JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Duval County Public Schools is facing an ongoing local grand jury investigation tied to the district’s handling of sexual abuse allegations against teachers, according to multiple sources familiar with the probe.
People with knowledge of the situation tell Action News Jax’s Ben Becker that State Attorney Melissa Nelson first sought a grand jury sometime in 2024 to examine how the district handled allegations of sexual misconduct involving educators over a number of years.
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The investigation is focused on the school district’s reporting practices and response to abuse allegations, rather than any single individual.
The investigation is active, but could conclude within a month.
Investigation followed high-profile teacher arrest
The grand jury investigation followed the arrest of former Douglas Anderson School of the Arts teacher Jeffrey Clayton in 2023.
Clayton was later convicted of charges involving grooming and inappropriate touching of a student and is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence.
Multiple Douglas Anderson teachers have faced allegations of sexual misconduct over the past two decades.
Former student says investigation is still necessary
Dean Symmonds, who attended Douglas Anderson from 2011 to 2015 and was among several former students who publicly accused teachers of misconduct, said the grand jury investigation is not too little, too late.
“As long as Douglas Anderson remains a school and public schools churns out students, it will always be necessary and not too late for future students,” Symmonds said.
Internal investigation raised new questions
The grand jury probe comes as a separate DCPS internal investigation recently concluded.
As Becker first reported last week, investigators found former Chief of Schools Scott Schneider received an email in 2020 naming a dozen educators connected to allegations of child sexual abuse at Douglas Anderson.
According to the investigative findings, Schneider “knowingly failed” to report those allegations. Investigators concluded that failure allowed additional students to remain at risk for years.
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It remains unclear whether that email was unearthed as part of the grand jury investigation.
However, a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office investigative report from December 2025 indicates the State Attorney’s Office was already aware of the email’s existence. The report also states JSO investigators were initially denied access to the email by the school district and had to secure a subpoena.
District declines to comment
Action News Jax requested comment from DCPS, but officials referred questions to the State Attorney’s Office which did not respond to a request for comment.
District has implemented new policies
DCPS has adopted new ethics policies and updated procedures for identifying, reporting, and removing employees accused of misconduct from classrooms while investigations are underway.
Symmonds said investigators should remain persistent despite potential obstacles.
“It requires stubbornness and boldness and a belief in justice to push through that and collect everything that is necessary to make the proper deliberation,” Symmonds said.
Previous grand jury found thousands of crimes went unreported
The current investigation follows a separate statewide grand jury report released in 2022 that found DCPS failed to report more than 2,000 alleged crimes between 2016 and 2019.
According to that report, the unreported incidents included:
- 157 alleged lewd acts
- 94 cases of child abuse
- 23 incidents involving child pornography
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