JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Florida Department of Education (FDOE) sent a letter to Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) on Thursday expressing concerns over what it calls a failure of school leaders to respond to student safety issues.
“It is clear more work needs to be done in your district,” FDOE Commissioner Manny Diaz wrote in a letter to the district. “Your failure to address these pressing concerns reflects a lack of prioritization for the well-being of students, parents and the educators who rely on you to ensure a safe and conducive learning environment.”
This comes as an investigation into Duval County Schools continues to look at the district’s handling of complaints following the arrest of a longtime teacher at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.
Last month, the DCPS superintendent apologized for leaving another teacher in the classroom for weeks after he was arrested in Orlando.
“This is unacceptable,” Diaz wrote about the incident involving teacher Chris Allen-Black, who was arrested in February and accused of exposing himself in a Disney hotel room in view of the resort pool. Allen-Black wasn’t removed from the classroom until April 11. Parents of students in his classes were notified of his arrest and removal on April 17.
Allen-Black was the fifth teacher to be removed from the classroom at the school since 2023 amid different investigations.
Diaz said in April 2023, DCPS reported 73 cases to the FDOE Office of Professional Practices Services because those cases, which dated back as far as 2020, were not previously reported to the department.
Duval County School Board members said they are taking steps to strengthen the processes for reporting misconduct.
During the DCPS board meeting Wednesday, Interim Superintendent Dr. Dana Kriznar told people in attendance improvements are being made to stop inappropriate student-teacher relationships.
“We’re working on policy and procedure recommendations initiated by the board including strengthening procedures to ensure employees alleged to have committed certain types of misconduct are immediately removed from the classroom. That’s a policy that they initiated last week,” said Dr. Kriznar.
Some of those procedures include new training guidelines and policies and procedures emphasizing that allegations of misconduct must be reported. Students are also being taught about ways to recognize and report sexual harassment or misconduct.
District officials are hoping staffing improvements will make it easier to conduct investigations quickly. The district’s reporting system for cases being sent to the FDOE also switched from a mailing system to digital in the hopes of speeding up the process.
After more than a year, the investigation into misconduct by Douglas Anderson music teacher Jeffrey Clayton is still ongoing. He pleaded guilty to crimes involving a student in April.
He will be sentenced in June and seven people are expected to give impact statements.
A Ft. Lauderdale-based firm is investigating misconduct allegations in Duval County Schools. City of Jacksonville Office of General Counsel Deputy General Counsel Jon Phillips said the investigations will take months to complete.
“The goal of this investigation is not only to just get to the bottom of what happened, it’s also to fix the problems,” said Phillips.
But, as the investigation takes more and more time, frustration at district school offices is growing.
“We’ve waited long enough,” said Duval County School Board member Dr. Kelly Coker.