions in question. These critiques would have revealed having been flagged as unfit/unsuitable. DET HR were later forced to admit that these principals HAD interviewed us and HAD offered us the positions.
Carol Ann and her office fabricated responses to us.
Why does CEO Gary Barnes not investigate this serious charge -- which we can prove on this very website? Because it's all for show. Prove us wrong, Gary.
The recently unveiled DET policy says that DET keeps a blacklist of teachers who have been deemed fit/unsuitable, and that if you are on the list, they must tell you and give you what they have on file and you have a right to challenge it. Six weeks after it took effect the policy was conspicuously missing from the DET Policies Web Page. We were leaked a copy by a concerned government officer. It seems obvious that this policy was enacted to address our blacklisting allegations.
TO ALL NT TEACHERS: IS DET SERIOUS ABOUT ADHERING TO THIS POLICY? Read on…
As soon as we became aware of this new policy, we contacted Ms Penglase and essentially said, 'DET informed us that we were unfit/unsuitable teachers’ (without telling us for 8-months, with no written evidence and without our own Group principal Peter Jenkins even knowing). This new policy says you have to tell us if we are on the list or not, who put us on, when and why, because we are going to challenge it, and if we are not on the blacklist, we also want to know why we are no longer deemed unfit/unsuitable, who took us off, when and why? We have since sent letters to Ms Penglase and DET HR, respectfully asking if we are on the blacklist on: 10 June, 16 June, 23 June, 24 June, 26 June, 30 June, 7 July, 17 July. Ms Penglase is yet to offer an answer. Either we are on the list or we are not. What good is a policy if you aren’t going to tell people and aren’t going to follow it? The key figure who deemed us unsuitable (Mr Paul Newman), did so without any written evidence, and coincidentally, was in charge of removing asbestos on our school grounds, and its prompt removal was botched as a result of Mr Newman’s neglect.
For NT teachers who are just finding out now about the blacklist policy (when it took effect six weeks ago!), remember, my wife and I have been labelled as troublemakers for the past 2 years for raising concerns over blacklisting and asbestos exposure. You will never get a better system unless you are willing to stand up and change it yourself. When we did, all we heard was, ‘You are troublemakers.’
My wife and I appeal to the honest members of DET who know information, to step forward reveal the behind-the-scenes deception.
You can send us documents anonymously c/o this website. All information sources will be kept strictly confidential, and we thank the Education Department employee who has already sent us documents.
******************Updated on July 29th 2010*******************************
Carol Penglase has finally responded, stating that DET will NOT give us access to the files that show us as unsuitable teachers so we can challenge it because SUDDENLY WE ARE DEEMED TO BE SUITABLE TEACHERS! For Eight Months DET refused to tell us that we had any suitability issues despite our asking. Then when we forced them to reply, they said we were losing out on jobs because WE WERE UNSUITABLE TEACHERS. Now with the new Unsuitability Policy, we are no longer deemed to be unsuitable teachers. We have asked Carol Ann Penglase to explain HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?
Answer: There are no such files; we were blacklisted (flagged as unsuitable without our knowledge) after Paul Newman and Darrell Fowler fabricated verbal claims to DET HR to get rid of us, without us being told so we could challenge these lies. Paul Newman and Darrell Fowler just made it up; there is no written record.
There is a word for such behaviour: it’s called blacklisting; and there's a word for the people that do this: it's called corrupt.
Carol Ann Penglase and Paul Newman are powerless to sue us because it's all true.
UPDATE: Sent August 3, 2010
Request for Carol Penglase (Request/Letter #11)
I write to once again request a prompt respose from Carol Penglase to our letter... which appears below, and note that these questions remain unanswered. One wonders why such a simple, straightforward request has taken so long.Respectfully,Dr. Robert Bartholomew
Dear Carol,
Thank you for your letter dated 22 July 2010.I write to request clarification of your response regarding the DET policy which took effect on 1 June 2010 which is intended to flag teachers who are unsuitable for further employment and place them on a database. I do so as you are the head of DET HR who is in charge of carrying out this policy.
You state that the names of my wife and I have not been added to the Department’s database as persons considered unsuitable for further employment as a teacher. Yet on 13 November 2008, DET wrote that I was not offered further employment at Alekarenge School “solely because the Department formed the view that he (I) was not suited to working with Indigenous children in remote communities...”
Regarding my wife Zalina, DET wrote that: “...by the end of Ms Rahman’s contract, the department had come to the view that she was not suited for further employment at Alekarenge, or any other remote locality, due to a range of performance issues that had been raised by the principal and the General Manager.”
In numerous written correspondence between my wife and I and DET, the Department has maintained between 3 April 2008 and July 2009, that we were unsuitable remote school teachers.
We therefore ask you to explain:
1. Why the Department has now changed its long-held position that we were unsuitable remote school teachers;
2. When this change took place;
3. Who changed our status;
4. Why we were not informed of this change in status.
5. As DET has previously asserted on numerous occasions that my wife and I were unsuitable remote school teachers, is there a written record of this assessment held within the DET: if so, were request a copy of any written record of this assessment and ANY other records that you hold on us.
6. As the head of DET HR, we ask that you issue a public apology to my wife and myself, for not informing us of our change in remote suitability status, and for initially failing to inform us for eight months in 2008 that were listed as unsuitable remote teachers, even after we had asked DET HR, including yourself, if we had any suitability issues.
7. Will you please confirm that we are now regarded as suitable for employment in remote locations?
Respectfully,
Robert Bartholomew
Zalina Abd Rahman
Question: Where is the new transparency promised by Gary Barnes? Deeds not words. DET KNOWS they lied to my wife and I. When Gary Barnes gets back from extended holidays, will he continue to ignore this injustice?
******************Update: 4 August 2010*****************
Carol Penglase writes that Dr Kevin Gillan, former DET Acting CEO, will respond “in due course.” Why have I had to send a dozen letters and they still have not answered our questions?
Dr Gillan’s response is a litmus test of his integrity and DET’s claim to be acting in an open, transparent manner. Once again, if he looks at our submissions he will know that serious anomalies took place. Will he continue to cover this up or will he admit that wrongdoing took place and hold those people accountable for their actions and usher in a new era of transparency?
***UPDATE 7 AUGUST 2010***
Will Dr Gillan be part of the cover-up or will he give an honest answer? Remember, DET KNOWS what happened; the evidence we supplied them is indisputable.
To Dr Kevin Gillan, former Acting DET CEODear Dr Gillan,
On 4 August DET HR Head Carol Penglase informed us that you will be responding to our letter requesting clarification as to why my partner and I are no longer listed as unsuitable remote teachers after having been informed in 2008 and 2009 that we had deficiencies so serious as to preclude us from teaching in remote schools -- and we have done nothing since to correct those deficiencies. In fact, we would teach the same way today.
DET said Zalina had poor behaviour management, an unsuitable teaching program and lack of effective assessment techniques which made her unsuitable to teach at ANY remote school. If employed today Zalina would teach the exact same way as she did in Ali-Curung and maintain the same teaching program, same behavioural management and assessment techniques.
Robert was deemed to have unsuitable behavioural management and disciplinary strategies that were so poor that it resulted in children staying away from school; unrealistic expectations and performance outcomes in addition to concerns over the suitability of teaching materials used in the classroom which adversely reflected on the community. Robert would teach the same way today and would not change a thing.
We ask you to address this issue as a matter of urgency as such claims adversely affect on our teaching careers.
We also want to know why Carol Penglase and her staff did not inform us that we had been deemed unsuitable remote teachers despite our asking on numerous occasions between April and November 2008? DET CEO Gary Barnes claims to have ushered in a new era of integrity and transparency; we look to you to uphold that standard.
Robert Bartholomew & Zalina Abd Rahman
*******12 August 2010 Update********
Today we sent our 14th letter to DET requesting an answer.
No response. If it's no big deal and there was no wrongdoing, how come Dr Gillan is taking so long to respond?
*******16 August 2010 Update********
Our 15th letter to DET requesting an answer. No answer or even an acknowledgment from Dr Gillan. Where is the integrity in a system that allows 15 letters without an explanation for having been deemed unfit remote teachers for 2 years -- then suddenly when they have to turn over the file, they claim we are now suddenly fit remote teachers. Where is the integrity in the DET leadership WHO KNOW that blacklisting took place and have chosen to look the other way.
The NT Education Minister told Parliament last week that he was unaware of our dispute. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE with the many Territory and national press articles on our case and having a WEBSITE with 14 thousand hits! This is not a rhetorical question and we not only want an answer, we want those involved held accountable.
*****************19 August 2010***************
After 15 letters – Kevin Gillan FINALLY responds:
17 August 2010 Dear Dr Bartholomew
...I now have carriage of this matter.
I note that you seek clarification of the letter dated 22 July 2010. Put simply, and for the reasons set out in that letter, it has already been made very clear that your names have not been placed on the department’s database pursuant to the Teachers Unsuitable for Further Employment policy. Your status accordingly remains unchanged... Further ...the department does not propose to canvass this matter with you further. To this end no further correspondence will be entered into in relation to the matters raised in your letter...
What a joke. And these are the people we entrust to educate Territory children and instill morals and civics. That answers our question about Kevin Gillan's integrity. DET has not changed. They remain the same corrupt organization; KEVIN GILLAN IS UNSCRUPULOUS. All the talk of change and transparency is just a show: no accountability, no remorse and no morals.
UNSCRUPULOUS: adj. defined in the dictionary as "not restrained by ideas of right or wrong; unprincipled; without conscience." For an example, see Kevin Gillan.
Is this the end of the matter since Kevin Gillan says he will engage in no further discussion? Stay tuned.************August 19, 2010*******
Dear Dr Gillan,
Carol Penglase and her office acted in a dishonest manner, and if you are covering this up, we will come after you too: on our website, in the media, and through a variety of means -- all peaceful. ...it is only going to escalate in a more public and aggressive manner. WE WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED AND WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN ONE INCH. YOUR NAME WILL NOW GO ON OUR WEBSITE AS BEING PART OF A CORRUPT BODY. I CHALLENGE YOU TO SUE US.
Let me make one thing crystal clear: we are not scared of you and this is just the beginning of an unrelenting campaign against Carol Penglase, Paul Newman, and those who acted inappropriately. When Paul Newman and Carol Penglase deliberately harmed my family, they crossed the line, and I will do everything in my power to single out each and every one of them -- and you too if necessary -- because WE WILL NOT STOP UNTIL JUSTICE IS SERVED.
Dr Robert Bartholomew
Zalina Abd Rahman
Innocent victims who never asked for this fight, but who are determined to finish it.
*******20 August 2010******* BREAKING NEWS
Alison Anderson asks Education Minister Ken Burns to investigate.
WILL THEY LIE TO PARLIAMENT?
To: Dr Chris Burns, Education Minister
Dear Dr Burns,
In follow-up to my recent questions in Parliament, the case of Dr Robert Bartholomew and his wife, Ms Zalina Abd Rahman, needs to be fully investigated and resolved.
In February 2008, these two teachers were working at Alekarenge School in Central Australia when they discovered a 2005 report from Health Inspector Ray Hart, calling for immediate testing of the school grounds for asbestos. Dr Bartholomew, on behalf of the school community, wrote to the Education Department to ask if the school was now safe and for the test results. There appears to have been much delay and obfuscation by the Department in evaluating the risk and removing the asbestos from Alekarenge School.
Please advise the specific details of when and how the asbestos risk at Alekarenge School was eliminated. Where was the asbestos removed to and was it properly disposed of in a licensed dump? In addition, please advise the procedures that are currently in place to ensure that Territory students are not exposed to asbestos at their school or schoolyards, either in urban or remote schools.
As a result of the asbestos complaint, Dr Robert Bartholomew and Ms Zalina Abd Rahman were “blacklisted” by the Department’s HR under Ms Carol Penglase. This caused them to lose several teaching jobs in the Northern Territory, which they had won at interview. From April to November 2008, they applied for over 100 teaching positions in the Territory and were never advised that they had been “blacklisted”, although they requested clarification of any employment issues in writing. Finally, in late 2008, the Department was forced to reply to an Australian Discrimination Commission Complaint and advised Dr Bartholomew and his wife that they had been deemed unfit/unsuitable teachers by Mr. Paul Newman. This occurred without any formal assessment or anything being committed to writing.
Strangely, two years later, the Department now states that the names of Dr Robert Bartholomew and his wife have not been added to the Department’s database as persons considered unsuitable for further employment as a teacher.
Considering the circumstances surrounding their case, I believe that Dr Bartholomew and his wife should be advised in writing as to why the Department changed its long-held position that they were unsuitable remote school teachers; when this took place; who changed their status; and why they were not informed of this change in status. If there are any written records of the Department’s original assessment which resulted in determining their unsuitability, then Dr Bartholomew and his wife should be provided copies of these records and any other records held on file for them. Since Dr Bartholomew and Ms Abd Rahman were not informed for eight months in 2008 that they had been deemed unsuitable remote teachers, and they were not advised upon their change in status, it is appropriate that they receive a formal apology for these actions, which had such an impact on their lives and livelihoods. Please also confirm in writing that Dr Bartholomew and Ms Abd Rahman are now regarded as suitable for employment in remote Territory schools.
As these complaints have been unresolved since 2008, please act on this letter as a matter of urgency.
Sincerely,
Alison AndersonHere’s an idea: let’s purge Carol Penglase and Kevin Gillan from their jobs and let them apply for 100 DET jobs over the next 8-months, but let’s not tell them they are unsuitable for those jobs. And even when people recommend them for jobs at interview, let’s deny them those jobs because they are unsuitable – BUT LET’S NOT TELL THEM. LEAD THEM ON TO BELEIVE THAT CAN GET THEM WHILE THEY AND THEIR FAMILES SUFFER. That is exactly what DET did to us, and we will not rest until people like CAROL PENGLASE are held accountable.
Is Dr Burns an honest man or will he try to cover it up?
Robert Bartholomew
August 29, 2010:
We are now into WEEK 2 and counting: we will post their reply here and respond, no holds barred. They have painted themselves into a corner with a series of lies and there is no way out. This is going to be interesting.
August 31: Still waiting... if they've done nothing wrong, it shouldn't take long for a straightforward response. Certainly not 11 days.
September 1st: Still nothing. Remember, Kevin Gillan said he "wholeheartedly" agreed with Carol Penglase to close this matter and engage in no further discussion. Disgusting and dishonest. NOT SO FAST. Now you're going to have to answer!
September 3, 2010:
A note on lies, liars and lying. A recent study found that it takes longer to lie than to tell the truth, "and thus the time to answer a question may be used as a method of lie detection." Today marks two weeks without a response!
September 5th: It is now week 3. Where is the new era of trasparency promised by Gary Barnes? We're waiting - and we're not going anywhere!
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