” We also invite Tucson Weekly to visit our campus to get a more accurate picture of SSA, which is a transparent, public institution open to any questions or inquiries by public media officials. SSA highly respects the freedom of speech and expression” And never ever threatened a parent? or a student? His VP sure did.

Now read my letter given by the schools attorney. To threaten me for telling the truth?

Bill Thacker
Re: Sonoran Science Academy
Dear Mr. Thacker
As you are aware, this firm represents Daisy Education Corporation dba
Sonoran Science Academy (“SSA”). SSA has been aware for several months
that you are posting defamatory, insulting and inflammatory comments
about SSA on craigslist. These posts are resulting in a significant
disruption of the SSA community. Furthermore SSA may be suffering
potential financial damages as a result of the false statements you are
circulating in the online community.

SSA responded numerous times to your complaints and concerns, responded
to the Arizona State Board of Charter Schools and has allowed you to
continue making defamatory comments on the internet for several months.
Now it must stop.

If you do not immediately cease posting SSA will pursue litigation against you, including an injunction to prohibit further publication of defamatory statements and a lawsuit for damages. SSA has been tracking and collecting evidence of your defamatory
statements. Including copies of your posts on craigslist and will
utilize this evidence in a lawsuit against you if necessary.

Very Truly Yours,

Heather K. Gaines

Dear Ms. Gaines,

Thank you for your letter dated June 29. I have reviewed it and would
make these points.

1. The “slap suit” is not a new idea but seems like a radical step for
a charter school. That school to sue a parent who had a poor experience
at Sonoran Science would appear to have a chilling effect on the
aforementioned school’s ability to attract new students. Is it truly in
the best interest of your client to have such a reputation?

2. For a school filing a slap suit on a working-class single dad would
be such a novelty that it would risk lending media credibility and a
much larger platform for me to make my case. That charges would be
hashed and rehashed and whatever harm done on Craig’s List would be
magnified. And, as you are aware, gaining prior restraint against the
media is an extremely high bar.

3. I sold plasma to buy my daughter lunch and Sonoran Science staff
threw it away, refusing to give it to her. That’s pretty compelling.

4. Should you pursue legal action, your firm would make money off
billable hours but every dime spent on pursuing a father struggling
through the current economic challenges is a dime not spent teaching
children. Is this the proper role of state and donation money that is
supposed to be spent on children?

5. How much are you willing to turn over during discovery? You are
claiming that I am wrong in my assertions against Sonoran Science. I
would then have the right to prove I’m not wrong. I’m not a lawyer
(public school advocates may take an interest but let’s assume they
don’t) and you can beat me back. But that’s more scut work for you,
more money coming out of class rooms and more risk of media attention.

6. All I want is an apology for: a) Not informing me of an
investigation concerning my daughter’s accusation that a teacher had
acted sexually inappropriately toward her; b) Forcing me no end of
headache when both myself and doctors repeatedly provided records of
immunization records Sonoran Science never seemed to get as they
threatened to keep my daughter from class. Felt like harassment; and c)
Throwing away a sandwich I bought with, literally, blood money. D) When
informing the principal of the school he ignored my concerns and
threatened me with a lawsuit. An apology, one for me and one to my
daughter.

I find it bizarre that you would threaten me with legal action for
criticizing a public institution on a Web Site not typically covered by
libel rules. I currently earn $12 an hour. I rent. I even rent my
furniture. I have a car payment. I am a student. I send money to my
ex-wife for my daughter. How much cash do you think you can get from
me? Moreover, how many parents will send their children to a school
that sues unhappy “customers”? They are a business.
Food for thought.
Regards,
Bill M. Thacker

It will be the best investment for the Turkish mafia running the schools because for every kid they get to go to their school(s) they can steal more money from the government funding (money that is supposed to be going towards education, not the Tuzuk). It will also be more money in their pockets to pay for the immigration fees and Master’s degrees for the HIB visa holders (of whom the majority are Turkish men). And

Give me a break, these schools are not here to educate our kids, if they were — they would not have so many Turkish men teaching classes who can barely speak English. How does that benefit our children when they cannot understand the teacher? Further, if there main goal is to offer a well rounded education, why is it that only Turkish men run the schools?

Lastly, call it what you want — Gulen’s movement is as equally — if not more– dangerous as any “radical islam movement,” because it is insidious, creeping throughout the United States like a fungus, slow and deadly.

And at what point, and why — did our government (that would be the United States government) allow these mobsters to run amuck, perpetrating widespread and ongoing immigration fraud, violating EEOC discriminatory laws, and money-laundering?

Karatas states “They (the Americans that want the truth) are flirting with trouble,” well guess what buddy, so are you and the rest of your bunch that are violating a multitude of American laws. You see my Turkish friend, we have the evidence (as does our government) and all of your threats and retaliatory actions are nothing more than a smokescreen that you and your cronies are attempting to hide behind. You guys have had a long run, jogging ahead of the law…but you are far from the finish line.

Funny thing about us Americans, we really don’t like people that come to our country and abuse the system, take advantage of our children (by means of school funding), and commit crimes, while literally thumbing their noses at us.

Here’s my advice, pure and simple. Attend all of the school Board Meetings. Of course, 99% if not 100% of the Board members will be Turkish (or married to one), so they will have to “perform” in front of the foreigners (that would the Americans), and then have to hold a “second” board meeting in private (which is there practice by the way — should an American show up). And better yet, make sure that some of your elected state and federal officials go along and see what is on the agenda. Most likely your state requires a sponsoring country to oversee the charter schools, so make sure that they are diligently attending meetings and auditing the school records as required.

But you will never really get to see the really good stuff — (like the second set of books they keep on their business managers’ flash drives — the books that track the Tuzuk money). We are saving that for the “finish line.”

Here’s the deal — the United States belongs to us — not them. If they cannot follow our laws and rules, then go back to Turkey. And by the way –take Gulen back with you.

Tim Vanderpool
Sonoran Science Academy.
No one can knock the numbers. In recent years, students at Tucson’s Sonoran Science Academy have secured stellar scores in math, science and other categories. The academy has earned glowing mentions in national magazines such as U.S. News and World Report, and in 2009, was deemed Charter School of the Year by the Arizona Charter School Association.

But some parents of children who attend the academy on West Sunset Road believe it harbors goals reaching far beyond academia. They suspect the Sonoran Academy of being part of a confederation of learning institutions secretly linked to, and advancing, the cause of Turkish scholar and Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen.

While most of those parents have resisted coming forward, fearing reprisal from an organization they say is known to target critics, one parent did agree to speak to the Weekly if we pledged to keep her identity hidden. The parent says she represents others at the academy who’ve become suspicious about the striking similarities of its educational programs to those of other schools around the United States which are operated by Turkish-born staff members.

She says teachers and administers freely circulate among these schools. At the same time, says the parent, the Sonoran Academy seems constantly to be bringing Turkish educators into the United States, and subjecting students to substitute teachers while the teachers await work visas.

According to this parent, all of these ties may lead covertly back to the Gülen movement, named for the scholar, who founded a network of schools around the world and now lives in exile in Pennsylvania. She says several Sonoran Academy parents believe the school has a hidden agenda to promote Gülen’s brand of Turkish nationalism, advance sympathy for that country’s political goals such as winning acceptance into the European Union, and discourage official acknowledgement of Turkey’s genocide against the Armenians during World War I.

“We found one document, in Turkish, that talks about the purpose of these charter schools,” says the parent. “They refer to them very explicitly as schools (belonging) to their movement. They’re calculating, and they say if they can have something like 600 schools, then every year, they can produce 120,000 sympathizers for Turkey.

“I sent my kids to this school because I wanted them to meet regular Muslims and to see them as ordinary people,” she says. “But when I find that my kids are to be turned into genocide-deniers, that’s very disturbing to me.”

Fatih Karatas is principal of the academy’s middle school. He calls such claims ridiculous.

“We don’t have any kind of connections or any kind of relations with that movement or group. A public school can not be affiliated in any way with other institutions or groups because of the regulations, because of the charters.”

He also says his school has a diverse staff, native to countries ranging from Turkey to Mexico, which he considers a benefit. “But we’re not promoting a certain ideology. … These are defamatory allegations that are not based on any proof or evidence.”

Still, the Sonoran Academy isn’t the first Turkish-American-run charter school in United States to be accused of links to Gülen. Parents at the Beehive Science and Technology Academy in Holladay, Utah, have also raised concerns that their school is linked to this movement. And according The Salt Lake Tribune, one Beehive teacher was fired when his lesson plan about World War II and the Holocaust prompted a discussion in which the school’s principal purportedly questioned that genocide.

Although Utah’s State Charter School Board cleared Beehive of deliberately promoting Gülen beliefs, lawmakers there have continued to probe its finances. The school-board investigation revealed that Beehive received loans from administrators at other Turkish-American schools, and from executives of the Accord Institute, a California-based organization with a Turkish-American staff. Accord provides educational consulting services and develops education models for programs for schools including Tucson’s Sonoran Academy. But Karatas, calls the institute a “private organization,” and says he’s unaware of any ties between Accord and Gülen.

Other connections raise more questions. They include the Pacifica Institute, which operates the “Turkish Olympiads,” in which Sonoran Academy students are encouraged to participate. The Olympiad contests range from essay writing and singing to poetry composition. According to its Web site, the institute was formed by Turkish-Americans in California with a mission of promoting cross-cultural awareness.

In December, the Pacifica Institute co-hosted a Gülen conference with the University of Southern California, and actively promotes Gülen beliefs on its Web site.

Indeed, the Gülen movement’s own Web site seems to lay the groundwork for claims made by the Tucson parent. It discusses the group’s rapidly expanding, worldwide educational facilities which have “made Gülen’s network the most influential Turkish-Islamic movement both in Turkey and abroad. … In the field of education, this part of the identity is however not stressed and teachers from outside the (movement) work at these schools as well. They may be non-Muslims and in many cases the pupils have never heard of Fethullah Gülen.”

The Weekly was provided with a list of Turkish staff members that have rotated through various schools and the Accord Institute—another strategy promoted by the Gülen Web site.

Of course, all of this could be purely coincidental. But the Tucson mother says many parents feel increasingly betrayed by what they consider the Sonoran Academy’s ongoing secrecy.

“Other parents say, ‘I could almost be OK with this if they were out in the open about it.’ But the (school) has done such a phenomenal job of keeping this a secret.”

However, Karatas suggests those who make such claims are flirting with trouble.

“I’m hoping that they know that these are defamatory allegations which may put them in trouble later on. These are excelling schools. … I hope they are aware of what they’re doing.”

What in the hell schools in Rize has to do with Gulen’s schools?
In a strictly secular country as Turkey can you name the schools claim to know where the unpraying students are punished by hunger?
If Gulen’s presence is bothering you but what makes you think you are welcomed here?
Finally, isn’t a shame that Rize has produced an ignorant-liar named Soze?

>>>I had kids at the school listed in Utah, and I saw many things there that concerned me. Please go >>>to the Salt Lake Tribune web site, look up the article Utah Charter schools Turkey ties draw >>>scrutiny. These schools are all over the place and I would like to see some answers to these >>>questions, about the funding, financial issues, and the AGENDA! I am trying to start a Blog site >>>where concerned parents and citizens can have a forum devoted to this topic. Please e-mail me at >>>allthefactsplease@gmail.com if you have any information about this, or would like to talk to me >>>about my experiences with the Gulen Movement.”

-I do not believe him that he/she had kids at these schools! if true why didnt he go to complain to US gov’t? or even to Consulate of Turkish republic? His problem is with Gulen movement. So he’s trying to hoodwink people in US. If these schools are bad US gov’t wouldn’t let a foreign school to expand itself.

1 Based on the statewide and nationwide test scores ,and university entreance exams these schools are much more succesful then others.
2 They bring medals to their schools and states from national science olimpiads.
3 if you read one of fethullah gulen`s books and didnt like him .you dont have be be his follower.
4 do they have a secret agenda. NO.they have an open agenda,who is hiding it? that is ,your child is going be more tolerant and open minded to Turkish people and language and Muslims after she or he graduates.
5 if these schools were not legitimate in any ways , over 100 countries in the world would not let them open schools in their nations.