TeachersWithIntegrity.com

This site is blocked to all NT Government Schools 

What are they afraid of? 

A major new study of corruption in the NT Education Department is forthcoming.

Based on Freedom of Information Act documents, learn how...

DET kept a secret blacklist of 'troublesome' teachers;

The Former Manager of Schools for Central Australia knowingly exposed NT schoolchildren to Asbestos;

The Head of DET HR fabricated information;

How DET punishes teachers for following Department policy when they blow the whistle on serious wrongdoing;

Which members of the Department are unscrupulous;

How DET can label teachers unfit without telling you - then label you fit when you challenge it.

Present and Former principals Jen Coad, Darrell Fowler and Paul Newman Fabricated InformationThey are dishonest and unscrupulous and poor role models for NT kids.

Did you know the defence against defamation?

Truth.

We Challenge you to sue us.

We back up our claims in our book and make this promise:

"We will hold those corrupt DET employees accountable in 2011, and we will ensure that our study is distributed far and wide." 

Northern Territory Education Minister Chris Burns and DET CEO Gary Barnes Refuse to answer Alison Anderson's Parliamentary Request to clear up Questions of Serious Wrongdoing by the Department. 

They are dishonest and unscrupulous.

We name the unscrupulous 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:

Carol Ann Penglase, Head of DET HR

Paul Newman, Former head of Schools, Central Australia

Question:  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.