JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Duval County School leaders are calling for accountability as investigators look into several misconduct claims against multiple Douglas Anderson School of the Arts teachers, including longtime music teacher Jeffrey Clayton, who resigned after he was removed and charged with lewd acts involving a student.
Four teachers have been removed from classrooms at the school, leading district administrators to question how they weren’t removed sooner.
The district was supposed to hold a much-anticipated meeting Friday but it was abruptly postponed due to legal concerns.
The investigation has created a firestorm of controversy and concern and revealed some issues with how the district keeps and reports records of these types of instances on campuses.
Duval County School Board Chairwoman Kelly Coker sat down with This Week In Jacksonville host Kent Justice to discuss how it’s the district’s mission to identify and eliminate those issues.
“I think right now that our board is, we’re taking all the information in, we’re trying to dive into it. We’re trying to digest it and then we’re going to determine from there what are our next steps as it relates to multiple levels of personnel,” Coker said.
The investigation into Clayton has revealed multiple earlier incidents, dating back to 2006, which raised questions from some state officials about why Clayton had not been removed from classes earlier.
On Tuesday, the state’s education commissioner sent a letter to Superintendent Diana Greene, accusing the district of failing to submit 50 investigative files from other misconduct cases to the state’s Office of Professional Practices.
Green responded by saying the commission was not intentional and the following day, DCPS leaders reassigned the district’s Supervisor of Professional Practices, and the board also signed off on hiring an outside firm to investigate the Douglas Anderson situation and to investigate why there appears to have been a three-year delay in sending files to the state.
Parents said they support the investigations.
“So we need to know where were the breakdowns in the system from start to finish. And everyone who is part of that system, where they were responsible, and it broke down. They need to be held accountable. And that’s my main focus for being out here today,” Jennifer Cowart said.
Former City Councilmember Suzanne Jenkins and her daughter studied under Clayton in the 2000s.
“Not only do we support the full investigation, we support the full house cleaning because we feel it is at that mid-level administrative area regionally that these things get sat on and set to the side,” Jenkins said. “And until that gets looked at and changed and you clean house, then I don’t care who you bring in as a superintendent or school board members. That’s not going to change and that’s where we need to start.”
Coker recognizes that “definitive action” needs to be taken as they continue the investigations.
“Again, definitive action has to be taken so that that does not ever happen again, and that there are protocols in place and checks and balances in place so that we don’t get in this situation ever again. Again children deserve better,” Coker said. “There’s got to be some accountability as it relates to what has happened. Our children deserve that, our parents deserve that and quite candidly, the community at large deserves that. And so I don’t want to speculate one way or the other. What I can tell the community is we are working through the facts and we are going to make decisions and hold people accountable as needed.”
Coker also said they will likely get a new date for when the postponed meeting will be rescheduled on Monday.
Watch the full interview below: