Duval County Public Schools reassign 2 teachers following weekend arrests
Florida Times-Union | by Dan Scanlan | November 11 2020
Two Duval County Public Schools employees have been reassigned after their arrests on separate cases, district officials said.
The charges against the employees, one a paraprofessional and the other a physical education teacher, appear to have no direct relationship to their school duties.
“Both employees have been reassigned to roles outside of their schools involving no contact with students pending the outcome of external investigations by law enforcement and internal investigations,” according to a statement released by the district.
Demetrius Azikiwe Williams, 37, was arrested early Saturday on a charge of child abuse and released on bail the next day, according to Duval County jail records. A paraprofessional at First Coast High School, her heavily redacted arrest report indicates that something happened when someone was asked to put a mask on.
The victim’s age and gender were not released, but the Florida Department of Children and Families was contacted, the report said. It also states that the weapon used was a “non-deadly switch.”
Williams was hired in 2009 as an athletic coach at Raines High School, then became a full-time paraprofessional there in 2010 before being fired in mid-2012, the district said. She was re-hired in 2017 as a full-time paraprofessional at Palm Avenue Exceptional Center, then moved in July 2018 to First Coast High School.
The other employee is adaptive physical education teacher Pierre Jean Louis, arrested Friday by the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, the district said.
No record of Louis’ arrest or charge is listed in the Clay County jail intake records or clerk of courts, and the Sheriff’s Office could not fulfill a records request due to the Veterans Day holiday. But the school district said Louis was hired in 2017 to work at Garden City Elementary School, then was working at Loretto, Mandarin Oaks and Greenland Pines elementary schools at the time of his arrest.
Both teachers are under investigation by the district’s Office of Equity and Inclusion/Professional Standards.
