JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Duval County Public Schools have reached a settlement with a former Douglas Anderson student who accused the district of failing to protect her from sexual harassment and abuse from Jeffrey Clayton.
Clayton was a longtime music teacher at DA. Earlier this month, he was sentenced to ten years in prison after pleading guilty to crimes related to touching and grooming a different student.
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The lawsuit was filed in November. It alleges the district knew about Clayton’s misconduct for years, but failed to address it, leaving students in a hostile educational environment.
The lawsuit echoes allegations from many former students that Clayton acted inappropriately for years but never seemed to face consequences.
A copy of the settlement has not yet been provided to News4JAX, but the plaintiff was asking for more than $75,000 in damages.
The plaintiff, a former DA student, alleged Jeffrey Clayton sexually harassed and degraded her and touched her body inappropriately. It says Clayton verbally abused and belittled her during school rehearsals and suggested that the ninth grader “enhance and enlarge her breasts, often giving her makeup tips to make her breasts look more prominent.”
Nearly five years later, she faced Clayton in the courtroom earlier this month, providing testimony as a judge considered Clayton’s sentence for crimes involving another student in 2023.
“What he did to me was illegal and grossly inappropriate, especially for a teacher who holds a position of trust and authority over the kids in the classroom and on stage at DA,” she said.
As part of a plea agreement, seven female DA students, in addition to the victim in the case, were permitted to testify at Clayton’s sentencing. In exchange, the State Attorney’s Office agreed not to bring additional charges against Clayton regarding his time at DA. Clayton denied any criminal actions relating to the seven additional students permitted to testify.
According to the lawsuit, the school investigated Clayton’s behavior toward female students just months after the plaintiff started ninth grade, and she and other students provided statements.
The suit says, “In that investigation, it was discovered that Clayton had numerous past investigations for similar allegations, but ultimately, Clayton was permitted to return to school which was emotionally distressing to Plaintiff.”
“What if they had done something when I used my voice to report him? What if he got caught earlier on? What if someone had stopped it before I got there? What would it be like now if this had never happened to me for as long as it did?” the plaintiff said at Clayton’s sentencing. “When I do fall asleep, I have nightmares. The majority of my nightmares have direct correlations to the things that happened.”
The Duval County School Board’s attorney told News4JAX that the Duval County School Board is expected to vote on approval for the settlement on Tuesday.