A Duval County family has filed a federal lawsuit against Duval County Public Schools, alleging their teenage daughter was sexually assaulted aboard her school bus and that district officials responded too slowly once they learned what happened. The girl, identified in court filings as Jane Doe, was a ninth grader at Stanton College Preparatory School at the time of the alleged assault on September 30, 2024.
According to the lawsuit, reported by WJXT News4JAX, Jane Doe experienced three separate incidents of sexual harassment and assault on the bus. The suit claims the bus driver looked directly at the accused student during the alleged assault and failed to intervene during what the family describes as a prolonged attack. It further alleges the driver handed his thermos to the accused student, who had asked for it during the incident.
Jane Doe reported the alleged assault to school administrators on October 17, 2024, more than two weeks after it allegedly occurred. Her family says they then asked the district in writing to preserve surveillance video from the bus, but the footage was not retrieved until mid-November, according to the lawsuit. In the meantime, school officials required Jane Doe to sit at the front of the bus near the driver, the suit states.
Named Defendants Span District Leadership to Bus Company
The lawsuit names the Duval County School Board, Superintendent Christopher Bernier, two Stanton administrators, a school resource officer, bus contractor Student Transportation of America, and the bus driver as defendants, as first reported by Jacksonville Today. Bernier was sworn in as superintendent on July 1, 2024, meaning he was already in office when the alleged assault occurred months later, according to Duval County Public Schools. He had previously led Lee County Public Schools in Southwest Florida before taking the Duval post following a unanimous school board selection in May 2024.
The accused student was arrested for allegedly assaulting Jane Doe and later pleaded guilty to felony battery, a third-degree felony under Florida law that can carry up to five years in prison or probation. Student Transportation of America, one of the private contractors named in the suit, operates DCPS bus routes jointly with Durham School Services across roughly 860 vehicles carrying about 48,000 daily riders, per First Coast News. The school board unanimously voted in November 2023 to terminate one of STA's contracts following complaints over safety and delays, according to Action News Jax.
Attorney Points to District's Broader Reporting History
The family's attorney has argued the case fits a broader pattern of reporting and oversight problems within DCPS, pointing to previous cases involving sexual assault at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts that were allegedly underreported, misclassified and mishandled. That claim gained weight last month when a July 2026 internal DCPS investigative report concluded that former Chief of Schools Scott Schneider knowingly failed to report allegations of child sexual abuse involving educators at Douglas Anderson, allowing risks to persist for years, according to News4JAX. Those findings emerged amid an active grand jury investigation State Attorney Melissa Nelson launched in 2024 into how the district handles abuse reports, as detailed by WOKV.
The lawsuit calls for changes in reporting practices within the district and asks for damages. DCPS launched an online reporting tool called Know the Line in late 2024, allowing parents, students and staff to report misconduct allegations directly to district officials, though that platform arrived around the same period as the alleged bus assault. Duval County Public Schools has not responded to the lawsuit, the district's report notes.
Legal Threshold Sets High Bar for Federal Claim
To win under Title IX, the family must clear the standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, which requires showing school officials had actual knowledge of peer-on-peer harassment and responded with deliberate indifference that denied the student equal access to education. The complaint specifically alleges Bernier and Stanton administrators exhibited that kind of deliberate indifference.
Curtis Fallgatter, a former federal prosecutor not associated with the case, said the claim against the bus driver appears weak, noting defense attorneys may argue the driver's primary responsibility was watching the road rather than monitoring every student interaction. Fallgatter also said the school board appears to have acted timely and correctly in addressing the issues once notified, and cautioned that past cases involving Douglas Anderson may not carry much weight in court.
Florida law caps state tort liability against public school boards at $200,000 per claimant and $300,000 per incident under Florida Statute § 768.28, unless the legislature approves a special claim bill for higher recovery, according to the Florida Senate. Federal Title IX claims carry no such sovereign immunity cap, making the federal forum central to any substantial monetary recovery or court-ordered institutional reforms in this case. Florida law also generally requires plaintiffs suing a public entity to give written pre-suit notice to the school board and the state's Department of Financial Services at least six months before filing, per the Weinstein Legal Team.
Part of a Wider Pattern of Bus Safety Concerns
The lawsuit lands amid mounting scrutiny of safety aboard Duval County school buses. In February, a 14-year-old student was stabbed on a bus headed to Matthew Gilbert Middle School, leading to attempted second-degree murder charges and renewed pressure on DCPS police to maintain onboard monitoring. The following month, Hoodline reported a stranger managed to slip onto a Duval school bus, triggering a separate safety scare after contact with a student. Just last week, Hoodline reported roughly 275 Duval bus drivers threatened a strike days before the first bell, a labor dispute involving Durham School Services, which operates alongside Student Transportation of America in the district.
