JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Former students of the Duval County Public Schools teacher sentenced Friday for sexual misconduct said he made inappropriate comments to students dating back more than two decades ago.
Since Douglas Anderson School of the Arts Vocal Teacher Jeffrey Clayton's arrest in March of last year, multiple other teachers have been removed from the school’s classrooms. Former students of Clayton’s like Shyla Jenkins describe inappropriate comments when the 65-year-old first started teaching at DA.
“She was an amazing singer and he took a lot from her,” Jenkins said about one of her classmates. “He took a lot from all of us.”
Jenkins felt it was important to go to her former teacher’s sentencing Friday. She said her love of singing was destroyed when she was Clayton’s student.
“Twenty years of grooming, 20 years of abuse,” she said.
Clayton’s career at DA. started in 2000, according to court documents.
“I've been collecting, over this last year, stories from different alum, vocal alum, specifically about the behavior and really the tirade of what became Jeffrey Clayton,” Jenkins said.
Court documents show in 2016 and 2021 Clayton was disciplined for commenting on a students' looks and rubbing their backs. Jenkins said Clayton commented on girls’ bodies long before that.
“There was decades of people, parents, teachers, students coming forward and reporting this and he'd get a slap on the wrist,” she said.
On March 22 last year, Clayton was arrested for kissing and touching a 16-year-old student during a private singing lesson. In the days that followed, more teachers were removed from DA. classrooms, one of them arrested. For Jenkins, the changes were a long time coming.
“It doesn't need to hurt them anymore and it doesn't need to have any kid walking out of there damaged anymore and that's what I'm fighting for,” she said. “And that's what I'll continue to fight for as I push for change at the school.”
Jenkins said she feels like Clayton’s sentence is fair but that justice will never truly be served because she said he hurt so many people over so many years. She said she’ll continue to push for accountability in the school system.