More photography paranoia

This also happens in England but it is even crazier in Australia. You can display nude pictures of little girls as "art" but cannot photograph your own children. Beat that!

Parents are furious after being banned from taking photographs of their children at weekend sporting events. They say the Bill Henson affair has made sports clubs paranoid about allowing them to photograph their children. Henson was cleared after police seized naked photographs of a 13- year-old girl from an art gallery.

Netball, basketball, rugby league, AFL, cricket, soccer and baseball clubs have imposed rules to prevent photos of young players being taken without the consent of all parents and coaches. NSW's Macarthur junior baseball league president Maud Goldfinch said parents had to sign a form confirming they would not take photographs without permission. Ms Goldfinch said that as a parent, she did not agree with the policy, which deprived children of happy sporting memories. "A lot of parents don't agree with what's going on. "They're quite upset by not being able to take photos of their children - they see it as an invasion of their privacy. "The Bill Henson (saga) brought it to a head. It's made people more aware ... and it brings debate around the topic."

Parents also need to give permission before photographs are uploaded to the club's website. One father said he was made to feel like a pedophile while photographing his eight-year-old daughter on the netball court. Michael Bianchino lodged a complaint with the Hills District Netball Association after it forbade him to photograph his daughter, Mia, during an under-nine match at Pennant Hills Park on May 31. "The way I was treated, I was made to feel like a pedophile," Mr Bianchino said. "I just said: 'I'm taking photos of my daughter - if anyone has a problem with their child being in the image, let me know."'

Club president Jennie Thompson repeatedly refused to comment on the incident, but said the club's policy was that parents could take photographs only after seeking permission. "Our stance and our club's stance is that we ask people to obtain permission prior to taking photographs of junior players," she said.

Cherrybrook United Netball Club president Debbie Whittle said it was hard to get permission from every parent, so few photographs were taken. "You want to get these memories for your children to keep. "It's an important part of their childhood, and you're limited because of all these rulings about getting permission," she said.

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Dangerous public hospital blood blunders

PATIENTS' lives are being put at risk in Queensland hospitals because of an alarming level of blood-type identification errors, experts have warned. A medical conference in Brisbane last week was told that a recent study of Townsville, Royal Brisbane, Wesley and Greenslopes hospitals in Queensland revealed four patients had been given potentially fatal incorrect blood transfusions. The six-month study to December 2007 also identified a further 26 cases of blood-related errors.

The Patient Safety Symposium at the Brisbane Convention Centre was also told two patients had their blood type wrongly identified in the emergency department at Gold Coast Hospital last weekend. There were 117 "adverse blood events" found after an analysis of Queensland Health's reporting incident system since December 2006. But Queensland Blood Management Program clinical adviser Dr Simon Brown said the real problem was even worse, as these were "only the incidents being reported". Dr Brown revealed an estimated 25 patients received incorrect blood transfusions in the state's hospitals every year. Patients given the wrong blood type can suffer severe allergic reactions, respiratory distress, excessive bleeding, kidney failure and death.

Queensland Pathology transfusion expert Tony Ghent is so concerned with the problem that he has developed a barcoded armband to alleviate confusion. The armband will be trialled at Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital and the Gold Coast Hospital in the next few weeks. Investigations into blood errors have begun because of requirements under the National Blood Agreement, signed in 2003. Part of the agreement is to develop a framework to monitor the safety and delivery of the blood supply in each state and territory.

Dr Brown said an examination of Queensland Health's reporting system in the 12 months to December last year found 90 blood "incidents" in the state's hospitals. Queensland receives 250,000 fresh blood components annually. A paper delivered by Dr Brown in October to the annual conference of the Haematology Society of Australia and NZ said blood identification errors were common during the collection and administration of fresh blood components, and result in the incorrect blood component being transfused.

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Senior students opting out of bullsh*t courses in English

ALMOST a quarter of Queensland's senior students are studying an easier communications subject rather than mainstream English, according to latest research. Some students admit they are dropping out of English because they regard the course as too hard, and too big a risk in terms of getting a pass to ensure a Senior Certificate. Of the 44,000 senior students studying English subjects last year, 10,500 students chose English Communication, an increase of 300 on the previous year. The course had 209 students when introduced in 1995.

Education Minister Rod Welford is not concerned about the numbers, arguing English Communication with its emphasis on practical assignments rather than poetry, suits students headed on vocational pathways. However respected principals and English academics believe an investigation is needed into the teaching of mainstream English at both state and independent schools. They fear the English curriculum, with its emphasis on "deconstructing" texts and poetry, is creating a generation of students "burnt out" and capable of only writing "gibberish" at university.

Dr Tim Wright, headmaster of Sydney Church of England Grammar School, believes English should no longer be looked upon as a compulsory subject after Year 10 and students could be given more input into the curriculum. "I think in education, the voices that we often least listen to are the voices of the kids," he said.

English Teachers Association of Queensland president Garry Collins said he could see the value in a system which was voluntary, but believes students also needed to study English through to Year 12. "The vast majority of students should do some English throughout school. It is an important part of managing teenagers to allow them to make their own informed choices," he said.

The English Teachers Association of Queensland has prepared a submission on the English curriculum, but Mr Collins declined to comment until it was reviewed by the Queensland Studies Authority. Mr Welford is confident on the outcome of the current review of the English curriculum after concerns students were learning "mumbo jumbo" due to the emphasis on critical literacy theory.

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Catholic bishop defends pedophile

Rather incredible

The Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane - in defiance of the Pope - continues to allow a convicted pedophile to remain a priest and celebrate Mass next to a school. The Sun-Herald has learnt the priest - Father Ronald John McKeirnan, 69, of Toowong, in Brisbane's inner-west - enjoys the support and protection of high-ranking church officials, including Archbishop John Bathersby, despite having served a year in prison in 1998-99 for the sexual abuse of children. Their decision to support Mr McKeirnan conflicts with a statement by Pope Benedict XVI in April that the church "would absolutely exclude pedophiles from the sacred ministry ... who is guilty of pedophilia cannot be a priest".

Mr McKeirnan, a former deputy director of Brisbane Catholic Education, now works on Catholic church websites and conducts private Masses for priests. He pleaded guilty on two separate occasions in Brisbane to abusing children. He was jailed in 1998 for molesting nine boys in the 1960s and '70s. In sentencing Mr McKeirnan, the judge cited a "gross breach of trust" and said the impact of the abuse on the victims was "catastrophic". In Brisbane District Court in 2003, Mr McKeirnan also pleaded guilty to three further charges of indecent treatment of a boy during the 1960s and '70s. He was given a suspended sentence.

Last week The Sun-Herald tracked him down to Marist Brothers' House, a Catholic accommodation centre, in inner-city Paddington. Outside the house, Mr McKeirnan refused to answer questions. A fellow priest shielded him from the camera and directed him back inside the house. The Sun-Herald has learnt that Mr McKeirnan is a regular visitor to the house, and on Thursdays celebrates weekly Mass there. The house adjoins Marist College, Rosalie, and overlooks itspool.

A parent at the school, Jan Menzies, said she was "very uneasy" about Mr McKeirnan being so near the school when her son did swimming training. "I started going there at training time just to keep an eye on the dressing rooms," she said. "I don't think many in the school community knew McKeirnan was regularly so close to the school."

In 2006, another parent whose son attended the school wrote to the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, to complain about Mr McKeirnan and what she considered a "cover-up" by the Brisbane Archdiocese. "Having a convicted pedophile so near the students was never made known to the community, yet parents were encouraged to drop their children at swimming training when he was there," she told The Sun -Herald. "Cardinal Pell replied that the issues at Rosalie were a matter for the Brisbane Archdiocese."

Archbishop Bathersby has said through a spokesman that under canon law he had "a responsibility to care for priests, active or retired, in his archdiocese ... [when] penalties are imposed on a cleric, provision must always be made so that he does not lack those things necessary for his decent support". Mr McKeirnan's lawyer, Terry O'Gorman, said his client "had done his time and he's entitled to get on with his life and that includes celebrating Mass".

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