State school board members in Ohio say they are shocked at accounts of sex games, test tampering and other potentially criminal misdeeds at a Dayton charter school, and they pledge to investigate.
Horizon Science Academy of Dayton is one of 19 schools in Ohio affiliated with an influential U.S.-based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen. The FBI is investigating 19 Gulen schools in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois states. Four former teachers testified Tuesday to witnessing oral sex among 6th- to 8th-graders that went unreported to parents, achievement tests that were mishandled and a teacher who called a black student a "monkey," among other things. They say Ohio officials have ignored their concerns. A spokesperson says the state Department of Education must turn complaints over to a charter-school sponsor for follow-up. The 19 Horizon and Noble Academies founded by Gulen are run by Chicago-based Concept Schools. They include academies in Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Euclid, Toledo and Youngstown.