A documented account of safeguarding failures at Tien Shan International School (TSIS) — an English-medium school in Almaty, Kazakhstan — focused on transparency, accountability, and the protection of students.
By Joe & Sharon Byerly — former teachers at Tien Shan International School
April 2026
If you've found your way here, you probably have some connection to Tien Shan International School. You may be a parent, a student, an alumnus, or a teacher. Whoever you are, you are welcome here.
We are Joe and Sharon Byerly. We served at Tien Shan International School, most recently from 2023–2025. We worked directly with students in teaching, chaplaincy, and support roles. We left in January 2025.
We did not leave quietly, and we did not leave without reason.
We left after raising concerns about the handling of reported misconduct, the treatment of students, and the response of leadership to documented issues. Over time, it became clear that those concerns would not be addressed transparently within the system.
This publication exists for one reason: transparency.
What you'll find here
This is a structured account of:
What we experienced
What was reported
How those reports were handled
What it cost to speak up
Posts every 1–2 days. New posts appear in the section below.
Note: Throughout this account, an asterisk (*) indicates documented events supported by records, communications, or corroborating testimony.
Timeline of Events
A chronological account of what was reported, and what happened next.
Fall 2022
A student discloses ongoing emotional and physical abuse and neglect. Multiple staff verify the situation. The head of school responds: "Unless there are bruises, there's nothing we can do." The student remains in that situation.
August 2024
The school year begins. Joe and Sharon join a newly formed child safety team, incorporating training from TCKTraining.com into school safeguarding practices. Administration appears supportive.
August 29, 2024
First child safety meeting. Cecily Bader self-reports engaging in "a lot of" grooming behavior.* Both the Middle School principal/Child Safety Team lead and the High School principal are present. No immediate action or escalation follows.
September 2024
Another teacher reports concerns about Cecily.* An investigation begins.
September – December 2024
Seven students and three additional staff members come forward with independent, consistent, and corroborating accounts of concerning behavior.* The child safety response team compiles an eleven-page findings document and submits it to administration per school safeguarding procedures.
Late 2024
Administration alters the findings.* The letter to Cecily leads with affirmations of her contributions. Violations are presented in vague, incomplete terms with no defined accountability path. Board member Jonathan McDonald manipulates aspects of the child safety process and discredits the child safety team.*
Late 2024
Cecily's sending organization is informed and is ready to pull her from the field. Administration tells them the situation is "being handled."*
Late 2024
Cecily denies the concerns, suggesting others are "jealous of her relationships with students." Additional students disclose that Cecily discussed her personal struggles with pornography in co-ed classroom settings — Class of 2025 (11th grade health) and Class of 2027 (8th grade health).* Parents were never informed. The child safety team's proposal to communicate with families is blocked by administration.
Late 2024 – January 2025
Joe is told he is "trying to destroy the school." Students are told he is "delusional."* Sharon is pressured to doubt Joe's experience.* Staff describe having "given up fighting" leadership. The Byerlys are labeled "woke" for listening to students.
January 2025
Joe and Sharon leave Tien Shan International School.
Part Seven: Not a Safe Place — a young student on the basketball court, curled into himself, said quietly: “This school is not a safe place.”
May 1, 2026
Part Eight: When the Pattern is Clear — not a moment, not a misunderstanding. The question is no longer what happened. The question is what will be done in response.
This is a summary of the key points. For the complete transcript, read the original letter.
In April 2026, Sharon Byerly wrote a letter to the Tien Shan International School community describing what she and Joe experienced during the 2024–2025 school year, and why they left.
Key points
In the first child-safety meeting of the school year, a teacher self-reported engaging in “a lot of” grooming behavior.* Eleven further reports from students and staff followed over the fall.
The child-safety team’s eleven-page findings document was submitted to administration per safeguarding procedure, and then materially altered* before being shared.
Board-level influence manipulated aspects of the safeguarding process; those raising concerns were discredited.*
Further disclosures emerged — including inappropriate classroom content* — that parents were never informed about.
Joe and Sharon left Tien Shan in January 2025. In February 2026, Campus Crusade for Christ and the International Mission Board were placed on formal legal notice. Their responses were vague and did not engage substantively with what had been shared.
Read the original letter
Full transcript as sent to the Tien Shan community on April 14, 2026
We kept speaking. We kept advocating. But trauma kept us from telling this story…until now.
We left Tien Shan International School in January 2025 after a teacher engaged in grooming behaviors, staff reports were suppressed, and the administration altered documented findings. This is why we left.
TSIS operates like many institutions: its primary priority is its own survival. The pattern of dismissed prevention, missing safeguards, and closing ranks when leadership is challenged.
A chronological timeline of what happened and when — Part 1 of the timeline series.
Early warnings, self-identification during safeguarding training, corroborating reports, and the child-safety team's 11-page formal documentation. August to September 2024.
Modification of findings, denial, leadership response, and escalation.
The administration altered the 11-page findings report. Cecily denied the concerns. Hans Fung resisted escalation. The situation escalated to a coordinated plan. October to December 2024.
Suspension, board escalation, external review, NDA, and divergence in findings.
Suspension recommended then negotiated. Board members opposed without reading documentation. CRU thought it was resolved. External review confirmed concerns. Board diverged from findings. December 2024 to January 2025.
From pattern to particulars — how a response can feel like engagement while quietly changing the question.
After concerns are raised publicly, the conversation can move — quickly and subtly — into specifics: clarifications, definitions, individual points of dispute. At first glance it can feel like progress. But it also does something important. It changes the frame.
A behavior-based comparison — the school's own chart, placed next to the school's own documented reports.
Along with Christine's email to TSIS staff and families, a chart was shared distinguishing mentoring behaviors from grooming behaviors. So a natural question follows: what happens when that same framework is applied to the documented reports already collected by the school?
A child, sitting alone on the pavement, looked up at the school building and said quietly: “This school is not a safe place.”
I heard screaming and sobbing on the basketball court. A young student — no older than seven — was curled into himself. I sat with him. After a few minutes, he whispered what stayed with me long after the meeting that followed: this school is not a safe place.
Not a moment. Not a misunderstanding. Not a difference in interpretation. A pattern.
Documents shared, timelines established, statements compared. None of that changes what this has always been about. At this point, the question is no longer what happened — the documentation exists, the timeline is clear. The question is what will be done in response.
The Google Form is hosted by Google and is not anonymous — Google logs your IP and can associate the submission with your account if you're signed in. The form on this site does not have those issues.
We understand the weight of speaking about these things.
We also understand the cost of silence.
This space exists because transparency and accountability matter —
especially when the well-being of students is involved.