{"id":396697,"date":"2026-09-11T09:02:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T09:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/396697\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T09:02:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T09:02:25","slug":"new-baldwin-principal-has-history-of-misconduct-complaints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/396697\/","title":{"rendered":"New Baldwin principal has history of misconduct complaints"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the former principal at Baldwin Middle-Senior High School was arrested<\/a> and charged with failing to report possible teacher sexual misconduct, the school in western Duval County was assigned a new principal, Michael Smith \u2014 who himself has been the subject of multiple investigations for alleged inappropriate conduct toward students, newly released personnel records show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jacksonville Today received the records through a public records request filed with Duval Schools. The records included copies of three professional standards investigations of Smith since 2016.<\/p>\n

The complaints claimed Smith had made students uncomfortable with comments, unwanted attention and inappropriate physical contact. Two of the three complaints were found to be unsubstantiated, but one of those was reported to police anyway \u2014 about 18 months before Smith\u2019s appointment at Baldwin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The school district did not make Superintendent Christopher Bernier available for an interview about the appointment. Jacksonville Today contacted Smith through his office and cellphones and through text message, but he did not respond before this story\u2019s publication.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Spokesperson Tatyana Wimberly says the district \u201ccompleted appropriate due diligence, including reviewing [Smith\u2019s] background check, references, and personnel file.\u201d <\/p>\n

The complaints<\/p>\n

Duval Schools first hired Smith in July 2016 as an assistant principal at Atlantic Coast High School. Two months into his first school year, the principal received an email from a parent saying Smith had made her daughter uncomfortable by staring at her and then FaceTiming a friend of his to show him how much the student resembled the friend\u2019s wife.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The incident was substantiated and Smith was given a verbal warning Oct. 18, 2016 \u2014 the first step in the district\u2019s progressive discipline process. His evaluation that school year was \u201cneeds improvement,\u201d though the principal noted: \u201cDr. Smith has been a pleasure to mentor and work with this year. I believe he has a future as a principal in Duval County.\u201d<\/p>\n

In April 2022, when Smith was an assistant principal at Atlantic Coast High School, an athletic coach reported Smith for giving what the coach considered an intense amount of attention to one female student.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe hugs her and calls her sweetheart,\u201d the coach\u2019s account reads. \u201cI\u2019ve seen her after the tardy bell being escorted to class by him while other students were told to get tardy slips.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The district investigated but determined the claims were \u201cnot substantiated.\u201d The documents provided by Duval Schools do not say why.<\/p>\n

Records show he was transferred to First Coast High School in mid-2023.<\/p>\n

New allegations came at the new school. In December 2024, a First Coast High parent reported Smith through the FortifyFL app<\/a>, a reporting tool that allows students and parents to relay information directly to police and school officials. <\/p>\n

The parent reported that their daughter said Smith \u201chas engaged in inappropriate behavior, including stroking her hair, standing too close to her, and covering her eyes while asking her to guess who he is, among other actions,\u201d the report reads. The parent said the student \u201cfeels unsafe and fears that his behavior could escalate.\u201d<\/p>\n

An employee misconduct report says that the complaint was \u201cnot substantiated,\u201d but that Smith was disciplined with coaching (which is not part of the progressive discipline process and therefore doesn\u2019t count toward potential suspension or termination).<\/p>\n

At the end of the district\u2019s investigation, in February 2025, Smith was assigned to another school, Jean Ribault High, and given higher pay.\u00a0The investigation report references Smith\u2019s reassignment.<\/p>\n

Duval Schools reported the incident to its police department, to the state Department of Children and Families, and to the state education department. Jacksonville Today requested a copy of the police report but has not received it as of this story\u2019s publication.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smith received a rating of \u201ceffective\u201d on his 2024-25 evaluation, which was completed in November 2025.\u00a0\u201cEffective\u201d is the second-highest rating on a four-point scale.<\/p>\n

Becoming Baldwin principal<\/p>\n

Last month, Smith was assigned to Baldwin Middle-Senior High School as principal after former Principal Michael Townsend was arrested in late June and charged with failing to report possible teacher sexual misconduct after social studies teacher James Mulvey was charged this spring with offenses against a student by an authority figure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Duval Schools tells Jacksonville Today the circumstances surrounding Townsend\u2019s arrest differ from Smith\u2019s \u201cprior unsubstantiated allegation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe aforementioned incident included a violation of Florida\u2019s mandatory reporter law, which can never be tolerated,\u201d spokesperson Wimberly wrote in an email. \u201cAn investigation resulting in an unsubstantiated allegation is materially different from a statutory violation related to a failure to report.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wimberly also said staff told Bernier about the 2024 allegation before Smith was named Baldwin\u2019s principal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hiring manager informed him of the allegation during the hiring process and that it had been determined to be unsubstantiated. Video evidence reviewed during the investigation confirmed that finding,\u201d Wimberly wrote.<\/p>\n

Jacksonville Today has requested more information about the video referenced.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s new job came with a raise of more than 40%, bringing his current annual salary to about $115,000.<\/p>\n

Michelle Petty is the chair of Baldwin\u2019s School Advisory Committee and a Baldwin parent. She tells Jacksonville Today that while the district was interviewing candidates for the principal position this summer, parents asked them again and again to be \u201ctransparent.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to know what\u2019s going on, why things are happening the way they\u2019re happening,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

Some of the district\u2019s leaders involved in Smith\u2019s investigations were also \u201csitting in the room \u2026 hearing from all of these parents\u201d about what their community needs from a new principal and from the district.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey failed to tell us this vital piece of information that, in my opinion, is a huge thing<\/a>, considering what we just went through,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

That undermines the trust parents need to have in the district, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI trust that the district would thoroughly review the facts and make decisions with students\u2019 safety as their priority,\u201d Petty says. \u201cAnd if that didn\u2019t happen here, that\u2019s concerning.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This story was updated Thursday evening to include additional information provided by Duval Schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the former principal at Baldwin Middle-Senior High School was arrested and charged with failing to report possible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[43323,1038,113,116,118,117,99028,115],"class_list":["post-396697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-distribute","tag-duval-county-public-schools","tag-education","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jaxtdy1","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}