The Coral Academy of Science is a STEAM charter school in Northern Nevada that offers education to students from kindergarten through high school. The school was started by a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno and has alleged ties to the Gulen movement.
The Gulen movement was started by Fethullah Gulen, who has been accused for orchestrating the attempted coup in Turkey in 2016. Gulen currently lives in exile in Pennsylvania, yet he and his followers have not stayed inactive.
It is rumored that supporters of the Gulen movement have started schools throughout the United States, and have received funding through Gulen, other supporters and organizations that support his movement.
The Coral Academy of Science in Reno has been rumored to have connections to Gulen and the Gulen movement mainly due to its STEAM program. Gulen has been known for his preachings concerning the study of math and science and it’s importance to his ideology.
The STEAM program brings with it high standards, big expectations and, according to two former students, a few “quirks”.
“The Coral Academy is very different, not a bad different, but it wasn’t necessarily a good different either,” said Rebecca Ryan.
Ryan, 17, now a senior at Spanish Springs High School attended the Coral Academy for 7th and 8th grade. She decided to leave the academy a few weeks into her third year with the school and return to public school.
While discussing a few differences between the Coral Academy and her current public school, Ryan mentioned the Turkish presence within the school and how it influenced her education.
“There is Turkish influence, like a majority of the teachers and faculty are Turkish. The way that they teach is much different from how teachers in public schools teach. The students have the opportunity to take Turkish as a language, and they also teach you a lot about Turkey with references made to ideals associated with Islam,” said Ryan.
“I think that everyone is aware of the fact that there is a Turkish influence, but no one talks about it. They talk about the founders of the school, but I’ve never heard the name Gulen before,” finished Ryan.
Reflecting on her education at the academy, Ryan recalled a few of the different “quirks” that she found a little odd, other than the strong Turkish influence. Quirks such as, when students enter into the sixth grade at the school, they are split into different groups based on their performance and their test scores. Ryan noted that the groups were very small, and you traveled from class to class with that specific group. She said that when she started at the school in seventh grade, she was put into group 7A, with no further mention of what that meant.
In addition to putting students in groups based on their academic level, the school also required students to wear uniforms, accompanied by a long list of rules regarding the uniforms and the student's appearance in general.
“We had to wear uniforms, and the rules were very strict. Your uniform represents which grade you are in, your socks must be white, black or blue, you must wear black shoes, must have naturally colored hair and you can not wear dangling earrings or more than three bracelets. If you broke any of these rules or your collar wasn’t out, you would get detention.”
“Rebecca Ryan with friends, of the 7th grade, wearing their uniforms at the Coral Academy.”
Uniform violations weren’t the only way you would find yourself in the principal’s office. Ryan mentioned that there were cameras throughout the halls of the school as well as in each classroom. If a student were to get into trouble in class, they were sent to the dean’s office where they would review the tapes and make the decision of what to do next.
“At times it did feel sort of like a prison, there is a large sense of conformity in the school, with no room for individualism,” said Ryan. “It also feels like they are constantly spying on you.”
The students also had incentives to push them to do better in school noted Ryan. She shared a few incentives offered to the students. If you got all A's in citizenship, you received a card which entitled you to special privileges. If you got a 4.0, you got a similar card. For students who earned 3.0’s and 3.5’s, they were given cards as well, yet the cards were different. Students who held these cards were able to attend assemblies instead of watching them on a TV in their classrooms. These students also were able to go the movies with the teachers, had their choice of field trips to go on and attended exclusive card holder meetings.
“When I left the school in 2009, a lot of the teachers left as well, and the school became sort of a mess for awhile,” said Ryan. “A lot of the kids that I knew that went to school with me have also left the school.”
One of her friends, who switched to Spanish Springs High School from Coral, joined us for an interview a few weeks later. Unlike Ryan, he had stayed with the academy up until the beginning of his senior year of high school.
Her friend decided to switch to Spanish Springs after a close friend made the switch. He also decided that he really wanted the public school experience.
In regards to the Turkish influence, he confirmed that it was present at the school, yet he had never heard the name Gulen. Also, since he was there up until his senior year, he was able to share a few of the changes the school has experienced over the past few years. He shared that there are a lot less Turkish teachers at the school now, the fewest being at the high school, but he did not know the reasons behind their departure.
He went on to say that this change started happening a few years ago, yet while a lot of the teachers have left, most of the faculty is still Turkish. He said that they have also cancelled the trip that students could take to Turkey. The trip was offered to students to allow them to explore outside of their own country, and experience a new culture. He did not know the specific reasons as to why the trip was cancelled.
Though the amount of Turkish teachers has decreased, and the trip to Turkey has been cancelled indefinitely, he stated that the Turkish influence is still there but he didn’t say it in a positive manner.
“The influence is slightly negative at the school,” he said. “I like public school much better. Not saying that my education at Coral was bad, it definitely prepared me, but I enjoy the social atmosphere and opportunities of public school that were absent at Coral.”