Douglas Anderson School of the Arts on Jan. 7, 2025 | Megan Mallicoat, Jacksonville Today
Published on January 7, 2025 at 11:05 pm
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The Duval County School Board voted Tuesday to spend $365,000 to settle another lawsuit related to former Douglas Anderson teacher Jeffrey Clayton — with the six-figure settlement coming amidst the district’s effort to shave $100 million from its budget.
The suit centered on Clayton’s behavior toward a female student from 2022 through his arrest in March 2023 and alleges that Duval Schools failed to provide a safe, secure school environment and failed to address Clayton’s actions when it learned about them.
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It says Clayton “inappropriately touched in a sexual manner” the student and made “sexually inappropriate comments” about the student’s body to and about her. It also alleges that the victim suffered permanent “bodily injury, pain and suffering, impairment, disability, disfigurement, [and] mental anguish” as a result of Clayton’s actions.
The accuser’s lawyer did not respond to Jacksonville Today‘s request for comment.
Clayton was arrested almost two years ago and charged with indecent, lewd or lascivious touching of a minor. He pleaded guilty and is serving a 10-year prison sentence.
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Records show that prior to his arrest, Duval Schools administrators received numerous complaints about Clayton’s behavior toward students. Between 2006 and 2022, the district opened at least eight investigations of Clayton — most for complaints of sexually inappropriate conduct with students — and issued him various levels of discipline at least six times.
In the last six months, Duval Schools has spent nearly $2 million to settle claims with six former Douglas Anderson students. The school board approved the first settlement shortly after Clayton’s sentencing hearing in June. Three victims — including the former student who was the victim in Clayton’s criminal case — received a combined $1.45 million.
Two more former students of the nationally renowned public arts magnet high school settled with the district in August for a combined $120,000. Their complaints alleged sexual misconduct by former teachers Corey Thayer and Nicholas Serenati.
In Thayer’s case, the victim alleged that he forced sex on her at school when she was a 14-year-old freshman. Thayer resigned from the district in June after spending most of last school year in a non-student-contact position. Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. recently asked for Thayer’s teaching license to be flagged, though the FLDOE declined to confirm or deny that the state is investigating Thayer.
The student in Serenati’s case said he sent her hundreds of explicit and inappropriate text messages while she was a student. Serenati resigned from the district in 2016.
A costly past
At the school board meeting on Tuesday, Superintendent Christopher Bernier alluded to the ongoing budget shortfall while discussing his goals for the coming year.
“You can’t talk about 2025 without talking about the budgetary situation that the school district faces,” Bernier said. “I’ll leave it there tonight, but we’ll continue to work on that.”
Bernier did not offer any detail about how the district will find its needed savings. In November, the board voted to close a handful of under-enrolled elementary schools at the end of the current school year — for an initial annual savings of a little more than $3 million.
Duval Schools is self-insured and has said the recent settlement money has come from the district’s general fund. Jacksonville Today has requested records documenting litigation expenditures, but the district has not yet made them available.
And it’s not just students who are alleging teachers’ misconduct hurt them. One of Clayton’s former colleagues at Douglas Anderson has also filed an intent to sue over alleged retaliation for trying to intervene in his behavior.
During the public comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting, Douglas Anderson graduate Shyla Jenkins advocated for transparency as the district continues to grapple with the fallout from teachers’ misconduct. Specifically, she asked the board to publicly release the results of an independent investigation the district said it would conduct.
“If we don’t learn from the past, we will continue to do this in the future — not just at D.A. but at other schools here in Duval County,” Jenkins said. “You will continue to have to pay settlements to these students who were robbed of their childhood.”
