With state Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas vowing to prevent her from teaching again, an Alachua County teacher is fighting a disciplinary case that includes allegations she presented a certificate to a student that said he was the most likely to “become a dictator.”
Teacher Lauren Watts’ challenge went this week to the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings, where a judge will be assigned to consider it. Watts’ attorneys disputed the state’s allegations, which also included that the teacher’s “conduct embarrassed and disparaged” the student.
“Each of these statements is false, intentionally misleading and not supported by the ‘investigation’ and are, therefore, in dispute,” Watts’ attorneys wrote in a Sept. 12 document known as an “election of rights,” which led to the Department of Education sending the case to the Division of Administrative Hearings on Wednesday.
The Sept. 12 document also took issue with the department’s handling of the case, contending that no “actual investigation was conducted, and no witnesses were sought or interviewed” and that an administrative complaint against Watts was “disseminated publicly via X.com prior to Ms. Watts receiving formal notice of the complaint, investigation, or probable cause determination.”
Kamoutsas issued the administrative complaint Aug. 21, after the student’s mother raised concerns at a State Board of Education meeting. The administrative complaint said that during the 2022-2023 school year, Watts, a social-studies teacher at Gainesville High School, allowed the student to be disparaged by other students when they suggested he was a “Hitler sympathizer.”
The administrative complaint alleged that Watts presented a certificate to the student in front of his peers “proclaiming (the student) the most likely member of the class to become a dictator, based on comments made by (the student) that respondent (Watts) interpreted to be conservative in nature. Respondent’s conduct embarrassed and disparaged (the student).”
The student’s name is redacted in the administrative complaint.
Kamoutsas said during a Sept. 24 State Board of Education meeting that he will “take every necessary action to ensure that this teacher never teaches again.”
Kamoutsas and the Board of Education have clashed with Alachua County school officials on a number of issues, including allegations that the local board has violated First Amendment and parental rights during meetings. During the Sept. 24 State Board of Education meeting, Kamoutsas said state education officials continue “to be concerned about the toxic culture that has infiltrated school board meetings in Alachua County as parents have been targeted simply for voicing their conservative opinions.”
In addition to disputing the allegations, Watts’ attorneys in the Sept. 12 document took issue with Kamoutsas, saying that a statement he made about Watts being prevented from teaching again furthered a “clear unwillingness for the department to provide Ms. Watts the process and impartiality required by law.”
–Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida
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