JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The News4JAX I-TEAM has obtained records showing the then-principal and assistant principal at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts failed to follow up on several allegations of teacher misconduct during the 2022-2023 school year.
It took additional complaints, about inappropriate comments and touching, for the two teachers at issue to be investigated and removed from the classroom.
The school has been under scrutiny since the arrest of former music teacher Jeffrey Clayton in March 2023 for crimes involving lewd conduct with a 16-year-old student. Clayton later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Records obtained by the I-TEAM show after the 2022-2023 school year, a Douglas Anderson science teacher and an English teacher were not rehired for the following year after internal investigations. We aren’t naming these teachers because they haven’t been charged with any crimes.
The Duval County Public Schools Office of Equity and Inclusion/Professional Standards found the science teacher “engaged in inappropriate communication of a sexual nature with and/or in the presence of students when he disclosed to students’ details of his personal, romantic, and sexual life.”
The investigation was opened in February of 2023 after a student told Principal Tina Wilson that the teacher had made an inappropriate comment. He was reassigned away from students as the investigation was underway.
Four students were interviewed, and some reported being friends with him on Snapchat. The reports show he made comments that left one student with their “jaw on the floor from shock” and left another student “very shaken.”
A 10th-grade student interviewed said they had reported something the teacher said to the principal and the assistant principal months ago, at the beginning of the school year.
The student said the principal told her that she would give the teacher a “talking to,” but the student said no one from the administration followed up with her until after another complaint had been made months later.
In May of 2023, a district investigator on the case wrote an email saying, “The principal failed to report the allegations when she first received a complaint (August)...Reggie was supposed to do an investigation on the principal.”
Reggie, or Reginald Johnson, was the district’s professional standards supervisor until the week prior, when he had been reassigned pending a professional standards investigation soon after it was revealed his office had failed to report to the state dozens of misconduct cases going back years.
As for the former English teacher, records obtained by the I-TEAM show he was not re-hired at the end of the 2022-2023 school year after being removed from the classroom. An internal investigation found he “engaged in inappropriate physical contact” when he “placed his hands on students’ shoulders, lower back, thigh, arm, or neck, hugged students, rubbed their arms and backs, “playfully” kicked or slapped students, and not having respect for the personal space of students.”
The records show two female students complained to school administration within the same two weeks in February 2023. One said he rubbed his hand on her thigh and another said he rubbed her back and put his hand on her shoulder. She reported that happened every day to her and other girls in his class.
In both incidents, records show that the assistant principal, Lourdes Gee, signed the written statements but did not report them to the district.
An investigation wasn’t opened until about a month later when a parent emailed the district about the teacher’s behavior following the arrest of Jeffrey Clayton.
The principal at the time of all this, Tina Wilson, was moved to a district-level position this summer. The assistant principal, Lourdes Gee, is no longer with the school, either.
The I-TEAM has reached out to both of them, as well as the two former teachers who weren’t asked back to DA, to hear their sides of the story. We will let you know if we hear back.
A spokesperson for DCPS said they are addressing the issues the I-TEAM identified in these cases with their new student safety plan, released in June, that addresses policies and training to improve student safety.
They are in now the process of implementing that plan.