JACKSONVILLE, Fla, — Only on Action News Jax, a new district report reveals 19 teachers from Duval County Schools were removed from the classroom in just the last couple of months.
Since the ‘Know the Line Campaign’ launched, many teacher behavior reports have been filed, leading to some getting removed from the school campus. The
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The most recent removal happened last week at the LaVilla School of The Arts.
“It’s worrisome,” LaVilla Middle School Parent May Puerto said.
Yesterday, Action News Jax obtained a new report revealing the number of teachers and employees removed from the classroom since the ‘Know the Line” campaign launched in late August.
READ: ‘Could be a large number:’ 19 Duval schools’ employees, teachers removed so far this school year
It allows people to report inappropriate behavior between students and teachers.
So far, about 170 reports have been made, and 19 teachers from 16 schools have been removed from the classroom.
Among them is a health teacher from LaVilla Middle. The data shows the teacher faces allegations of inappropriate communication with a student that was sexual in nature.
“That’s gross, come on,” Puerto said. “Find your own age. Why children? To me, even though they’re in their pre-teens, they’re still babies. Why do that?”
Puerto said has a 6th grader who goes to LaVilla and is deeply disturbed.
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“I’m a survivor myself, so to me, it makes me uncomfortable that my daughter is in a place where they allow people like that working in this facility,” Puerto said.
Puerto received an email from the school on Wednesday. In the letter, principal Kimberly Harrison clarified saying, “The allegations to do not rise to a criminal level, and again, to my knowledge, there is no criminal investigation in process.”
Since no arrest was made, the principal did not name the teacher.
Puerto says the silver lining in this situation is that teachers are removed quickly from the school campus.
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“That makes me happy because back in the day when I was a child, they did nothing,” Puerto said.
For now, the teacher is not in school with these kids, and the Office of Professional Standards is investigating.
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