Parents at Baldwin Middle-Senior High School are demanding answers after learning that the district's newly appointed principal, Dr. Michael Smith, has been the subject of at least three separate misconduct investigations in his Duval County Public Schools personnel file dating back to 2016. Smith was appointed to lead the campus after the previous principal was arrested for failing to report possible teacher sexual misconduct, a sequence that has left some families questioning whether the district vetted its choice carefully enough.
According to Action News Jax, which obtained Smith's personnel file from Baldwin's school advisory council, two of the three investigations were ultimately deemed unsubstantiated while one was substantiated and resulted in discipline. Baldwin High School Advisory Council chair Michelle Petty told the outlet that parents should have been made aware of the allegations before Smith took the job. “Many parents are choosing other alternatives because they cannot trust the school system,” Petty said, according to the same report.
A 2016 Complaint and a Verbal Warning
Personnel records reviewed by News4JAX show that Smith's first complaint came in 2016, while he was assistant principal at Atlantic Coast High School. A parent reported that Smith watched her daughter, remarked that she looked like his friend's wife, held a photo next to the student's face, and followed her to the library to FaceTime his friend to show off the resemblance. The district resolved that complaint through its progressive discipline plan, issuing Smith a verbal warning.
A second complaint arose in 2022, when a coach reported that Smith often hugged another female student and called her sweetheart, and that he disrupted team practice to check on her, per Action News Jax reporting. That investigation was found unsubstantiated.
The 2024 Complaint and Reassignment
The most recent complaint came in 2024, when a parent reported that Smith was acting inappropriately with her daughter, allegedly stroking the student's hair, standing too close to her, and covering her eyes while saying “guess who.” The 2024 complaint was reported to DCPS police, and video evidence reviewed during the investigation confirmed the unsubstantiated finding, according to Action News Jax.
Despite that unsubstantiated result, the article notes that Duval County Public Schools also reported the 2024 incident to the Florida Department of Children and Families and the Florida Department of Education, as detailed by Jacksonville Today. Smith was then reassigned in February 2025 to Jean Ribault High School with a salary increase, and he went on to receive an overall performance rating of “effective”—the second-highest mark on the district's four-point evaluation scale—for the 2024–25 school year in November 2025.
District Defends Its Vetting Process
DCPS has said the hiring manager completed appropriate due diligence before appointing Smith, reviewing his background check, references, and personnel file. The district has also drawn a distinction between Smith's record and the case that vacated the Baldwin principal seat in the first place, stating that an unsubstantiated allegation is materially different from a statutory violation related to failure to report. District spokesperson Tatyana Wimberly maintained that appropriate due diligence was conducted during hiring, though DCPS declined to make Superintendent Christopher Bernier available for an interview, per the Jacksonville Today report. DCPS did not provide Smith's full personnel file to Action News Jax in time for its report, and Smith himself did not respond to the outlet's request for comment.
Why Baldwin Families Are on Edge
The unease traces back to the arrest of former Baldwin Middle-Senior High School Principal Michael Aaron Townsend, who was taken into custody on a third-degree felony charge of failure to report child abuse after law enforcement alleged he failed to act on warnings about an inappropriate relationship between a teacher and a student, as First Coast News reported. Townsend was released on a $10,000 bond following his arrest.
That case stemmed from the arrest of Baldwin social studies teacher James Mulvey, who was taken into custody on May 22, 2026 on charges of offenses against students by authority figures after a student alerted police to private emails exchanged between Mulvey and a juvenile student, according to Jacksonville Today's earlier coverage. Mulvey later pleaded not guilty in Duval County court in July 2026. Hoodline previously reported on Mulvey's arrest and its ripple effects on the Baldwin campus. In May 2026, Baldwin students had already created an online compilation titled “The Mulvey Files” to document alleged inappropriate teacher behavior, according to News4JAX, reflecting concern that warning signs had gone unaddressed before law enforcement intervened.
Parents Say They Want Smith Removed
Kristen Nesmith, who has a teenage son and daughter attending the school, said parents with daughters want Smith removed from the principal's seat, according to Action News Jax. Petty, who has a daughter in 11th grade at Baldwin, called the conduct described in Smith's file concerning and said DCPS has acknowledged understanding the concerns raised by the Baldwin school community.
The Legal Backdrop for Reporting Failures
Under Florida Statute § 39.205, any educator or school administrator who knowingly and willfully fails to report known or suspected child abuse to the Florida Abuse Hotline commits a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, according to the Florida Department of Children and Families. Florida elevated mandatory reporting failures from a misdemeanor to a third-degree felony in 2012.
Separately, Florida Administrative Code Rule 6A-10.082 requires local school district superintendents to notify the Florida Department of Education within 24 hours of learning about arrests or substantiated misconduct allegations involving administrative or instructional personnel, a compliance duty intended to safeguard student safety statewide. And as of July 1, 2026, statutory amendments toll the statute of limitations for prosecuting mandatory reporting violations under § 39.201 until law enforcement or an outside government agency becomes aware of the failure to report, according to the Sammis Law Firm, closing a loophole that previously allowed internal district delays to extinguish criminal liability.
