The Duval County School Board has levied sanctions on two district employees, with no discussion.

Holiday Hill Elementary School Principal Denise Ahearn was suspended for 30 days without pay. She will also be removed from her post as principal and placed in a supervisory role in the district’s office, with a pay cut. Atlantic Coast High School teacher Danielle Reed was also suspended pending termination.

“The level of expectation regarding conduct for our employees has to be higher because we’re models for our children,” says Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

Vitti handed down the recommendations, and the board unanimously supported them.  School Board member Jason Fischer told me he trusts the superintendent’s judgment in the punishment and the message he is trying to send.

“If you’re in a leadership role, we expect you to be professional, and if you’re not, you will be held accountable,” Fischer says.

Despite that message, Fischer was surprised to learn of some of the behavior Ahearn is accused of.  Vitti mimicked that idea, saying the actions are “inappropriate and sometimes bizarre.”  But even with that acknowledged, he is confident in their decision to suspend, rather than fire Ahearn because no students were directly involved and there has never been a complaint filed on Ahearn before.

The punishment was a challenge to establish, however, because there was no precedent for a case like this.

“We found instances of non-institutional personnel or teacher-on-teacher inappropriate interaction, but nothing at the administrative level down,” he says.

With this decision he hopes to begin to create a culture where staff are not afraid to point out behavior like what Ahearn exhibited and know that the allegations will be investigated.

Both items were not discussed during the general meeting, but approved along with an agenda of other action.

The case against Ahearn

The formal investigation into Ahearn began September 25, 2012, but the concerns started well before that.

Over at least the past 11 months, staff at Holiday Hill Elementary School had noticed the changing, deteriorating behavior of Principal Denise Ahearn, according to formal investigations performed by the Office of Professional Standards and the Office of Equity and Inclusion under Duval County Public Schools.

Elementary School Executive Director Beverly Walker says in July 2012 she attempted to contact Ahearn through a number of ways, a number of times, but with no success until she met Ahearn in person. At that time, Ahearn said she had no knowledge of the contact attempts.

According to the Office of Professional Standards report, Walker fielded a complaint from a Supervisor, Patricia Maury. Maury was involved in a parent meeting with Ahearn, during which Ahearn was disengaged. The parent accidentally referred to a portable as a “trailer”, and Ahearn quickly corrected her and then randomly said “portable” a number of times during the meeting for no apparent reason. When the parent was leaving, the report says Ahearn walked up behind the parent and said “portable, portable, portable.”

On a later trip to the campus, Walker was outside with Ahearn when Ahearn stopped and stared at a tree silently for about eight minutes, before abruptly then walking away.

Among the other complaints Walker either witnessed or learned about are claims that Ahearn dances provocatively in the presence of students, fixated on mushrooms and wasps on campus, was disengaged during classroom observations, and spoke often of seeing her dead cat.

Further claims

One interviewee, whose name was redacted from the report, says on a number of occasions, Ahearn “would instruct students to obtain jelly beans to place down the shirt of (redacted).” That same person witnessed her picking at the paint on the walls for up to 30 minutes at a time, allowing students to dance on the school cafeteria stage unsupervised.

Ahearn’s dress has become tighter and shorter, according to the interview with a Holiday Hill teacher. Several other teachers and administrators report Ahearn’s obsession with trees and mushrooms, as well as her disengagement in the classroom.

One teacher told the investigator Ahearn told her one of her students had cancer. After much confusion, the parents told the school the students did not, in fact, have cancer. Ahearn says the front office staff told her about the student, but none of the front office assistants spoken with had any knowledge of that conversation.

Yet another complaint discussed with the investigator came from an unidentified man who witnessed Ahearn spend a lot of time with another male, whose name was also redacted. The interviewee says Ahearn would block the man from leaving his office, and even told the interviewee she had seen the man driving by her home with “I love you” written in his back window.

He further says Ahearn “approached the window on the door and licked it approximately five times while he was sitting in his office with another school employee. On another occasion, Ahearn apparently tried to fog the window and licked it again. She also made references to Fifty Shades of Grey while speaking with him and danced very close to him while students were present.

Investigation in to sexual misconduct

The Office of Equity and Inclusion report specifically dealt with the allegation of “inappropriate conduct (sexual)”, which they found sufficient evidence to support.

In addition to some of the behavior discussed above, this report also details racially derogatory remarks made in the presence of Ahearn, staff and students, where Ahearn did not intervene. It also details more reports of licking glass, ruffling hair or touching the face of staff members.

Ahearn defends her actions

This report also says Ahearn confirms some of her behavior, like comments on Fifty Shades of Grey or blocking the doorway, but says they were all done in a joking manner. She says she exposed her tongue when a door she was trying to enter was locked, but did not lick the window.

Many of the interviews, however, said the behavior was “sexual in nature and disturbing” rather than joking.

Findings on Ahearn and Reed

Both offices found violations on behalf of Ahearn. The Office of Professional Standards says “there was substantial evidence to sustain the charges of the gross exercise of poor judgment, inappropriate communication to and in the presence of staff, inappropriate conduct toward and in the presence of staff, and harassment of staff that interferes with their performance or work.”

Reed pled guilty last week to child abuse, a charge reduced from what she was first facing following allegations of a sexual relationship with a student. Part of her plea includes not working in schools.