Kelvyn Alp's call for Ombudsmen to reopen inquiry into South End School bullying, dishonesty and incompetence:

Kelvyn Alp was one of the many politicians courting my vote at the last election, and like all the others I asked him to come to Carterton and investigate the incompetence, refusal to investigate complaints, and corruption involving local police and so called community leaders, as well as IPCA, Ombudsmen, Privacy and Health and Disability Commissioners, etc.  Unlike the others, he took up our invitation, and he did come and look into it.

He looked at the evidence, looked at the South End School Gardens, saw our plants and equipment, and the evidence regarding the unjust termination of the employment of both myself and another staff member, serious breaches of our privacy, serious false allegations - deliberately and knowingly false, including malicious and vexatious litigation, and spoke with people concerned and viewed complaints to the school from other parents regarding the actions of the Board.

Mr Alp then reviewed the responses to our complaints, and relevant correspondence etc, and then wrote a formal complaint to the Ombudsmen himself regarding the obvious corruption, dishonesty and bullying regarding the governance of the school and the manner in which my complaints were covered up and the facts deliberately and dishonestly manipulated by the Board of Trustees, the (ex) Principal and Deputy Principal and others:

from: Kelvyn Alp kelvynalp@ournz.net.nz
to: complaint@ombudsmen.parliament.nz
cc: kateraue@gmail.com
date: 24 May 2012 12:59
subject: Formal Complaint
mailed-by: ournz.net.nz
Dear Sir/Ma’am

This is a formal complaint regarding the actions of the Board of Trustees of the South End School, Carterton.
1. The school sent Katherine Raue the attached letter, falsely alleging that she had recently been charged by police with an offence involving a child. 

2. The letter also says that "As a board we hope that either the charges are withdrawn or you are found not guilty as this would remove our problem.  We appreciate the work and enthusiasm that you bring to the school garden and hope that we can be in a position to resume this work in the near future." 

3. Evidence shows that Mrs Raue immediately informed the school that the allegation was untrue (and had in fact advised the Deputy Principal when the DP raised the matter with her verbally weeks before the letter was even written) and requested a meeting with the Board of Trustees.   

4.  The request was refused and the Board began to act in a hostile (and unlawful) manner toward Mrs Raue. 

5. Evidence shows that a Statutory Manager was appointed shortly after this to address other matters of governance, and that there was a subsequent incident involving a member of the public being wrongly given a confidential letter intended for another worker at the school regarding his complaint about the similar termination of his own employment, and there seems to have been a pattern of poor performance of the Board of Trustees and some staff. 

6. The letter should never have been sent, Mrs Raue informed the Deputy Principal (Dallas Powell) that the allegation regarding the charge was untrue prior to the letter even being written, after Ms Powell advised her that she had seen the notes and minutes of the meeting at which the police told the board they had charged her. 

7. The suggestion which was later made, that Mrs Raue told anyone such a thing is preposterous and defies logic, she did NOT say any such thing and the evidence strongly supports the fact that the police and the members of the board made up the story!  Letters from a number of lawyers indicate that this is part of a wider problem involving local police 'sharing information' inappropriately with various "community organisations", and dealing inappropriately and with prejudice regarding many serious complaints.   

8. I note that Mrs Raue was recently acquitted of all eight of the charges which she was clearly falsely accused of, and that this too is part of a pattern of malicious and vexatious litigation instigated against her by the local police, who are currently under inquiry for serious misfeasance which appears to be related to these matters.  I also note that Mrs Raue was acquitted of the charge regarding the unsupported allegations that Mrs Raue called staff "thieving crooks" after no evidence was given in support of the charge - again. 

9. I also note that evidence described by the Deputy Principal appears to have been destroyed by the Board of Trustees, including the notes of the meeting made by the staff representative, and that neither of those staff members have been required to make statements regarding who said what.  It is not credible that the Board would write a letter such as this, terminating employment of a valued contributor to the school, and the physical and mental health of the students, purporting to be caused by such a serious allegation, without recording the reason for the decision anywhere in the minutes etc. 

10. The remedy sought is that stated in the final paragraph of the letter sent to Mrs Raue, prompt reinstatement and access to the garden she established.   

11. This matter has gone on long enough, justice must be done without delay and I request that you uphold this complaint, and that the board honours its promise to reinstate Mrs Raue if the charges were withdrawn - there never were any charges and the letter is based wholly on a false allegation.
Yours faithfully,

Kelvyn Alp
Party Co-Leader

Mobile: +6427 286 8789
Skype: kelvynalp
Email: kelvynalp@ournz.net.nz
Website: www.ournz.org.nz

"Truth is more important than public belief, and any man who feels the need to adjust his knowledge so as to receive public approval is a man unworthy of trust."--Toltec motto

"They must find it difficult...those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority."---Gerald Massey

This has resulted in the Ombudsmen reopening the investigation into these complaints.  Let's hope they put truth before authority - there can be no justice, no authority, and no peace, without justice and truth.

The longer the problem is not dealt with, the worse it gets.  We have young people committing suicide at over twice the national average rate - in a country with some of the highest rates in the world an the issue of who is teaching them and what they're teaching and how is vitally important to the question of why we have such outrageously high suicide rates.  The original complaint regarding the actions of the South End School has now become much worse with the latest very serious false accusations from members of the Board of Trustees involving how I came to receive personal, private and confidential correspondence regarding the unjust termination of the employment of ANOTHER member of the staff of the South End School.  No wonder a Statutory Manager was appointed!  Unfortunately, it appears that the other staff member was sacked by the Board - or the Principal - and not the Statutory Manager, who was appointed to deal with matters of finance and governance.

This problem of having complaints deliberately and dishonestly fobbed off is tax payer funded criminal corruption - it is routine and widespread perversion of the course of natural justice and it is resulting in extremely dysfunctional communities.  Local police make up complaints about law abiding people and ignore, condone and cover up serious crimes committed by their mates and the mates of their colleagues and associates, as was the case for so many years regarding the complaints of Louise Nicholas, Arthur Allan Thomas, etc.

Victims of abuse in the Wairarapa are treated appallingly, they need all the help they can get and the school gardens are not only teaching kids to grow their OWN kai, cook it, preserve it and trade it, we're teaching them virtues like honesty, commitment, patience, discipline, organisation, kindness, courage, confidence, and many other virtues that will stand them in good stead throughout their lives.

The message being given to victims of bullying and abuse is "Talk to someone" - well we're that "someone" - Friends of Caring Kiwi Communities (The FOCKCers), building strong and healthy communities, encouraging families to get to know one another, support one another, and help build strong healthy communities together - putting the Unity back into our commUnities.  The gardens are sanctuaries in our schools and communities, run by caring, trained, professional facilitators who take appropriate action to assist victims to access the support they need.  We're immensely grateful for the support of Kelvyn Alp and the OURNZ party, who believe in REALLY caring for our kids, what they're being taught, and the environment they're learning in.  Walking the walk, and helping Kids Get Growing.

I spoke with the Statutory Manager, Ken Wilson, today and advised him that in accordance with the letter from the Board of Trustees and the fact that our plants and equipment are still on site, we will be resuming our work in the school garden immediately, and continuing that work over the holidays, and we expressly requested that Mr Wilson advise Mr Ray Craig and others on the Board of Trustees to refrain from physically bullying and threatening us when we do so as he did last time.  I also asked that an immediate apology be provided from Elaine Scully and Emily Brown regarding the latest false accusations regarding how I came to receive the highly confidential correspondence between the school and Mr R the groundsman, who was sacked in a similarly unjust manner and had his privacy breached in the same manner as I did.  I can verify the source of the information and I certainly did NOT steal it from Emily Brown's letterbox and nor would I ever do such a thing -  am deeply offended by these continued attacks on my character and reputation and request apologies from those concerned without further delay, they should have been provided months ago when I first provided the evidence of my statements.