A Jacksonville mother says her sixth-grade son was secretly photographed inside a bathroom stall at Chaffee Trail Middle School, and that the image was then shared with other people. The alarming account, shared by the boy's mother, has put new scrutiny on a Westside campus that has already drawn attention for safety concerns since it opened.
The mother's account was first reported by First Coast News, which detailed her claim that someone photographed her son inside a restroom at the school and circulated the picture afterward. Chaffee Trail Middle School serves grades 6 through 8 on Jacksonville's Westside, according to Duval County Public Schools, and opened to students in August 2024.
A Campus Already Under the Microscope
Chaffee Trail has faced scrutiny before. The station's report arrives against the backdrop of a campus that reported 117 fights during the 2024-25 school year, the highest total of any school in Florida at any grade level, according to a report from Jax Today. In response, the school moved sixth graders to the first floor, hired additional security guards and stationed more adults in high-traffic areas after boundary changes had reduced enrollment.
The same outlet reported that Chaffee Trail's principal said those changes produced roughly a 50% reduction in incidents at the school. Per the same account, Duval County schools have also warned students that running toward altercations, forming crowds or recording videos could itself lead to discipline — guidance aimed at curbing the kind of bystander behavior that can turn a single incident into a wider spectacle.
What Remains Unclear
Neither the identity of the student nor the person accused of taking or sharing the photo has been made public in the reporting reviewed for this story. It is also not known what the school or law enforcement has said in response, whether an investigation is underway, or whether anyone has faced discipline or criminal charges.
Florida law does address secretly photographing someone in places where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Florida's digital-voyeurism statute specifically names a bathroom among the locations covered by that expectation, according to the Florida Senate text of the law, though it remains unclear whether the circumstances described by the mother meet the statute's requirements.
For now, the only confirmed account of what happened inside that Chaffee Trail restroom comes from the boy's mother, who says the photo was taken without his knowledge and then shared with others. No additional confirmation of her account, including from the school district or police, has been reported.
