Falsified "records" can be maliciously placed on a Queensland teacher's official files.
It is too easy for malicious and untruthful "records" concerning a teacher to be secretly placed on that teacher's Queensland Department of Education official files.
Notes on loose scraps of paper can be secretly placed on a teacher's file.
These loose scraps of paper can be introduced, changed or removed at any time by an abusive principal.
Queensland school principals have their own offices and their own computers. There is no excuse for keeping files of sticky-notes and loose scraps of paper "recording" their secret thoughts and feelings about teachers.
It is much too easy for a malicious principal to secretly place "records" of imaginary conversations with children, parents, other teachers, other principals and District Office staff concerning a teacher on that teacher's official Department of Education files.
If the teacher ever manages to find these documents under Freedom of Information, the names of the children, parents, etc. involved in these imaginary conversations will have been concealed, so the teacher has little chance to prove that their "official record" has been falsified.
The FOI policy of deleting all names from documents exposes Queensland teachers to workplace abuse.
And then, even if the child, parent, teacher, principal of member of the District Office staff tells the teacher or an investigator that they did not have this imaginary conversation concerning the teacher, Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) officers will advise the teacher that the principal's "record" of their imaginary conversation is not a lie, it is a "different recollection".
So you can never, ever disprove a malicious principal's "different recollections".
Undated, unsigned scribbles on sticky-notes can be secretly placed on a teacher's file.
These scribbled notes may convey no clear meaning. They can be interpreted to suggest more or less anything.
These sticky-notes can be stuck on top of dated and signed "records" to create the false impression that the sticky-noted comments are related to that particular incident and that particular date.
And then the sticky-note can be moved to create a different impression.
Because the scribbles on the sticky-notes are undated and unsigned, nobody can be held responsible for the suggestions that are being created by the scribbled notes.
Similarly, unsigned and undated notes can be scribbled in pencil onto documents that have been written, dated and signed by another person.
This can create the false impression that the events described in the scribbled notes happened at the same time as the events in the original document.
Or "records" concerning the actions of another teacher may be carelessly / maliciously placed on your Department of Education file.
- All documents concerning teachers should be signed, dated and shown to teachers before they are placed on teachers' files.
- There should be space on the document for the teacher's response. A response should not be "attached" to the official record, because it could be too easily "lost".
- No document should be placed on a teacher's Department of Education file if the teacher concerned has not had the opportunity to respond to the document.
- There should be serious consequences for administrators who are in breach of this policy.
This simple strategy would have protected me from workplace abuse in 2000.
If this simple strategy had been in place in 2000, I would not have needed to make any Freedom of Information applications.
This simple strategy would improve professional conduct, protect Queensland teachers from workplace abuse, and save a lot of FOI time and money.
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