A former Douglas Anderson teacher says she wishes the school district would have taken action against Jeffrey Clayton sooner.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Teachers and students are sharing their stories from the Douglas Anderson vocal department after the arrest of a well-known music teacher this week.
Jeffrey Clayton was arrested Wednesday on a lewd and lascivious behavior charge. A former Douglas Anderson teacher says she wishes the school district would have taken action against Clayton sooner.
“Nothing was done and it was reported over and over… not just by me… and it was reported over and over and over, I kind of hit a brick wall,” said Dina Barone.
Barone was a vocal teacher at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts from 2012-2018.
She says during her time as a teacher… she worked alongside Jeffrey Clayton.
clayton was arrested after a police report says he rubbed a student’s thighs, shared 1700 text messages with her and kissed her during private voice lessons.
Since the arrest, former teachers are saying they’ve previously reported Clayton to the school district for “inappropriate behavior.”
Barone says she had students who wanted to leave due to the environment.
“They are broken, they’re broken, I had so many students come in and say I don’t even want to sing any more Ms. Barone,” said Barone.
Ms. Barone says she witnessed inappropriate behavior from Clayton while working for Douglas Anderson and she says she eventually left the job because of it.
The school district has said they’d like people to contact Dr. Tameiko Grant, head of the district’s professional standards office. The email address is [email protected].
