Vermont Secondary College
- Took a position that was "ongoing" (permanent)
- Realised the school has a pathetic staff and student culture
- Frequently asked for feedback- was always positive from principals
- I checked weekly, as the "ongoing position" wasn't made official- they lied to me. I had made financial commitments based on this agreement.
- I wanted to make sure that I met the 3 month standard probation requirements and fix any issues- there were no issues from the feedback- this was coordinators, heads, principals and teachers- all good !!!
May 23 "The Fireside Chat"
- Then on May 23, after I asked for a meeting to discuss the permanent position
- A series of issues were brought up, they weren't true and were bizarre. I wasn't sure what they were talking about.
The work of allegedly out of control classes, with no evaluation & behavior management.
Details, design and finish show a level of care and thoughtfulness inconsistent with the claims of principals about myself.
The Camp
- I challenged these claims, one of these was the claim that I told a class to fuck off.
- This was just an outright lie by a student. He even made claims like I did not let him have a tape measure, when these were accessed freely, by students from the cupboard.
- Not one good thing was said about my teaching, student performance, behavior management- ZILCH- this from a school given performance development accreditation- which from my observations and experience, like this, is a joke at best- have a look at some samples of my year 10 woodwork students, also see above.
- I complained to Rodney Williamson and asked him to look at my true performance.
- Remember I was only at the school for a few months and had started to teach these projects and adapt them as a graduate teacher in the school, I had never taught these specific projects before this:
- Issues the principals brought up were all vague technicalities, clearly clutching at straws to show poor performance- if you see my student's work, you will agree it very unlikely that classes were ever out of hand, the precision, thoughtfulness, would be nigh impossible.
- Letting a student stand on a table is not unsafe, even by worksafe laws, which stipulate a 2m height danger.
- The safety, is determined by a teacher's individual risk assessement, which as an Industrial Designer and Furniture Technologist I always do. For example, I hate sharp edges, which are common in furniture, because I know what these can do to a person's skull. Its safer to have a kid a kid on a table than, being pushed into a machine that's operating, injuring myself and himself. I can also tell you quite confidently that cars and roads are naturally dangerous, in that a car is cognitively unsafe to drive.
- The amount of information requiring attention to keep the law, outweighs human cognitive abilities, so people are all natural hoons. The claims about me "hooning" are far from the truth.
- The most dangerous thing in driving is the stress inflicted on a teacher on purpose. What is called bullying. Speaking to a teacher recently, she had a serious car accident, after stress had an affect on her driving. This is why causality is so important in schools. What causes a person's stress. If a person's stress is caused by another, then that person should be liable, for any adverse effects of that stress. This is a problem of interpretation though. It is in the reasonableness of expectation, that the judgments must be made.
- I was given no defence, and this meeting was NOT disciplinary, as claimed by the principals, DEECD and VIT, this is an outright lie, the principals committed perjury on a number of counts. But who is going to police this hey, while teachers have all these hoops to prove our competence (as I have and do)- principals still don't even have expected standards in Australia.
While teachers have all these hoops to prove our competence...principals still don't have prescribed expected standards in Australia.
- After this I went to a camp, lost my way, but it seems I still got their on time from the evidence. I had been warned the day before that they were out to get me for "lateness."
- A whole series of crazy allegations were made at the camp, most either technicalities or not in context.
- I think a few staff turned against me, when I stood up for a Christian teacher who was bullied by a few staff. She had taken initiative, to propose a school chaplain, which had been approved by the school council. A planned attack from atheist teachers in the school at a staff meeting turned this down, in one of the most aggressive, planned attack from atheists that I have ever seen.
- I took a quick survey of students in my classes and about 85% were cool with having a school chaplain.
- I was troubled, when a student wore a t-shirt which said, "God loves you everyone else thinks you're a wanker." Some Christian kids were offended by this shirt. This student wore it, at virtually all plain clothes events, I hope he washed it. I was the only teacher to correct him for it, in a school which supposedly values, "tolerance, respect, responsibility." I tried to diffuse the situation saying, "well, statistically speaking most adolescents are wankers, so there is no novelty in that motto mate." Everyone thought this was funny, I think the strategy worked.
May 29 The Blackmail
- After complaining, in the same discussion, Rod Williamson, says that he can help me find another position, or if I complained about what I had witnessed at the school, he would take disciplinary action against me. I said, my teaching is good, my student outcomes are good.
- It is here that the second falsified minutes appear.
- This sort of situation is why schools in Victoria will not improve the way they are. Show business and fear hide the possibility of any improvement.
- Principals often getting paid over $100,000 do jack all for the kids, with no true accountability by educational standards. As shown in the VIT hearing, they do not have basic knowledge of serious issues.
- The issues at the school were things like: students being at risk because unqualified teachers were teaching woodwork, damaged tools being used by staff, a coordinator being late almost every lesson, to the point that I had to cover their classes whenever I had a spare that coincided with hers, staff bullying of several staff members, including myself.
- The principals were part of that pattern too. Really useless role models.
- I was in a class when a ball hit a window outside and showered glass over a student using a dangerous tool and myself. One of the principals was supposed to be supervising. But why aren't they disciplined for their serious negligence ? I wonder why ?
- Tailgating. On a dusty road I was jammed in between two buses, at time 20 meters apart with my 4 meter car, inbetween. The law says that vehicles 7.5 meters or over must be 60m apart. But like all the policies and procedures and accreditations that Vermont Secondary and its principals break consistently, they have interest in the law or Deecd policy. Their only interest is their DEECD brown nosing, psychopathic control of a graduate teacher who's performing very well.
- Its no coincidence that the person who claimed I was tailgating was the arch atheist in teh school, next to another woman, who had tried to turn me against a Christian lady at the school in the first few weeks. One whom I defended then, because she was bullied in the background.
- I was trying to get off the road, because I felt unsafe. Infact I wouldn't be surprised if the coordinator in question was egging the driver on to tailgate me and jam me in closer. It was also hard to see, because of the dust. I was scared !
- Overtaking on the dirt road. This doesn't even appear in the transcript. Why was it in the determination ? Its also no coincidence that Terry Hayes was on the disciplinary comittee, that let the matter through. He then appears as the panel chair. He was clearly trying to create a sense of "fear hickey the hoon," against the facts. Its also no coincidence that Carmel White the head oif Conduct and Ethics was at VIT too, a massive breach of natural justice and surely a conflict of interest. And why wasn't I allowed to call her as a witness in the case ? I will reveal more of these strange patterns at VIT and in DEECD.
- One interesting pattern was copy and pasted items on the witness statements. Also there is a sense of sections, where witnessed seem to ahve been prompted to create statements around a theme, eg "Care or safety, lateness or supervision." This is almost scary institutionally recognised bullying.
- I think I was accurate in calling it torture, it matches the description, of what the school falsely did to me after May 23 and before, despite exemplary performance. What does this say about Victorian schools ? Principals need to be regiulated heavily. Increased scrutiny of principals must be instituted because of the actions of people like Rod Williamson who is a skidmark on education leadership in Victoria.
- One interesting point from the camp though, is that errors that I told to DEECD, were fed back into the witness statements at the school. So waht we have is breaking privacy law and a number of procedures here too.
I have generally been suicidal, not from depression, but not being able to work and thrive or sometimes survive. Yeah, and I really care for kids and am troubled by the poor quality teaching of design/technology and art in schools generally. Its not taken seriously- unqualified teachers often take these subjects, as they did at Vermont, in very dangerous ways as observed. These areas are often more academic, than more prescriptive left brain subject areas, like math, science or english. One comment, from a professor at uni, was that "The Art Curriculum in Sydney was more 'scientific' that the science curriculum."
- What is really odd about the camp allegations, is that they actually reveal the indiscretions of the teachers at the camp, even lies: Alison Bate says, "he didn't report to me when he came," but then she reveals that she had taken a student to the hospital. While she makes a big song and dance about a duty car, requiring approval, what contingency is in place if a student is injured, when she is away with her beloved duty car.
- She forgot to order a lunch for me on the last day, this is just poor contingency planning.
- When I arrived at the camp, a group of students were not supervised.
- Lying about a roster for breakfast, when all the students have left breakfast, she says I came late for breakfast. Actually, while they were all gossipping in their mother's club, about how to get me in trouble, no doubt, with the allegation of being late to breakfast. I was actually the only teacher supervising the kids outside, having a kick of the footy too, while they sat on their "fat lazy- permanent position, breakfast chomping behinds."
- The coordinator Andrew Doyle, let a student go back unsupervised then tries to pin this on me.
- says I was speeding and tailgating a bus. That's right (speeding despite being behind the bus). I wonder what university he went to, to have such incredible intelligence.
- As for tailgating, the buses were tailgating me, by law, by the described situation and by the virtual impossibility of him making the claims he did.
- This came as no surprise to me. Andrew Doyle was the chief atheist in the school with another teacher Rebecca Eames. When he swore on the bible at the VIT hearing I laughed. Rebecca called a christian teacher, "you Christian nut," a few weeks into my time there. She was recruiting people against the school getting a chaplain.
- A number of allegations are just invented.
- I was told to use the machine room as a part of the routine in aproject by my mentor
- On May 23, this is suddenly described as "lack of supervision."
- While the other teachers still do this, I stopped the normal practice after May 23, yet this is not acknowledged and it is still used as an allegation. Some of these events, were normal school practice, they are not actually by any common standard "lacking supervision."
- What this reveals is that a principal can define good teaching practice as misconduct. So all the good things that we learn at university and in practicum, mean nothing by a principal's vague perception.
- In my case principals invent nilly willy accusations, against good teaching practice.
- While teachers like myself have to go through incredible hoops, just to have a job, these jokers, have default registration and rubbish knowledge. This is an absurd state of affairs !
- Probably the most humorous allegation, was one where I had diarrhea and sought supervision from 3 or 4 people in the immediate environment. This is called a lack of supervision. I called it in the VCAT witness statement, "Supervision like a curry powered Superman"
Other Lies & Issues
- The "minutes" are clearly falsified, Rod Williamson and Kim Fallon
- The principals break department procedure
- The principals accuse me in these of saying, "I take speed to stay awake."
- They claim that I am psychiatric because I was a part of a study into youth mental health , but this is just not true. Its the last time I volunteer for this stuff. When crazy people like Rod Williamson distort your contributions like this.
- They claimed I had a successful business, when this is just not true, the work I do is gratis and best defined as a hobby.
- For example in the last year I have done work for the Kinglake Bushfire area gratis, like the Anzac Memorial sign and the booklet cover for this service at Kinglake.
- All the claims of lateness are false and lacking supervision are false.
- I said in response to this, that "I might as well seek asylum in third world country, at least I'll probably get better justice there."
- When I tried to get information from the school for my case, I discovered Rod Williamson and then Tony Jacobs had told teachers not to reveal anything or speak to me. So I was unable to get reliable witnesses or make a proper case. Off course with the poor staff culture at Vermont, the teachers fear for their social position and their jobs both from the principals and the school itself.
- When I asked Pam Brutervic to tell the truth about the permanent position, she sent a note to Conduct and Ethics caling me a terrorist.
- Tony Jacobs, when I asked him for a piece of information the other day, told me he would take out a restraining order if I rang the school again. Nothing new here hey, the whole thing was blackmail.
Why Teachers, Unions and Government Must Act against these Principals
- They set a precedent where students can get away with serious behavior without correction, to hide the poor state of their school and its systems, this is against DEECD policy.
- They set a precedent, where false allegations can be made without investigation or recourse, to delay and slur the character of a teacher making complaints about dangerous actions of principals.
- Now your automotive issues can be used against a teacher, to determine their fitness of teaching. I was told by someone in VIT, that I was being used as a guinea pig to create some new precedents for principals to have more power in schools.
- They set a precedent, where a parent can stop a teacher from disciplining a student with serious and dangerous behavioral problems.
- A principal can make slanderous allegations without recourse or proof.
- The normal processes of a school can be assumed to be correct, even when they breach DEECD policy and Victorian LAW
- A teacher can make claims about speeding or tailgating, despite not being able to describe what tailgating is from the stand. Police do not have these powers, why they require speed cameras and other technology to accurately measure such, because of the issues with human perception.
- These principals and Carmel White have falsified documents and breached procedure. They must be brought to justice, given the need for integrity in higher positions of responsibility.
- Student whimsical "curriculum theorising" (without good cause) was used as a basis for allegations. Yet the evidence shows that the transparency of the evaluation as is evident in high outcomes, reveals highly advanced and developed evaluation/assessment scenarios. Students should not have this power over a teacher.
Other Issues
- There is some evidence that VASSP (Network of Victorian State Principals) was used as a forum to bully myself.
- There are bits of information like "wheelies in the car park" (that are the words of Kerrie Dowsley of St Albans Secondary College, which also appeared in Stephen Drill's article in The Sunday Herald Sun), also appeared in Kim Fallon's words in the transcript, where he calls me a hoon and uses the carpark. This might be evidence of cross institutional bullying and victimisation by several principals. At this school, there is a true hoon, who is not disciplined, because he is a permanent teacher. There is a principal too, who I keep hearing reports about as an incompetent administrator of facilities, like advising that air conditioners are installed in the wrong way and allocating funds inappropriately. She is active at VASSP. I had to fix some of her mistakes, when I was at the school.
- I believe VASSP is a snake actually aimed at networking principals for their self interest and slandering teachers.
- Like VIT, it has a face of service, but its aim is to suppress education for their personal benefit by making teachers fear them. Fortunately principals can be taken to VIT disciplinary procedures.
- Lateness ? The daily organiser recorded events where I was doing legitimate school duties in my spare lessons in the morning. Also because I wasn't in the technology office, my mentor sometimes thought I was late.
Does anyone see anything wrong with schools and principals yet ? Do they really work ? Next we'll explain why "Alf Hickey Hoon Teacher" is an Abso-Friggen-Lutely Good Teacher.
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