Answer to Shirl Gilbert

(Please check out the three attached PDF files first before reading the letter.)

1 Letter from Dr.Kosar to Gilbert
2 Letter from Gilberto to Dr.Kosar
3 Letter from Dr.Kosar to Gilbort

To the Editor:
(RE: “Officials: School reports probed – some complained of prayer room” – Date)

The allegations by Dr. Shirl Gilbert regarding “discriminatory” hiring acts and improper Turkish influences at Kenilworh Science and Technology School are false. They reveal a level of xenophobia that the public should not expect from any responsible professional education official in this country.

For example, at one previous visit with our governing board, Dr. Gilbert stated, regarding our teachers of Turkish ethnic origin, that “they should not go out and visit the parents of our students, since people may think they are ‘terrorists’.”

Regarding Dr. Gilbert’s “Search for a prayer room at Kenilworth”, here is what actually happened based on eye-witness accounts by those who attended his visit.

Dr. Gilbert went to our school on May 18th, 2010 without even the courtesy of prior notice to search the school for a so-called “prayer room,” following a complaint he admitted later had been made to him as hearsay, not in writing. Our principal escorted him throughout the school, and watched in disbelief as he searched room after room and even numerous cabinets and desks where teachers’ private belongings were stored.

Dr. Gilbert did not find a “Turkish prayer room” at Kenilworth because none exists. I should add, however, that he did discover a Bible in one drawer and a small Turkish cloth/rug in another. He immediately took a photo of the cloth/rug, although he did not photograph the Bible.

That Dr. Gilbert would find in a school drawer a cloth/rug made in Turkey as his basis for any concerns about the school is incredulous. It indicates to us nothing besides a clear prejudice and discrimination against schoolteachers of Turkish origin and, by extension, we assume any teachers of foreign ethnic origins as well.

Someone should ask Dr. Gilbert if he thinks it is unlawful or improper for a Hispanic teacher to bring a Mexican made rosary to school or an African -American teacher to have an African tribal artifact in her office. How any such items could convey the idea to Dr. Gilbert that Kenilworth is a “hostile school environment” is just insensible and paranoid.

Finally, when our school complained about Dr. Gilbert’s actions to state education officials, former DOE Superintendent Pastorek assured us such a discriminatory and privacy-invading incident would never happen again. For his part, we understand Dr. Gilbert apologized for his act at Kenilworth, saying, “my act was understood wrong.”

Tevfik Kosar

Board Member, Pelican Educational Foundation