John Duman former Harmony Science Academy teacher in odd court case vs. 2 Gulenists Zenith Premier, Inc #RaindropTurkishFoundation

Gulenist John Duman, Feridun Yilmaz and Mehmet Haluk Orgun                                                              all members of Raindrop Turkish House aka Raindrop Foundation,  entered into an agreement in 2016 that shortly went south.  The short story is Raindrop known for starting the "after school" and day care teaching for the Texas area, sold Yilmaz and Orgun their "after school" business.  Of Course, in the true Gulen fashion they had federal contracts tied to this.

Explained in brief here at SE Texas Record  with copy of the court complaint filed below:

https://setexasrecord.com/stories/511523489-nonprofit-ceo-says-refusal-to-terminate-personnel-of-turkish-origin-led-to-own-firing

HOUSTON – A Harris County man who used to head a local after-school program is suing his former employer and others for wrongfully discharging him almost two months ago.

John Duman’s lawsuit against Zenith Premier, Inc. and shareholders Feridun Yilmaz and Mehmet Haluk Orgun, which was filed on Aug. 5 in the Harris County 295th District Court, alleges the defendants terminated Duman “in violation of law and his employment contract.”

The plaintiff was brought on by nonprofit Raindrop Foundation to serve as CEO of Zenith Learning, which ZPI bought in November 2016. Last August, he signed a contract which guaranteed him an annual salary of nearly $120,000 and ten percent of ZPI’s annual operation profit.

 The contract also provided that the plaintiff could not be fired for an illegal reason,” the suit says.

Duman pinpoints his firing to his refusal to discriminate against personnel of Turkish origin, hire a principal’s relative who could not legally work in the U.S., and opposed spending that placed the organization deep in debt.

“These actions were contributing factors to the defendant’s decision to fire him,” the suit says.

Court papers further argue that the termination was retaliatory in nature.

Consequently, Duman seeks unspecified monetary damages.

He is represented by Carter Thompson of Austin.

Harris County 295th District Court Case No. 2018-51999

Raindrop Foundation aka Gulen Movement also operates Blue Bonnet Day Care Centers.  The interesting thing is there is no 990 Tax returns filed for any of the Zenith Premier, Inc., Zenith Learning or Zenith Kids (which does have a EIN number filed)  However Raindrop Foundation has 990 Tax returns filed with the last one being from 2016

Here is Mr. John Duman Linked in as you can see he worked at the Gulen Harmony Schools killinged.com , The others are camera shy or in the true Gulen form are using fake names.   This is but only 1 of the many Gulen lawsuits filed against the movement.  Ersun Konkur vs. Utica Academy and Turkish Cultural Center of NY, Metin Demir vs. Magnolia Science Academy, Mustafa Emmanet vs. Horizon Science Academy (Concept Schools)  just to name a few - there are many 

Gulen Members Suing each other John Duman vs. Zenith Premier from Gulen Cemaat

Another ex Harmony Teacher speaks .....tales of the dark side of Gulen Crime Cartel

Red Hot Pen HARMONY SCIENCE ACADEMY CLICK HERE

Turkey lobbying Texas to face truth about Gulen criminals

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/06/turkey-lobbying-texas/

There isn’t much Turkey wouldn’t do to go after Fethullah Gulen, the controversial cleric Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames for a failed coup in 2016.

Last fall, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Turkish officials reportedly considered going beyond trying to convince the U.S. to extradite Gulen, who lives in exile in Pennsylvania: They discussed “a covert step in the dead of night to whisk this guy away,” James Woolsey, a Flynn Intel Group board member and former CIA director, told the Wall Street Journal.

But the plot gets as granular as agents lobbying Texas legislators to pass bills forcing charter schools in the state to be more transparent, according to a Justice Department filing from the end of May.

Why Texas? That’s where Harmony Public Schools is headquartered, a charter school system that Turkey alleges is a cog in a vast network tied to the controversial cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Harmony has denied the claim, but a number of individuals associated with the schools are followers of Gulen. And they’re quite active in politics: A CRP analysis found that 20 Harmony employees or vendors donated more than $350,000 at the federal level in the last three elections, $255,000 of which went to liberals. This group gave more than $110,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, $50,000 to former President Obama’s joint fundraising committeeand $42,000 to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas). They also contributed to state politicians.

Last July, the Turkish government filed a complaint with the Texas Education Agency, alleging Harmony abused public money, used discriminatory hiring practices and favored certain vendors in violation of competitive bidding rules. The agency dismissed the complaint in October, saying it didn’t warrant an investigation.

Reports indicate that some Gulen-connected schools, including some in Ohio, are under FBI investigation, though the scope of the investigation is unclear.

Amsterdam & Partners, which was hired to file the complaint, subcontracted the legislative angle to Arnold Public Affairs, the firm listed on the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act filing. Arnold Public Affairs was hired last April on a $20,000 monthly contract, which dropped to $15,000 in January.

According to principal Jim Arnold, his firm is promoting legislation that would require charter school meetings to be streamed and posted online, as well as to disclose additional information about their business transactions in their annual financial reports. The firm met with lawmakers, widely circulated a derogatory media story to them and their staffs and filed cards of support, meaning they publicly endorsed the legislation.

“Transparency is good, whether for public schools and charter schools, and there isn’t much transparency in the business that Harmony conducts,” Arnold said. “That was the purpose of these bills. Anything we can do to shed some light on the interconnected network and transactions… Harmony is the largest charter school network in Texas and is connected to Gulen.”

Harmony Public Schools did not return multiple calls seeking comment.

Neither bill made it to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. Texas’ legislative session is over, but the firm is working with legislators to try to tack some parts of the bills onto other measures as amendments before June 18, the deadline for the governor to sign or veto a bill.

But the association representing 90 percent of Texas charter schools, including Harmony, says reporting requirements are already stringent.

“We are subject to the same open meetings act and public information act requirements as public schools,” said Christine Isett, director of communications for the Texas Charter School Association. “All of our information is transparent.” Currently schools with more than 10,000 students are required to post videos of their meetings online seven days after the event takes place, but most schools are much smaller than that.

The Turkish government has mentioned Gulen in almost 20 FARA filings in the past two years, according to a CRP analysis. Amsterdam & Partners contacted the press, state legislators and the Texas attorney general about Harmony and Gulen’s alleged role in the attempted coup.

Flynn’s firm, Flynn Intel Group, had been working on convincing the U.S. government to extradite Gulen. The firm closed last November. Flynn Intel Group also earned more than $500,000 to create an anti-Gulen documentary, according to The Wall Street Journal. A reporter working on the film said he was told to hide the Flynn firm’s involvement in the project.

Gulen Charter Schools under US scrutiny-Harmony Science Academy

FETO, a designated terror group in Turkey, has established itself abroad through companies, foundations, media outlets and charter schools.

The leader of the network, Fethullah Gulen is accused by Turkey of being behind a bloody coup attempt which left 249 people dead and more than 2,000 injured in the country last July. 

Gulen, currently living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, has denied the charge and continues to fight against  Ankara's extradition demands.  

His movement controls 163 schools across the country, teaching around 70,000 students. Now some schools linked to his network have come under investigation in the US over allegations of financial misconduct.

"In the state of New Jersey alone, a chain of charter schools is linked to the Gulen Movement, also known as FETO. The organisation's attempt to launch a fifth school in this state was denied, after the board of education said it had used "forged and fraudulent" petitions to show community support for its initiative,"  Ersin Konkur, a former maths teacher in a Gulen-linked school, told TRT World. 

Markers of Gulen School operations in USA

Gulen Movement Organizational Markers from Gulen Cemaat

Harmony Science Academy turned into Child Protective Services for child endangerment punishment

   

CARROLLTON — Harmony Science Academy has banned using a certain exercise as punishment after a parent said their child was injured.

A parent whose child attends the Carrollton school contacted News 8 about the incident. Harmony Science Academy is a public charter school.

Gloria Martinez said all of the students in a seventh grade physical education class were forced to do bear crawls last week because some students in the class were misbehaving.

Wednesday morning, she said she was not completely satisfied with the school's response. She believes what the teacher did is a form of child abuse.

Martinez provided pictures of her 12-year-old daughter's hands. She said she came home with blisters after doing the bear crawls on a soccer field that is under construction. Martinez said the field was dotted with gravel and rocks and the pain was so severe that her daughter was in tears afterward.

"She actually was found crying in the bathroom, distraught, "said Martinez. "That's when another student told her she needed to go to the nurse."  Martinez claimed her daughter could not do her homework and received a failing grade because of it. She also said her daughter was not one of the students misbehaving in class. She believes the teacher should face some sort of punishment.

"I feel like he should be suspended. This is too harsh of a punishment to be put on a bunch of 12-year-olds to make them crawl across the hot ground, "she said.

Martinez said she even called Child Protective Services to report the incident and said if a parent had done the same thing they would be investigated for abuse.

One other student also had similar injuries.  

Students punished at Harmoney School LINK

Harmony Science Academy Lubbock closes High School Gulen School

A Lubbock charter school is closing its high school's doors.

Harmony Science Academy, will no longer be a K through 12 school as of next year. 

Current juniors and seniors will have the option to stay at Harmony through graduation, but 9th and 10th graders will have to enroll at other Lubbock schools. 

Julie Norton, Director of Communications for Harmony said the decision is due to a lack of enrollment and the need to strengthen the elementary and middle school programs.

"At Harmony public schools it's a top priority for us to make sure that we are offering students a really robust program. So we really will be able to spend more resources and energy focusing on our K8 programs and it will allow us to be able to expand the K8 programs as well," Norton said.

Norton said no teachers will lose their job, and the high school educators will be reassigned to the lower grades.

http://www.myfoxlubbock.com/news/local/story/charter-closing-hs/y_jZYkW8l0aRoY6b2lQOww.cspx

 

Harmony Science Academy Teacher charged with improper relationship with a student

http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/Man-charged-with-improper-relationship-with-a-student-wanted-65163.shtml#.VJrpx_8rl8

EL PASO, Texas – Police are looking for a man previously arrested for allegedly having an improper relationship with a student and failed to appear in court.
Police arrested Roberto Vina Marrufo, 22, on suspicion of having an improper relationship with a 16-year-old girl while he was employed as a teacher at Harmony School of Innovation on Fairbanks Drive.
Marrufo was indicted on charges of improper relationship between an educator and student, sexual assault of a child, sexual performance of a child, and indecency with a child, police said.
Court records indicate that Marrufo was ordered to undergo a mental evaluation on Sept. 11, and a jury trial was scheduled for Jan. 20.
After failing to appear in court , Marrufo is now wanted on a $500,000 bond.

Gulen Movement opening Harmony School of Nature in Dallas, TX

http://hsnature.org/

2014-2015 school year

Harmony Science Academy - Former Teacher indicted in Sexual Assault of teenage girl

Former Waco teacher indicted in sexual assault of teenage girl

 http://www.kxxv.com/Global/story.asp?S=14009705

Posted: Feb 10, 2011 4:41 PM PST

enlarge picture

WACO -- A local actor and former teacher accused of sexually assaulting a teenaged girl he met at a theater has been indicted.

Clifton Grasham-Reeves, 31, formerly a teacher at Harmony Science Academy in Waco, was an actor at Waco Civic Theater back in December, where he reportedly met the 16-year-old victim.

He allegedly convinced her to engage in sex in both his home and hers.

Grasham-Reeves is facing multiple counts of indecency with a child and sexual assault of a child.
This is an update of an earlier article:
http://harmonyparenttruth.blogspot.com/2010/12/harmony-science-academy-teacher-in-waco.html

Harmony Science Academy-Testing scandal may leave schools in Turkey without teachers

Professor Yusuf Ozcun, head of YOK and Gulenists
suspects cheating

This paper Hurriyet is one of the few in Turkey not owned and operated by the Gulen Movement.  Teachers in Turkey are complaining that the Gulen Movement has inflitrated the teaching institutes up to and including key posts like Professor Ozcun - that non-Gulenists teachers are being pushed out of their jobs.  Sound familiar?

Testing scandal may leave Turkish schools without teachers

ERISA DAUTAJ ŞENERDEM
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
Thursday, August 26, 2010

Hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren risk not having a teacher on their first day of classes as education officials try to sort out allegations of cheating on the placement exam for civil servants.

“We believe the Education Ministry must postpone the deadline to nominate teachers by a week or 10 days,” İsmail Koncuk, the chairman of the Turkish Education Union, or Türk Eğitim-Sen, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review in a phone interview Thursday. He said a delay would allow the ministry to see the results of the Ankara Prosecutor’s Office investigation into the cheating allegations.

Though the country’s top educational authority has not yet concluded its own inquiry into the accusations that some test-takers had access to the questions before taking the Public Personnel Selection Examination, or KPSS, it has said the claims might have merit.

“The questions might have leaked out,” the Higher Education Board, or YÖK’s, Board of Auditors said in a declaration Thursday. The statement, however, does not represent a final finding as the auditors have yet to meet with officials from the Student Selection and Placement Center, or ÖSYM.

As the YÖK and Ankara prosecutor’s inquiries continue, union representatives are saying the authorities must act rapidly and thoroughly.

The cheating allegations focus on the KPSS10, the exam according to which teachers are selected and placed throughout Turkey. Though the deadline set by the Education Ministry for applications is Friday and the placement decision for 30,000 teacher positions is due to be announced by Tuesday, any appointment decisions risk being canceled if the KPSS results are determined to be invalid.

“The [KPSS] exam must be canceled if it is proven that a large number of people have cheated,” Koncuk said, adding that such a possibility was high.

The Presidency’s press center has also released a statement saying the allegations on cheating or leaked questions were being followed and have been brought to the attention to the State Supervisory Council.

“The Education Ministry refused to postpone the deadline for placement of teachers,” Mehmet Bozgeyik, the secretary-general for the Education and Science Personnel Union, or Eğitim-Sen, told the Daily News. He said the union had presented all the information they possessed to help the investigations of people who registered perfect scores. He also said that they had proof that most of the candidates with perfect scores had close marital, family or housemate relations with each other.

The Education Ministry must postpone the placement of teachers until it gets the results of the ongoing investigations lest it “support this messy situation,” Bozgeyik said.

Aydın Doğdu, one of the owners of the Kadıköy Çözüm Education Institution, who has been instructing graduates who take the KPSS since 2003, told the Daily News that it was impossible for even a few people to get perfect scores on the exam.

“Even [KPSS] experts found some of the questions in this years’ exam difficult to understand and solve,” he said, countering claims that some 350 candidates were able to get perfect scores because the test had been very simple.  

According to Doğdu, the fact that the number of people with lower scores had decreased was another indicator that there had been cheating. “Normally, the people who get high scores are fewer [in number] than those with low scores,” he said, adding that this year’s results showed the opposite pattern.

He added, however, that it would be difficult to properly punish the responsible persons if the cheating claims proved to be true, saying there were gaps in the Turkish Penal Code in this respect.

Koncuk disagreed, saying that if the allegations are proven, the responsible parties could be punished for “misconduct of duties” and for harming the future of innocent people.

© 2009 Hurriyet Daily News
URL: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=kpss-scandal-will-teachers-be-appointed-2010-08-26

 



More on Educational shortfalls in Turkey

http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action;jsessionid=9FF1BCE65B6F8B94358FA4E4D9100E96?newsId=221395

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=suspicion-of-a-new-education-scandal-2010-10-10

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=state-exam-cheaters-under-technical-surveillance-2010-08-31

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL INDICATORS SHOW BIG INADEQUACY IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION IN TURKEY

http://www.ejmste.com/v3n2/EJMSTE_v3n2_Ozden.pDF  

Excerpt below:

National and international indicators show that there is a big inadequacy in science and

technology education in Turkey as compared to other countries. This important problem

affects the young students’ structure of thinking perspective and perceptions of nature in a

wrong way. The problems in science and technology education will block creative and

critical thinking, curiosity and positive attitudes towards nature. In order to determine

attitudes towards science and technology education program and the reasons of low

achievement in science education, a questionnaire with 20 items about science and

technology lesson, has been prepared and applied to 84 science and technology lesson

teacher in elementary schools in two different cities (Adıyaman and Malatya) of Turkey.

According to the result of this research, the main problems with science and technology

education are insufficient number of science and technology teachers’ taking active role in

the preparation of the programs, the insufficient in-service training of the science teacher

in the transition state of a new program, the huge numbers of the students in the class,

the informational education orienting students towards only exam achievement, the

broken link with other lessons (e.g. mathematics program) and insufficient physical

conditions of schools (less laboratory opportunities

Discrimination in Primary Education in the

Slums of Turkey: Problems about Equity of

Education

http://www.waset.org/journals/ijhss/v4/v4-2-13.pdf

The results of the research demonstrate that the children getting education in the

slums of Ankara can not experience educational equality and justice.

The results of this study show that the opportunities of the schools in

the slums of Ankara are very limited, so the individuals in these

districts can not equally benefit from the education. The families are

aware of the problem they are faced with.

Educational Problems in Turkey

http://www.amazon.com/Educational-Problems-Turkey-Uralic-Altaic/dp/0700708863

Harmony Science Academy- Gulen keeps beating the same drum

Harmony Science Academy mentioned on UC Berkeley Fellow: Dr. Israeli

INFORMATION ABOUT GULEN SCHOOLS STARTS AT 7:00