Carl-Bolle-Schule in Berlin: Email incriminates Education Senator Günther-Wünsch – is she telling lies?
In the case of the bullied teacher in Berlin-Moabit, an email reveals that the senator ignored a reprimand for bias. Pressure on Günther-Wünsch is growing.
Berlin's Education Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU) is coming under increasing pressure in the case of bullied teacher Oziel Inácio-Stech. Evidence of a structural failure in the education administration is mounting.
In mid-May, Oziel Inácio-Stech reported in a newspaper that he had been discriminated against and bullied for years at the Carl Bolle Elementary School in Moabit by Muslim students, as well as by the school administration and the responsible school inspectorate – because he is gay. The case caused a nationwide stir.
The senator remained silent for a long time, then at the beginning of June she told the Education Committee that it was a very complex case, with a major discrepancy between the press portrayal and the actual files. She first became aware of the case when Inácio-Stech's lawyer sent her a letter. The letter was a complaint under the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG), as was clear from the subject line, the senator said. It was forwarded to the responsible authority for processing, which responded within four weeks. There could be no talk of a systemic failure.
A week later, the senator had to clarify in the House of Representatives that she had only read the letter in May, after the public reports had been published. This fact alone caused criticism . The letter from her lawyer had been sent by registered mail with a return receipt and addressed to her personally. Several SPD senators' press offices subsequently stated that such letters were always presented to the senators personally.
The letter is not a complaint under the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG), as the senator claims. Rather, the lawyer complains that his complaint has not been processed since September. He also alleges "obvious bias" on the part of Detlev Thietz, the head of the Central School Inspectorate, who is also alleged to have been involved in the discrimination against his client.
However, the senator's office forwarded the letter for processing – allegedly unaware of its contents – to Detlev Thietz, of all people. Thietz, in turn, examined his own bias and determined that none existed. Furthermore, in mid-January, he stated that there had been no discrimination against Inácio-Stech. The senator cited this in the Education Committee when she stated that the teacher had not been discriminated against.
The fact that her employee, who discovered this, may have been biased has so far been concealed by the senator.
The Berliner Zeitung now has access to the email the lawyer sent in advance to the Senate Department for Education on December 4, 2024. It is a two-liner, concise message. It reads: "Dear Senator Günther-Wünsch, I am enclosing for your personal information the objection to the bias of your employee Thietz, raised in the name and on behalf of my client, in advance by email."
"Personal acknowledgement" is bolded and underlined in the email. The subject line itself reads: "Claim of bias - Complaint pursuant to Section 13 of the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG)." According to the Joint Rules of Procedure of the State of Berlin, such an email must be presented to the person to whom it is addressed. In this case, Katharina Günther-Wünsch.
This clearly demonstrates that, contrary to what the senator has previously claimed, she must have known since December 4 that there was a possible bias on the part of the very person to whom her office referred the case for processing.
According to information from the Berliner Zeitung, the nine-page letter also reached the general representative of severely disabled people in the education administration and the chairman of the staff council of the general education schools in Mitte at the beginning of December. In other words: Many different departments within the education administration were informed about the case – yet no one helped Inácio-Stech. Instead, only Detlev Thietz responded, the man to whom the complaint was directed.
Structural failure of the education administration?Günther-Wünsch claimed in the Education Committee that she had read the case file in detail. The email must be included in the file. If it isn't, that could only mean that it was removed from the files, according to Senate sources.
On Thursday, Max Landero (SPD), State Secretary for Integration, commented on the case. He contradicted the senator in the Education Committee, saying: "The teacher needed help and support. We are already seeing signs of structural failure there." This suspicion is now becoming increasingly difficult for Katharina Günther-Wünsch to refute.
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Berliner-zeitung
