JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Douglas Anderson School of the Arts teacher has been reassigned after they allegedly engaged in inappropriate communication with a student during the 2022-23 school year, the school’s principal informed parents on Wednesday.
They are the sixth teacher to be reassigned over misconduct allegations at the school in recent years.
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“While our school and the district have taken strong steps this year to ensure students, families, and employees are aware of boundaries between appropriate and inappropriate behavior with students, I am writing today to inform you that we have reassigned a teacher based on information recently received regarding alleged misconduct in the past,” an email from Principal Timothy Feagins reads.
News4JAX is choosing not to name the teacher because he has not been charged with a crime and the investigation is ongoing.
Feagins said, “while the presumption of innocence always applies in a professional standards investigation, we have reassigned him to duties at a district site with no student interaction while the investigation is in progress.”
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He said the investigation is confidential, but said the school would update parents once it is complete.
A Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) spokesman said the school board has been informed about the investigation.
“I do want to highlight that we are actively informing all stakeholders of the healthy boundaries that should exist between students and employees. Earlier this week, we shared the information on this Know the Line web page with families,” the spokesperson said.
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Feagins addressed the process of reporting allegations against staff to parents in his email:
“As your new principal, it is disappointing to have to share this information with you; however, I do want to use this moment to remind you of some expectations I have for our team at the school and resources available to you.
- I assure you that if a student brings a new allegation of this nature to a member of my administrative team, we will report it to legally required internal and external authorities.
- While I am fully confident of my team’s responsibility to handle any future situation, I also understand that it might be difficult for a student to share information of this nature with school staff. Therefore, please remember that the district created this online form for students to report directly to the district.
- So that you and your student will better understand our expectations for staff interactions with students, we recently launched Know the Line. I encourage you to become familiar with those boundaries and inform us if you or your child experiences anything that might be on the wrong side of that line.
We will always have high expectations for your students both academically and artistically. We will also have very high expectations for achieving those goals in an emotionally and physically safe school environment. I look forward to working with you in partnership to achieve those goals and fulfill those expectations for our students.”