Teacher-student communication, parent volunteer policies could change in Duval

Duval County teachers will be allowed to communicate with students only through district-approved tools under a revised policy up for a vote. The revision, which comes after a series of teacher misconduct scandals, is among a handful of policy changes the Duval County School Board will vote up or down this coming Tuesday.

Last updated in 2019, the “fraternization with students” policy has historically specified that teachers can’t date students, for example, or “have conversations of a sexual nature.”

Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.

The proposed, much longer policy includes specific guidelines intended to “protect” students, employees and Duval Schools’ reputation. The district has faced intense scrutiny over the last two years because several teachers at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts have been accused of sexual misconduct toward students — many of whom were said to have used social media or messaging apps to communicate with them.

The revised policy prohibits communication between teachers and students through social media and messaging apps and specifies how district employees should present themselves in public online spaces.

Don’t slide into students’ DMs

Last August, the district received a complaint that Craig Leavitt, a teacher at Douglas Anderson, had sent inappropriate messages through social media to a student at the county’s flagship public arts high school during the 2022-23 school year.

The former student’s lawyer, Chris Moser, tells Jacksonville Today she plans to file a civil suit over the incident within the next few weeks.

Through its proposed updated policy, the district is instructing teachers and other employees to refrain from using social media or messaging apps to talk with students. The policy says: “Employees should avoid any appearance of impropriety. Private messaging blurs that boundary. Messaging with students will place an employee’s cell phone or personal computer privacy at risk.”

Florida public records laws require agencies like Duval Schools to maintain records of all official communications — regardless of the device used to communicate. The revised policy says “any text or social media messages sent to a student from a personal device” could become part of what the district is expected to maintain, which could in turn cause the district to “demand to review the contents of an employee’s private device.”

The new guidelines also broadly prohibit employees from posting to content on the internet that might be inappropriate:

“The School Board finds that publication of inappropriate or unbecoming material on publicly accessible websites or electronic media by an employee has the potential to disrupt the educational process, damage the reputation of the District, its teachers and staff, damage the District’s reputation and stature, and subject the District, its teachers and employees to ridicule.”

The proposed policy also says while employees are allowed to maintain personal or business websites, the content on them should adhere to the same guidelines if it is public.

Volunteer screening

Also on Tuesday, the board will vote on changes to the way the district screens parents and other volunteers who access school campuses.

The revisions split volunteers into two categories with two different levels of access to students and that require different approval processes.

Volunteers who don’t work directly with students would be considered Level 1 and would be required to complete the current background check procedure. Volunteers who do work with students — including parents who chaperone field trips — would be Level 2 volunteers and be subject to a more extensive vetting process that includes fingerprinting.

District officials said volunteers would wear color-coded badges to allow for easy identification of their level of approval.

In a workshop about the policy changes this week, board members acknowledged the need for screening volunteers as thoroughly as possible but also wondered if the additional screenings might be cost prohibitive. Level 2 checks can cost up to $100, and parents would be expected to foot the bill.

“Especially if you talk about a school, school culture, and you’re trying to get parents involved — I think we should be removing as many barriers while keeping our students safe,” District 4 representative Darryl Willie said. “So I just wonder how we go about it.”

District 3 representative Cindy Pearson asked if a third party — like a PTA, for example — would be allowed to pay for the screenings. Superintendent Christopher Bernier said yes.

More rules to come

Board members also continue to review other proposed changes to more than a dozen policies, including a separate policy about employee social media use, as well as sex education and the district’s approach to book challenges. Those issues will come up for votes at a later date.