JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA — Duval County Schools Superintendent Diana Greene is leaving her post following a major scandal involving a teacher who has been accused of inappropriately touching one of his students.
On Tuesday, Greene agreed to retire after the school board voted 4–3 to allow her to step down and receive five-months’ salary. The announcement is the latest development in a scandal surrounding Douglas Anderson School of the Arts’ longtime vocal director Jeffrey Clayton.
“She's not retiring early, she's being forced out,” board member Daryl Willie said.
INAPPROPRIATE TOUCHING AND 1,700 TEXTS
On March 22, Clayton was arrested and charged with lewd behavior involving a student.
Clayton allegedly rubbed a female student’s thighs with his hands and kissed her “multiple times with his mouth open and using his tongue,” according to the arrest warrant. Police say they found more than 1,700 text messages between Clayton and the victim dating back to August 2022.
Clayton’s personnel and disciplinary records revealed that he was accused of touching students at least three times before he was arrested, News4Jax reports. Clayton taught at the school for more than two decades prior to his arrest.
“COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE”
On April 25, Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. wrote a letter to Greene, saying it was “completely unacceptable” that the district failed to report the previous incidents to the state’s Office of Safe Schools.
“I cannot and will not tolerate delays in reporting educator misconduct,” Diaz wrote.
The district claims to have sent the allegations to the Department of Children and Families (DCF) and Education Department’s Office of Professional Practice, but that past allegations against Clayton never reached the level of a reportable incident.
The school board launched an investigation into Clayton's case, as well as 50 other teacher investigations the district said were “backlogged.” The investigation is ongoing.
Since Clayton’s arrest, three other Douglas Anderson teachers have been pulled from the classroom, according to First Coast News.
In August, a grand jury found that the district significantly failed to report over 500 on-campus crimes occurring between 2016 and 2020.
