JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Another Duval County school employee is reassigned under investigation. He’s the fifth since the district began investigating teacher conduct at Douglas Anderson School of Arts following the arrest of a longtime vocal coach for alleged lewd conduct with a student.
Also Wednesday, the district announcing next steps in their investigation, as more parents are coming forward with lawsuits over a teacher’s misconduct and what some say was a cover up by the administrators.
Twenty-one people addressed the Duval County School Board at a special meeting Wednesday, a majority speaking in favor of Superintendent Dr. Greene amid rumors that she might resign or retire and news that the board intends to discuss her the future of her employment at another meeting this Friday.
Mother of one Douglas Anderson School of the Arts student Nancy Murrey-Settle sent a strong message about her daughter’s senior year.
“Don’t let her learn that lesson: to be quiet because it’s going to shake the boat and that reporting abuse is going to mean that innocent people are being held accountable for acts that they did not do,” Murrey-Settle said.
Mother Sharmin Smith stepping up to remind the board it was under Dr. Greene’s leadership that the district put a stop to former vocal coach Jeffrey Clayton’s behavior and misconduct.
“As soon as we get our first black female superintendent and he was investigated,” Smith said, “he ended up in jail, and that seems ironic to me. How many other investigations have been completed under the same lax guidelines that allowed this man to slip through the crack?”
The meeting meant to focus on hiring outside legal counsel to handle potential lawsuits from the fallout of the Clayton scandal and look into why the district delinquently reported fifty cases to the state last Friday.
The Office of General Counsel recommended using a law firm in Fort Lauderdale that specializes in education, but they said the investigation could be slowed down due to final exams and the upcoming summer break, while board members emphasized it should be complete before the beginning of the next school year.
“I would like to prioritize and get back the information as soon as we can to the board on where our systems failed us, chain of commands, emails, anyone in this district that knew this was going on,” said District 6 Board Member Charlotte Joyce.
School Board Chair Dr. Kelly Coker issued the following statement after Wednesday’s meeting:
“Today, our board took the appropriate and necessary action to begin the process of determining the system failures that allowed Jeffrey Clayton to remain in the classroom for years after multiple district-led investigations involving inappropriate conduct by Mr. Clayton.
In the action to hire outside counsel to investigate this item, our board also asked that outside counsel review the processes leading to the Florida Department of Education's Office of Professional Practices to recently receive 50 backlogged teacher investigative cases, some of which date back to 2020. To be thorough, this investigation will take time; however, it is necessary to ensure the safety and security of our students moving forward.”