Annoyed Parent, I'm more interested in the source of information. Ms Challita appears to place the messages from her children as beyond any possible doubt or critical appraisal, though quite frankly, a parent is the last person who can judge their own kids in this regard.
Whilst I don't think it's likely the kids lied outright, most kids exaggerate, it's just the way they are.

I can certainly envisage a child coming home saying "Mum! my teacher HATES me! She wouldn't pick me in class! They wouldn't let me dance!"

Whether this is the reality of the situation or blown out of proportion is really quite subjective and I'm not sure most children have the ability to differentiate between actual bullying and feeling bullied, especially if they're 'sensitive' as Ms Jolanda frequently posits.

Not to mention the fact that teachers probably have rather a justified dislike a Ms Challita's constant interference, though I do agree there can be no justification for taking that out on kids - though I have grave doubts as to whether this is the case.

To sum it up - a letter posted on Ms Challita's website:

""...Mrs Challita has written 13 times to the relevant Ministers and has had each of her concerns fully and repeatedly answered until she was declared a vexatious correspondent...."dated 6 December 2005)"

The website then lists a litany of pursuits directed at finding out why she has been deemed vexatious.

Any observer can tell. The obsessive pursuit of why she was deemed vexatious is evidence in itself. The entire website is evidence. It's patently clear why.

If it's between that possibility, or the possibility of a state-wide cover up, throughout the entire education system... well, I find the latter somewhat hard to countenance.

By this point in the thread Jolanda my views have changed you will not win and just maybe that is the right outcome.
Not because of what others say of you, but because of what you say.
First I was annoyed at the things people said , some strange comments , but one stuck out.
What do your children think, not to you the crafted to please mum answers what would they tell their school mates?

Dear Jolanda,

I've read your blog and posts here. I know you haven't asked for my advice, but it follows, so if you don't want it, avert you eyes.

I can't judge the merits of you case, but I believe it is obvious that you do *not* come across as a reliable or credible narrator of it. This affects how people respond to you on OLO, and reading between the lines on your blog it has also affected how DET responds to you.

Firstly, I think you should lose the term "gifted" and focus on real scores and test results. A primary school teacher in my family told me that around 50% of all parents she meets tell her that their children are gifted. Often they've just got slightly higher than average IQs, sometimes they just have an average kid's passion for art and reading. (The examples of your kids' writing on your blog shows that they're clever, but doesn't prove they're gifted. I'd remove it.) She thinks that in her thirty year career she's seem just a handful of really gifted kids. Highly accerlerated learners usually even out intellectually with their peers when they hit university anyway.

I'm not saying your kids aren't genuises, I'm saying that school authorities hear a lot of that. Focus on measurable results rather than the generic and slightly irritating term "gifted".

Similarly, don't use generic terms like "targeting". Targeting means nothing to me, you need to have specific allegations against specific teachers and back it up with witness statements. If it happened in class, you've got 30 witnesses. Stick to the facts. To say that you wrote a letter to the department and they "responded" by "targeting" your son is unsupported speculation and, frankly, unlikely. Stick to stuff you can prove.

cont...

cont...

Thirdly, if you've been labelled a vexatious correspondent, get over it. Stop writing to them - they're not reading your mail. Go to the next stage.

Fourthly, I think you'd increase your impact if you cleaned up your website. It is really confusing. People want to start with a precise of the story, then move in to details of the evidence. Longs tracts of corrospondence say little. And remove your children's photos. I don't think their images humanise the story - rather, it seems exploitative.

Lastly, don't forget about yourself. I was rather shocked when you wrote on your very first post "I thought parliament was government". This is a very elementary mistake, and as an adult who is accusing the government of all sorts, you should know how it works. Maybe you need a holiday from all this for a while. This is a very stressful situation. Maybe you need to speak to a therapist or someone about all this.

You say that you don't want to teach your kids to run away from a fight. You also need to teach them to be resilient in the face of life's many inequities, rather than to cry conspiracy each time. As I said earlier, it's not for me to judge the case, but I can't see that you've got any evidence at all to suggest the schools or DET manipulated test scores or unfairly targeted your children or are engaged in a conspiracy. I'm sorry, I did look, but I couldn't see it. I think if you focus on facts rather than allegations you may improve your chances of a successful resolution to all this.

My children are resilient they have become so resilient that they expect me to fight for justice and their right, and the right of all other children, to be treated fairly and with respect and to be protected from bullies. They are not going to be treated like dirt and just accept and say and do nothing.

My children are that gifted. This has been confirmed by the DET themselves. They are not saying that my children are not intellectually gifted; they are just saying that they didn't get enough marks on the Selective Schools tests to place them in Selective schools. Problem is that my children consistantly achieved very highly and these scores were totally out of character. They are obvious gifted children and evidence produced under FOI clearly shows that scores and information has been manipulated and tampered with and there has been bias and misconduct.

I didn't even make a complaint until my second eldest child was in Year 3. Until half year I hadn't even spoken to the teacher. I was scared to complain. My complaint was in writing so it wasn’t like I attacked the teacher and I was very careful with what I wrote.

I have been unfairly deemed vexatious and that matter is being put before the ADT. The 13 letters is a misrepresentation. There actually hasn’t been a formal process used to deem me vexatious. The word of the person that we allege was responsible was accepted as fact and the matter closed. The Department is being challenged in this regard.

You can all believe whatever you want but at the end of the day these are children and if they are complaining that they are being treated unfairly and unjustly and enquries and documents support their complaints then the allegations should be properly and fairly investigated. To do otherwise is to fail in our duty of care to the children. As an adult/parent it is my duty to protect the children.

Why are so many people happy to deny children their right to be protected from harm?

Annoyed parent the DET is the Department of Education and they are part of the School. It is all one.

There were no restrictions on piano players, just like there were no restrictions on dancers or anything else for that matter.

Yes my daughter was very talented but she was 8 years old, she was a child. She was so upset, all the other kids saw that it was unfair. She felt humiliated. Just because she is obviously talented doesn't mean that she shouldn't be allowed to compete. They auditioned to choose competitors. The teacher’s excuse was that one piano player from the class was enough? Problem was that it was a composite class and the piano player that was chosen was from the year 5 part of the class, she was in Year 3. The school allowed dancers to compete until they were coming out of the talent quests ears. There were no piano players from her year or age group. She wasn't allowed to play because they didn't want the parents to see how gifted she was because I had made public complaints about the neglect of the education of gifted children. I had justifiable good reason to complain. The mismatch was extreme and the way my children were being treated was very mean it was making my children unhappy, depressed and sick. This wasn't the first time they had done this to my children.

Oh and the DET (as in the Selective Schools Unit and Ors) didn't get involved until the Year 2000. My children started school in the year 1996. In June 2000 was the first year when I started making written and public complaints as enough was enough I was failing my children by standing by and saying nothing. Before that time my children were having issues and complaining but I said nothing. I was scared to complain. I taught them strategies to cope and just did my best to help them overcome their fears and get through the years. Problem is that the DET crossed the line.