JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The way Duval County Public Schools teachers communicate with students could be changing soon.
A proposed policy update comes after the teacher misconduct scandals at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in 2023. It started with the arrest of former DA teacher Jeffrey Clayton in March of 2023. After that another five teachers were removed from DA classrooms over a two-year span.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
“I know in a lot of what we saw that allowed the behavior at DA to happen was lack of one transparency and two lack of really understanding what the line is here,” said Shyla Jenkins, a former DA student.
And if the proposed policy updates are approved all district employees would be required to communicate with students using only district-approved tools and apps.
“I think that the most important thing is to keep students and teachers safe, while not infringing on the First Amendment rights or the advocacy of educators,” said Erin Sharer, a parent.
[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]
The proposed policy change encourages employees to avoid the appearance of impropriety and abstain from sending private messages to students.
It also encourages employees to, whenever possible, avoid being alone with students.
It prohibits district employees from publishing any material that may be obscene, vulgar, or sexually suggestive.
[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
“Anytime we can implement policies that have clear set expectations and guidelines and eliminating kind of these gray areas of the previous policy is definitely going to protect students and teachers and it will unify the district as a whole,” said Sharer.
The school board is expected to vote on this policy change on Tuesday.
Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
