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Filed under: Anne Arundel County , Josh Kowalkowski , Chesapeake Science Point Charter School
Anne Arundel County (Map, News) - Parents and students at an Anne Arundel charter rallied behind their principal who will return to his post Monday after allegations by the county Department of Social Services were found to be without merit.
“I just would like to thank the [Chesapeake Science Point Charter School] parents and students for their support during this difficult time,” said Fatih Kandil, whom the Anne Arundel school system temporarily reassigned about six weeks ago.
Allegations in the community were that Kandil made students do pushups in class for not following certain school policies. School officials could not confirm this information or to which position Kandil was reassigned, because they cannot discuss personnel matters.
“Social Services found that all the allegations were invalid and were not accurate,” said Kandil.
During the investigation, parents organized a fundraiser to help Kandil pay legal fees he accrued from hiring lawyers during the investigation, Kandil said.
They lamented their leader’s departure at a time when they said the school was going through some rough patches.
“All I can tell you is that it’s fantastic,” said Nancy Kolodiej, parent of two eighth-graders at the school, about Kandil’s return.
“They really need him at the school.”
Next year, the school will eliminate the ninth grade with the sixth through eighth grades remaining, said school spokesman Spear Lancaster. Enrollment is 219 students in sixth through ninth grades.
The school abandoned the idea of getting a new building to include more ninth- and 10th-graders.
Superintendent Kevin Maxwell in January gave the school a month to “cure” several problems, including hiring a special education teacher and securing building documents about how they used space within their building.
The school has been on probation since the 2006-07 school year, school officials said.
The School Board will decide the school’s fate March 5, with options ranging from keeping the school on probation to closing, said school system spokesman Bob Mosier.
Physics teacher Ali Tuna, who could not be reached for comment, had been temporarily reassigned pending a Social Services investigation and can return to the charter school. The school system would not comment on Tuna’s allegations.
jkowalkowski@baltimoreexaminer.com
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ARTICLE HISTORY 
Comments from Examiner Readers
1:55 PM MST on Tue., Mar. 25, 2008 re: "Charter school violated rule about reporting gun threat"
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1:50 PM MST on Tue., Mar. 25, 2008
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6:21 PM MST on Wed., Mar. 19, 2008
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9:21 AM MST on Tue., Mar. 18, 2008
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5:28 AM MST on Tue., Mar. 18, 2008
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Give me a break.... said:
These people from this school need to chill out. They keep saying "Who cares if students get killed in schools? I mean does it matter? As long as they get top scores they can kill, rape, or make threats as much as they like." Sweet lord, this is amazing. To the parents who simply are out of touch with realty. Don't you think you would not like to attend a school or work in a place where people make threats like this or threaten to rape you? This incredible. At what point does it matter to you? When a kid comes to school and blows the school? or if they kill other students? It should not have to come to that. This is unacceptable for any school, any community.
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A concerned citizen... said:
Why do people, probably school administrators or board members, from this school keep posting each time there is a new article or any comments. They consistently write the same argument. Either they deny that their are any problems their or they state statistics that are either unreliable or unfounded. Then these people always state that their students make top scores on on some of the tests. Here are some facts: Fact 1. There have been repeated incidents of student threats of violences. Fact 2: Students have been suspended or investigated at this school for making threats or for being violent. Fact 3: There have been reports that students repeatedly make threats to other students including threats of rape to female students. All of these facts are indisputable and are of public record.
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Another Parent said:
In response to the person who wrote "shame on the reporter for not getting his facts straight" statement, I would like disagree. First of all the it is not the policy of the Anne Arundel county school board to allow a threat of violence to go unreported for any length of time. While reporter (or reporters) might have gotten the facts wrong, the fact remains that that threat should have been reported on the day of the threat to the school officials and any other authorities. A child at my son's school threaten to bring a bomb to school. He was reported that day to the authorities, suspended, and investigated.
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Examiner Reader said:
This is really alarming. There seems to be several parents or staff members from this school trying to gloss over the fact that there is a long record of student behavioral problems including death threats, violence, and larceny theft. This school and its administrators do not like to report any of the problems due to their fear of blemishing their image with the parents or the school community at large. As a retired parent from a DC charter school, I would really hope that people take a deeper look at this whole situation. It is very well known among the school community that this particular school has a very poor image, especially that of the principal. Why parents would either outright defend this situation without any deeper inspection or to negate the importance reporting of a death threat is truly beyond me. Many such incidents are underreported, including incidents where children do bring guns to schools and commit acts of violence.
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Examiner Reader said:
Shame on the reporter for not getting his facts straight. In his article the board says that they don't have a certain amount of time to report. But the reporter is making such a big deal about the amount of days it was reported.
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Parent Who Knows said:
This school is safer than any other school in AA Co. When other schools that have students bringing guns and bombs to school, like I've read about recently, then I would worry. This middle school have pre-teen and teenage students that will say things that aren't always appropriate, but I'm sure it is on a lower scale than any other AA Co. school. Check the statistics and then tell me this school is the worst. Please be sure to check the other statistics of 100% passing of middle school kids passin high school algebra.(HSA)The AACPS website has these stats and you can compare them against any middle school in the county and you can see that they get results. Most of the teachers there are dedicated to these students. Free math tutoring on Saturdays. Science Fairs held at Notre Dame College. Can you get either of those at another county school? People are ill informed about this school and this so called reporter is focusing on the negative. Why don't you look at the many positives
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A Parent said:
As someone who has two school age children, I am very upset by these articles detailing what is going on at CSP. Why do people defend this school that allows this type of activity to go on? I would take my kids out of there immediately! What kind of school is this? Its a shame that any school should be allowed to operate in such a manner.
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Concerned Reader said:
This school has a long, long list of violations, investigations, and substantiated complaints which go beyond this incident. Apparently the school administration can get away with anything including allowing students to threaten mass killings, rape, and abuse. This school sounds like a worse case scenario one would expect in the South Bronx instead of a suburb of Washington DC. What is the administration doing at this school? What about the county system? Does anyone care about the school and what goes on there?
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Reader said:
This school is incredulous and why hasn't the school board done something about this situation? The school needs a new principal and administration pronto. Why are people and parents defending this policy of not reporting on students that threaten to use weapons? Have they not read the news in the last decade? Colombine anyone?
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Examiner Reader said:
Maybe they should take a look at other AAco schools. Lindale and Brooklyn Park middle schools have had this happen and nothing is done or said. Maybe something should be done by the Board of Education.
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What the Heck! said:
Is this school the only school violating rules in Anne Arundel County? Does this reporter have no other news to report? What kind of journalism is this?
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