Some good detective work by personwithadhd.
The disclosed documents include an email, dated
20 June 2018, from Michael Drane to Mike Seah that says:
Hi Mike - I think the language can be moved to less school orientated. I have made some suggestions. (Also less US!!)
Attached to that email is a document with mark-up changes, but only in the ‘Out of Aircraft’ column. There are no mark-up changes to the ‘In aircraft’ column, which column includes the offensive quip.
That document is headed: “ADHD AND AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER INSTRUCTOR’S QUESTIONNAIRE”, and the footers say: “
Form 420 ADHD AND AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER ASSESSMENT PROTOCOL 06/2018.”
It therefore appears that the version of the Form marked-up by Drane was created before 20 June 2018 and already included the ‘In aircraft’ column with the offensive quip. The ‘In aircraft’ column was obviously created by someone with enough knowledge of aircraft operations to be dangerous. Consistent with that, there is internal correspondence prompted by an email about Form 420 from a person in industry. That version of the Form has “08/2013” in the footers.
On
25 June 2018 Mike Seah sent an email to David Fitzgerald that said:
Hi David
Do you know where the original Form 420 came from for ADHD.
We’re looking to update it.
The disclosed documents do not include any response to that email. I note that Mike Seah refers only to ADHD and not ASD.
Meanwhile, the ICC took his own action to try to get Avmed to address the fact that the substance of Form 420 was aimed at ADHD and not ASD. On
31 July 2018 the ICC sent an email to Philippa Woonton that said:
[Name redacted] has asked if Form 420 can be updated. I’ve taken the liberty of making changes I recommend (but keeping the questions verbatim - can you please advise how I might be able to get this approved for use by instructors of ASD applicants? If not used more broadly, as a minimum can we ensure it’s used for [name redacted] audit requirements?
The second redacted name, if not the first as well, is the name of the complainant the subject the ICC’s inquiry I outlined earlier.
(If that complainant is reading this and had “For CASA Audit” imposed as a purported restriction on the complainant’s medical certificate, I note that the purported restriction was imposed unlawfully and corruptly by CASA Avmed, because by that time CASA had conceded that a purported restriction in those terms could not lawfully be imposed.)
That email from the ICC to Philippa Woonton was prompted by an email to the ICC, dated
30 July 2018 from the complainant that said:
I have received my audited Class 2 medical, and on the conditions it states that I need a form 420 completed every 3 months. This wouldn’t be an issue, if the form was actually made correctly, and I didn’t have any previous issues with it. Do you know if CASA is updating the form, to meet the requirements that were imposed for me? (i.e signature, detailed answers and such), or could you draft me a form that meets those recommendations, to reduce the headache in future?
The subsequent ‘Client Services Improvement Request Form’ failed to deal with the point that the Form 420 questions were aimed at ADHD and not ASD, but was still expressed in its terms to be applicable to ASD. The ‘Client Services Improvement Request Form’ dated
13 August 2018 said, in the ‘Description / Details of Issue’ and ‘Details of Proposed Action’ fields, respectively:
Amendments to Form 420 ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder Instructor’s questionnaire following complaint made by via the ICC’s office.
Amendments include clearer instructions for the applicant’s instructor to comment on behaviour, larger text boxes for comments, and a dedicated area for the instructor to provide the details and signature.
The next internal correspondence after August 2018 about Form 420 in the disclosed documents is dated
20 September 2021 - that is, over three years later. As I posted earlier, based on the disclosed documents it was not until October 2021 that this was said in a string of internal emails:
I have a problem with the combined intent of the ASD/ADHD questionnaire as the behavioural aspects of ADHD and Autism are like opposite ends of the spectrum. …
ADHD questions predominate, however autistic individuals are often socially withdrawn and apprehensive when being looked at and like to be left alone in a corner away from everyone, not near doors or passageways etc. in class.
…
Decision made – please call this questionnaire ADHD instructors questionnaire formand problem solved.
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The problem is the title includes autism spectrum disorder and if we remove that then the questionnaire is specific to ADHD. Not sure why it was combined into one questionnaire as they are two quite distinct conditions.
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