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Parents disappointed by Principal's response to daughter's suicide

<p>Charlotte O'Brien was only 12-years-old when she <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/family-pets/mother-s-heartbreaking-farewell-at-bullied-daughter-s-funeral" target="_blank" rel="noopener">took her own life </a>on September 9 after allegedly suffering years of bullying at Santa Sabina College in Strathfield, Sydney. </p> <p>A month later her grieving parents Mat and Kelly said they have met with the school's principal but were left disappointed after she reportedly showed "no empathy" during their 20-minute meeting.</p> <p>“That glimmer of hope that anything positive to come from that meeting was squashed the moment we arrived,” Mat told Ben Fordham on <em>2GB </em>on Tuesday. </p> <p>Mat explained how "incredibly hard" it was to walk through the school full of other young girl's their daughter's age. </p> <p>“We had to navigate ourselves across the school grounds, surrounded by other girls in their school uniform, knowing that we will never see our daughter again. That was incredibly hard for us,” he said.</p> <p>“We arrived there and met with the principal. When I shared the feedback, she wasn’t interested in receiving that. The feedback was interrupted. It was discounted. It was disagreed with.</p> <p>“I sat across the room from a lady (the principal) that showed myself and the rest of the family no emotion or empathy at all.”</p> <p>He claimed that the principal did not offer any kind of apology and said "there was no accountability at all". </p> <p>“The questions we wanted answered were simply not answered at all,” he said.</p> <p>“We were left to show ourselves out of the school ground.”</p> <p>“The last image that I will have of that school was as I looked behind me, Kelly was carrying some items of Charlotte’s and watching her squeeze herself and that box through those closed gates was one of the hardest things that I’ve seen.</p> <p>“Kelly got in the car and that was the worst I had seen her since the funeral. She said to me “I felt my daughter’s life did not matter”.</p> <p>Charlotte's parents had previously said they raised bullying concerns multiple times with the school, and although an investigation was conducted, no further action was taken. </p> <p>Santa Sabina College principal Paulina Skerman previously said the school was continuing to support Charlotte’s family through their “unimaginable grief” and was working with youth mental health foundation Headspace.</p> <div class="footer-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, 'system-ui', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Noto Color Emoji'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: #ffffff; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"> </div> <div class="body-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, 'system-ui', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Noto Color Emoji'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: #ffffff; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"> <div style="box-sizing: border-box;"> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Need to talk to someone? Don't go it alone.</strong></em></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Lifeline: <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">13 11 14</strong>, <a style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #258440; text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; transition: 0.2s ease-in-out;" href="https://www.lifeline.org.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lifeline.org.au </a></em></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">SANE Support line and Forums: <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">1800 187 263,</strong> <a style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #258440; text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; transition: 0.2s ease-in-out;" href="https://saneforums.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saneforums.org</a></em></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Headspace: <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">1800 650 890,</strong> <a style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #258440; text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; transition: 0.2s ease-in-out;" href="https://headspace.org.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">headspace.org.au</a></em></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Beyond Blue: <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">1300 224 635</strong>, <a style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #258440; text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; transition: 0.2s ease-in-out;" href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/beyondblue.org.au" target="_blank" rel="noopener">beyondblue.org.au </a></em></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Images: Facebook/ GoFundMe</em></p> </div> </div> <p><em>Images: 7News</em></p>

Caring

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School principal forced out after parents complain statue of David is too rude

<p>Hope Carrasquilla, a US charter school principal, has been forced to resign from her position after a parent decreed an art lesson to be “pornographic”. </p> <p>Carrasquilla was given an ultimatum - either she stepped down, or she would face termination from the Tallahassee Classical School - according to the <em>Tallahassee Democrat</em>.</p> <p>“It saddens me that my time here had to end this way,” she told the publication. </p> <p>Carrasquilla also explained that she had been informed of her options by the school’s board chair, Barney Bishop. While Bishop has confirmed that he did hand down the ultimatum, he did not expand on why. However, Carrasquilla believes a Renaissance art lesson to be the main contributing factor. </p> <p>The lesson in question saw students study Michelgangelo’s classic <em>David</em>, as well as his <em>Creation of Adam </em>fresco painting, and Boticelli’s <em>Birth of Venus</em>. </p> <p>Apparently, the school is required to educate students about Renaissance art in their 6th grade. But for three parents this wasn’t reason enough, with each of them voicing their concerns about the lesson plan, while claiming that it had caused their children upset. </p> <p>Two of the parents simply wanted to have been notified about the content before it reached their children, but one had stronger feelings, branding the situation “pornographic”. </p> <p>Carrasquilla said that one of them was “point-blank upset”, and “felt her child should not be viewing those pieces.” </p> <p>But as she informed <em>HuffPost</em>, things were “a little more complicated than that”, before sharing that the school’s usual protocol would be to inform parents before their children are presented with classical art, such as David. </p> <p>According to the now-former principal, a “breakdown in communication” between herself, the direction of operations, and the art teacher has brought upon a kind of administrative oversight, and the parents had never received a letter about the lesson. </p> <p>This came after a new rule was passed in February, with the school board mandating that parents must be notified a fortnight before any “potentially controversial” was taught to students. Parents would also be presented with the option to review their child’s curriculum, as well as any related media, with a reminder to be sent a week ahead. </p> <p>“Parental rights are supreme,” Bishop explained, “and that means protecting the interests of all parents, whether it’s one, 10, 20, or 50.” </p> <p>As her story began to circulate around the globe, Carrasquilla went on to explain in a statement that for a year, Bishop had “expressed his displeasure with my leadership when parents became upset about policies or procedures not being followed to the T. </p> <p>“He was more concerned about litigation and appeasing a small minority of parents, rather than trusting my expertise as an educator for more than 25 years.” </p> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

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Fake school headmaster ordered to pay back career earnings

<div class="post_body_wrapper"> <div class="post_body"> <div class="body_text redactor-styles redactor-in"> <p>Neil Lennie, disgraced former Melbourne school principal, has been ordered to pay back the half a million in wages he earned after he was exposed as a fraud.</p> <p>He claimed he had various degrees and used his father's legitimate teaching registration over a 24-year career between 1976 and 2000.</p> <p>He worked across Victoria's Mount Scopus Memorial College, Haileybury College and Overnewton Anglican Community College.</p> <p>Lennie admitted in Victoria's County Court to four counts of obtaining a financial advantage by deception to the tune of $843,567.</p> <p>He was also sentenced to three months in jail which was wholly suspended as well as being given a 12-month community corrections order.</p> <p>He has since been ordered to pay back $500,000 in earnings as the judge found that his lies caused no loss or harm.</p> <p>References also described him as an "excellent educator", with leading infectious diseases expert Professor Sharon Lewin AO describing him as the best teacher she'd ever had.</p> <p>“I often credit Mr Lennie with my enduring love of science, pursuit of academic excellence and self-belief in my own capabilities in science,” she wrote in a letter to the court.</p> <p>“I remember him very clearly telling me that I was capable of doing anything in life and to shoot for the stars.</p> <p>“As a young woman in the 1970s, I now understand that this kind of encouragement for women in science was most unusual.”</p> <p><em>Photo credits:<span> </span></em><a rel="noopener" href="https://7news.com.au/news/court-justice/school-headmaster-neil-lennie-in-melbourne-ordered-to-pay-back-wages-after-faking-his-way-through-career-c-2934137" target="_blank"><em>7NEWS</em></a></p> </div> </div> </div>

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“Little girl with mental problems”: Christian school principal blasts Greta Thunberg in newsletter

<p>A Christian private school principal has put teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg on blast in a newsletter, labelling her a “little girl with mental problems”.</p> <p>Rodney Lynn, head of Coffs Harbour Christian Community School sent out the letter to students and their parents on September 26.</p> <p><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/christian-school-principal-blasts-greta-in-newsletter/news-story/1351fe8f253c8a82c4e5825d246fc96d" target="_blank"><em>News.com.au</em></a><span> </span>reports that Mr Lynn urged his students to put their faith in God and “not in the predictions of a little girl”.</p> <p>He did not refer to Thunberg by name, but he wrote about “a little girl from Scandinavia” who was promoting “doomsday waffle talk”.</p> <p>“No one knows when the final wind up of the world will be,” he wrote. “Jesus said no one, only the Father God, knows about that day or hour.”</p> <p>He said the 16-year-old was a “little girl with self-declared various emotional and mental problems that she thinks give her a special insight into a pending doom”.</p> <p>“She says she is anxious. You too can be anxious. My life experience has taught me that doomsday predictors are just attention getters,” wrote Mr Lynn.</p> <p>The letter was published the same week Thunberg made a passionate speech at the United Nations in New York as she held leaders accountable for their actions.</p> <p>Now, young people around the world are taking action, as they demand for more to be done on climate change. But Mr Lynn questioned their actions.</p> <p>“You can skip school. Hold up a piece of cardboard in the streets and call out for the government to ‘do something to stop it all happening’ … really???” he wrote.</p> <p>“Do not be afraid. Your world’s future is in the hands of God, not in the predictions of a little girl and false prophets.</p> <p>“God’s promises have never failed yet,” he wrote before signing off.</p>

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This principal starts school day singing and dancing for students

<p>Assistant principal, Gary Logan, from Arkansas in the US has come up with an innovative new way to motivate students in the morning, singing and dancing as they arrive for class. And students and parents alike have fallen in love with the morning routine with many joining in on the fun.</p> <p>“The kids have fallen in love with the idea,” Mr Logan told Arkansas Matters.</p> <p>“They want to dance every day. We try to make them smile and make them laugh. It makes their day and it makes mine to see them smiling and happy and they want to give out hugs in the morning. They want to high five in the morning.”</p> <p>Mr Logan keeps his routine fresh by adding a new song each morning, and he tries to incorporate tunes that are popular with the kids wherever possible.</p> <p>“It just lifts everybody’s spirits,” says Kristine Spears, whose child attends Woodrow Cummins Elementary. “I mean when I get into my morning routine, I laugh a little bit because of what I’ve seen in the morning.”</p> <p>With positive feedback Mr Logan looks set to keep up the singing and dancing for the foreseeable future. One things for sure, starting the day at Woodrow Cummins Elementary is never a chore “I don’t do bad days,” says Mr Logan. “Every day is a good day.”</p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="/news/news/2015/09/ragdoll-kitten-refuse-to-wake-up/">Watch this ragdoll kitten refuse to wake up</a></strong></em></span></p> <p><a href="/finance/insurance/2015/09/best-songs-of-the-70s/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>10 songs from the 70s you need to revisit now</strong></em></span></a></p> <p><a href="/news/news/2015/09/girl-sings-to-dementia-grandmother/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Little girl sings “You Are My Sunshine” to great grandmother with dementia</strong></em></span></a></p>

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