District spokesperson Sonya Duke-Bolden declined to comment Monday, citing the pending suits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Representatives from the state education department and Moms for Liberty did not respond to requests for comment by this story\u2019s publication.<\/p>\n
Questions around complaints<\/p>\n
McMath, who teaches AP Art History part-time at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, has been reassigned to administrative duty since mid-September. Bartlett, a paraprofessional who works with children on the autism spectrum at Oak Hill Academy, was pulled from her classroom in early October.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The circumstances that led the district to remove the teachers remain unclear.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In McMath\u2019s case, Action News reported at first<\/a> that her Sept. 15 removal came after a Facebook post criticizing Jacksonville City Council member Rory Diamond over his proposal to limit city spending on undocumented immigrants and on diversity, equity and inclusion programs. In her post, she referred to Diamond as a \u201cgrand wizard,\u201d a reference to the Ku Klux Klan.<\/p>\n Later, during conversations with district investigators, Phillips and McMath say they learned DCPS opened its investigation in response to a Sept. 12 complaint from Moms for Liberty, which the group sent to various district and state officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n The message, which Jacksonville Today obtained screenshots of from a recipient, says Moms for Liberty members were initially concerned about a post McMath made after Kirk\u2019s death. The Facebook post said, \u201cKarma\u2019s a b**** \u2013 and she heard all your speeches when you proudly proclaimed that you didn\u2019t give a s*** about other people\u2019s lives.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t feel like that alone warranted a letter to you,\u201d the email reads. \u201cHowever, a deeper dive into Ms. McMath\u2019s posts have found us deeply concerned about bringing her personal (and radical) views into the classroom.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Phillips said Monday that the district has not provided the Moms for Liberty complaint to him or his client, despite repeated requests. Jacksonville Today also requested the complaint but has not received it.\u00a0<\/p>\n The legal filing says McMath told her students that they were not allowed to follow her on social media, and blocked students or parents she saw that did follow her.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bartlett was removed Oct. 6 after reposting a TikTok post after Kirk\u2019s death. On Monday, Bartlett said the post emphasized \u201cthere are bigger issues\u201d than Kirk\u2019s death.<\/p>\n \u201cI did not agree with almost anything that he said, but I didn\u2019t agree that he should have died that way,\u201d Bartlett said. \u201cBut the point was that I did not agree with the man and that there are other issues.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the lawsuit, Duval Schools has told Bartlett \u201cnothing about her Complaint, her complainant, or the status of any investigation.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Bartlett said she spends seven hours a day sitting alone in a large room with no windows at the district\u2019s headquarters. The legal complaint characterizes it as \u201cisolation for hours a day as punishment as a result of a political debate where an unknown complainant felt offended.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy mental health has gone down dramatically,\u201d Bartlett, 20, said Monday. \u201cI mean, you can imagine having to sit in an empty room with no windows for seven hours every day for two months? That\u2019ll do something to you.\u201d<\/p>\n Comparing speech<\/p>\n The teachers\u2019 lawsuits also seem to question whether there\u2019s a double standard in the district for who is allowed to express political speech and who is not \u2014 by referring to the October school board meeting<\/a>, where four members wore bright pink T-shirts that read \u201cThis is the Turning Point.\u201d<\/p>\n School Board Chair Joyce said the idea for the shirts came to her as she watched the memorial service for Kirk, who founded Turning Point USA in 2012 to promote political conservatism among college students.<\/p>\n From the dais during that meeting, Joyce said she\u2019d asked the board in a group chat who wanted shirts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jacksonville Today received a copy of the message through a public records request. In it, members Carney, Bolduc and Blount replied \u201cyes.\u201d Carney and Bolduc wore their shirts to the Oct. 7 meeting. Blount did not. He didn\u2019t respond to a request asking why.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/m4l-complaint.jpg\")
Screenshots show a note sent to several local and state education officials on Sept. 12. | Provided to Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dcps-school-board-group-chat-shirts.jpg\")
This group text thread shows discussion among Duval School Board members over Charlotte Joyce\u2019s idea to wear \u201cThis is the Turning Point\u201d T-shirts to the October board meeting. | Provided by Duval Schools<\/p>\n