Duval Schools investigated ‘list’ of Douglas Anderson teachers 5 years after student sent it

The email from a Douglas Anderson grad arrived in then-Principal Melanie Hammer’s inbox shortly after midnight the morning of Aug. 18, 2020. 

“This is a list of names you should know, and if any still teach at the school in 2020, cover your a** and fire them… cause you aren’t the first person to get this list. And they all f*** children,” the note read.

What followed were the names of 12 Douglas Anderson teachers. Some still worked at the school.

Jacksonville Today first reported on the email as part of a series that examined how the district had handled years’ worth of reports of teacher misconduct at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts following former vocal teacher Jeffrey Clayton’s 2023 arrest. 

Initially, it was unclear whether the district investigated the teachers named in the email. New documents, though, provide a picture of the investigation that followed — five years later.

Puzzle pieces

Jacksonville Today first requested the email through a public records request submitted in mid-February 2025, and received it about a month later after paying a fee of $24.12. New documents from the city of Jacksonville show the General Counsel’s Office was also in search of the email concurrently. Before releasing it to Jacksonville Today, Duval Schools’ records custodian sent it to several high-level district administrators in early March.

In one email exchange, about a week before the files were released to Jacksonville Today, the district’s then-lawyer, Ray Poole, sent the “list” to Rita Mairs, the lawyer in the city’s General Counsel Office who is assigned most of the cases brought by Douglas Anderson accusers.

“See attachment. I just received it,” Poole wrote.

“Wow,” Mairs responded.

“Yep,” Poole said.

‘A duty to report’

The newly released documents from Duval Schools show the district’s Professional Standards Office waited six weeks to open an investigation last year; it received the email on March 5, 2025, from the records custodian, but did not officially open its investigation until April 17.

Mairs on April 16 asked professional standards Supervisor David Farcas questions about the district’s response to the email. 

“First, in the event this has not been done, here is the list of names, many of who (sic) we know went on after 2020 to be investigated due to inappropriate communications or sexual conduct with children,” Mairs wrote.

She also urged the professional standards office to consider whether an administrator named Scott Schneider had responded appropriately to the email.

Five years prior, in 2020, Schneider was the regional superintendent in charge of Douglas Anderson. When then-Principal Melanie Hammer received the “list” email, she soon forwarded it to Schneider, her supervisor. 

In 2025, as Mairs evaluated the documents, Schneider was by then the district’s chief of schools. She asked Farcas if Schneider had been “investigated for his handling of this matter.” 

“If not, I strongly encourage the District to do so, as Mr. Schneider is currently our Chief of Schools and not a former employee,” Mairs wrote. “This email chain will likely surface if we are unable to resolve our current DA cases involving Clayton, and what will we, as a District, have to say for it?”

Hammer left Duval Schools for a position with the Cathedral Arts Project in 2021. She didn’t respond to Jacksonville Today’s request for comment.

Duval Schools’ investigation of Schneider concluded that he had a “duty to report” what he learned from the email. One year after opening its investigation, on April 16, 2026, the district issued Schneider a letter of reprimand. It’s part of the progressive discipline process, and the letter goes in his personnel file. Duval Schools did not renew his contract with the district this summer, and as of July 1, he’s no longer a district employee.

The discipline report says Schneider’s “actions and inactions led to missed opportunities” to investigate.

“As a result, numerous students experienced or continued experiencing abuse by educators identified in [the email],” the report reads. “Additionally, the [School Board] has been sued numerous times based on the conduct of many of the educators listed in [the email], which has affected the public’s continued confidence…and has placed financial strain on” the school board.

Schneider said that conclusion is “nonsense” in a rebuttal letter also included in his file. He tells Jacksonville Today he did report the email.

Records received from the district show Hammer forwarded the email to Schneider soon after receiving it.

“Please see the email below,” she wrote. “It seems that this alumnus has spoken with the Office of Professional Standards, and the reply from them [is] concerning (as are the allegations). Please let me know what I need to do.”

Schneider replied that the allegations needed to be reported to the Florida Department of Children and Families and Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office “as the victim.”

That same afternoon, Hammer responded to the student and suggested he file the reports “as the victim of this behavior.”

After responding to the student, Hammer again wrote Schneider and asked him if she should share the message with Duval Schools’ professional standards office. She told Schneider that she’d “previously contacted DCF,” who advised her they only handle cases involving minors. She asked Schneider if she should share it with police directly.

He replied, “You have done what is needed.”

Schneider tells Jacksonville Today that he took the matter to the office of professional standards himself — but through an in-person conversation, not an email. They assured him the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office was already investigating, he says.

There is no record of a JSO investigation of “the list” in 2020.

The new documents provided by Duval Schools do include a JSO report dated Dec. 4, 2025, that details an investigation into “a list which was discovered and consisted of teachers and students engaging in sexual activity at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.” It concludes that the State Attorney’s Office had already investigated the matter, and so “no further assistance was needed from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.”

See something, say something

A district spokesperson tells Jacksonville Today that through its Know the Line campaign, Superintendent Chris Bernier “has consistently emphasized the importance of protecting the safety and well-being of our students and fostering a culture where any suspected misconduct is reported immediately.”

At a School Board meeting last week, Bernier took a moment to remind the audience about the district’s mandatory reporting responsibilities. State law says every Duval Schools employee is a mandatory reporter.

He acknowledged it was “odd to put this on” his monthly presentation, but said he wanted to include it because many district staff members watch board meetings.

“This is a statutory requirement. We’ve said it numerous times since my arrival because of previous situations that had occurred at other schools,” Bernier said. “We take this very seriously. There is no room to not report.”