JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Rats, roaches, and reinspection are common themes we found for Duval County Public Schools after Action News Jax requested the district’s most recent health inspection reports for school cafeterias.
Action News Jax Investigates dug through the most recent health inspection reports for the cafeterias at the nearly 200 Duval County Public Schools.
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At least 24 of the school cafeterias failed their inspections.
Many parents we spoke to told us they had concerns about sending their child to school after learning about the failed health inspections.
Action News Jax requested reports from both DCPS and the Duval County Health Department.
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Matthew W. Gilbert Middle School, near downtown Jacksonville listed a failed health inspection for violations in its school cafeteria.
Over the summer, we found out the school’s cafeteria failed its inspection for a violation involving rodents in the kitchen.
The violation listed a “heavy presence of rodents in the kitchen observed; rodent droppings, gnawed doors, and holes in the ceilings were observed.”
A parent at Matthew W. Gilbert Middle told us they were concerned to learn of the failed inspections.
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“The kids cant eat like that, its very unhealthy, they could be eating rat droppings, its nasty,” the parent said.
We showed several parents the inspection report for the middle school, and asked them how they feel about their children eating in that school cafeteria.
Another parent we spoke to told us that none of her children eat lunch at school and “they all come home hungry they all complain about the food.”
The failed health inspection report for Matthew W. Gilbert Middle also said the rodent infestation in the school’s cafeteria coincides with an infestation in the school.
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The failed inspection report for Matthew W. Gilbert Middle listed a target reinspection date for late July 2025.
DCPS did not send Action News Jax a re-inspection report for Matthew W. Gilbert Middle school to show that the school has been reinspected to ensure all facilities are in good standing; despite sending the reinspection reports for several other schools that had previously failed.
At least three other schools were slapped with rodent-related violations, including Sandalwood High School, Long Branch Elementary School and Mandarin Oaks Elementary School.
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We asked DCPS several times for an interview with its head nutrition manager so that we could ask them about these failed inspection reports.
The district said it did not receive our emails or interview requests, and it is working to locate our requests.
You can find the health inspection reports that were listed as unsatisfactory and any follow up inspection reports we received below:
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