DUVAL COUNTY, Fla. – Punishment was handed out to employees at four Duval County schools. Three teachers and one assistant principal, who's already had a run-in with the school board, were suspended Tuesday night.
Allegations against the district employees range from yanking a student and grabbing him by the arm, to cursing in the presence of students and using excessive leave time. School board members decided to suspend an assistant principal and three teachers all accused of the unprofessional conduct.
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Westside High School Assistant Principal Oscar Harris was suspended without pay for unreleased reasons. A report detailing his suspension has not been released yet.
News4Jax has learned, though, that this isn't Harris' first suspension. Harris was suspended in 2012 while he was the assistant principal of Raines High School.
He was suspended for 30 days for lying to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office during an investigation into the theft of cellphones and other items from the locker room of the Bradford County High School football team, which was playing a game at Raines. Two Raines students were eventually arrested in the thefts.
Also suspended Tuesday evening was Cedar Hills Elementary School teacher Lenora Peterson-Cook, who according to reports, cursed in front of a student and grabbed a student by the arm.
Lake Shore Middle School teacher Janet Lukas was suspended for 30 days without pay for using excessive leave time with pay.
And Whitehouse Elementary School teacher James Garren is also in trouble. Garren is accused of shoving a table and knocking over a chair in a classroom. That chair struck a student and left a bruise.
News4Jax spoke with the mother of a student who was in the class at the time. Alyece Soyland said she attended Tuesday night's school board meeting to make sure the board takes action.
Soyland also said she went to the meeting to let Superintendent Nikolai Vitti know that the same zero-tolerance policy for students should apply to teachers as well. Even though James Garren was suspended for 30 days, this mother said that's not enough. Soyland said she wants him removed from the school system altogether.
"I feel like the school, the staff, the teacher and the principal failed my child," she said. "And she's been through a lot emotionally already in her life and this (and) her education is very important to her. And it caused a wrinkle in that and that's a hard pill to swallow."