JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – News4JAX learned more information about a Douglas Anderson School of the Arts (DA) teacher who was removed from the classroom on an inappropriate conduct accusation stemming from a decade ago.
A former student accused Corey Thayer of repeatedly forcing her to have sex with him a decade ago when she was a freshman at the school.
That’s according to our news partners at Jacksonville Today, which detailed the investigation.
Thayer is one of the six teachers who’ve been removed from the school over allegations of inappropriate behavior.
Jacksonville Today received a court reporter’s transcript from October 2023 where the former student gave a sworn interview.
During that interview, she said that Thayer, who was 43 years old at the time, was well known for the attention he paid to female students.
She told the investigator that Thayer invited her to sit on his lap, told her to keep wearing clothes that violated dress code because he liked how they looked, gave her piggyback rides and rubbed her back.
She said that the behavior escalated to multiple sexual encounters, with one of those encounters happening in the school’s sound booth in November 2013.
The investigation came on the heels of Jeffery Clayton’s arrest in March of last year. The district received multiple messages from concerned alumni and parents about Clayton and several other Douglas Anderson teachers. Duval County Schools says 12 of those messages were about Thayer who had worked for the school since 2008.
The victim’s mother reported Thayer to the school several times starting in 2015, then after Jeffery Clayton’s arrest she reported Thayer again in 2023 but this time to the school board.
Former Superintendent Diana Greene received the message from a board member and then emailed the district’s HR department on Apr. 25 directing them to pull Thayer from the classroom immediately, though Thayer was allowed to return to the classroom the following school year. He was officially pulled for good on Sept. 5, 2023.
News4JAX reached out to DCPS for a statement on the investigation into Thayer, they responded by saying:
We can’t speak to what was in place at the time Mr. Thayer was hired, but today, we check state databases for prior investigations and the state’s disqualifier list prior to hiring. In addition, we are implementing the plan released last summer, which includes several significant changes including:
Today, students can report allegations directly to the district using an online reporting form.
Policy now requires the immediate reassignment of an employee to duties without student contact when an allegation of this nature is received.
Policy now clearly stipulates disciplinary action for an employee who fails to report an allegation of this nature.
Staff training has been significantly expanded on ethics, reporting responsibilities, appropriate methods of communication with students, Title IX, and similar topics.
The Know the Line campaign was launched to help parents recognize the healthy boundaries that should exist between students and employees and how to report concerns.
Duval County Public Schools
The Florida Department of Education’s database shows that Thayer’s teaching license is still active. Also, none of the multiple instances of discipline against him have been reported on FDOE’s discipline database. Sydney Booker, the Communications Director for FDOE sent us this statement about Thayer:
In 2023, after the Department became aware of this issue, the Office of Professional Practices (PPS) reached out to the attorney of the alleged victim, who declined for PPS to interview the former student. Additionally, they declined to provide a written statement of the alleged abuse.
Without victim cooperation, and without criminal charges being filed, the Department had no choice but to close the case as No Further Action, giving PPS the ability to reopen the case should the alleged victim decide to speak with our investigators or if new evidence comes to light.
The Department takes every report of teacher misconduct very seriously.
Sydney Booker, Communications Director for Florida Department of Education
The victim’s attorney, Chris Moser, told News4JAX she notified the FDOE about allegations against Thayer and said her client was always available for an interview with them and every other agency.
News4JAX also contacted Corey Thayer’s lawyer George Pfieffer, he asked us to delay the publication of the story even though our news partners at Jacksonville Today already published the details. We followed up with him to ask for a statement but have not heard back at this time.
We are awaiting public records from the district in reference to the investigation into Thayer.