A 64-year-old paraprofessional accused of striking and shoving special-needs students at Love Grove Elementary School has been arrested on four counts of third-degree felony child abuse, months after the alleged incidents and after she skipped a reassignment to another campus. Jeanette Lynn Akers was taken into custody on October 14 on a warrant tied to allegations that she abused non-verbal or minimally verbal students in her care.
According to News4JAX, which reviewed the arrest report, Akers was transferred from the Brevard County Jail to the Pretrial Detention Facility in Jacksonville following her arrest. The outlet reports the alleged incidents occurred on May 14 at Love Grove Elementary, a school that serves students with special needs, including some with limited or no verbal communication.
Witness Accounts Describe Repeated Physical Contact
A witness told investigators that Akers yelled at students, shoved them into chairs, and struck one student with a rolled-up paper workbook, per the arrest report cited by the station. The same witness alleged Akers spanked a student and hit another student's hand as the child reached for a tablet.
The school removed Akers from the classroom the day of the alleged incidents, investigators said. She was then transferred to another Duval County Public Schools facility, but investigators say she did not report there before her arrest months later — a gap in DCPS's internal transfer process that remains unexplained.
Bond Set at More Than $100,000 Combined
The warrant lists bond at $25,003 for each count, with conditions barring Akers from any contact with minors, victims, or witnesses. She faces up to five years in state prison and a fine of up to $5,000 on each count if convicted, under Florida's third-degree felony child abuse statute, which covers intentional infliction of physical or mental injury without causing great bodily harm, according to Florida court guidance on felony classifications. She is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Florida law also classifies teachers and educational personnel as mandatory reporters, requiring them to immediately notify the state's child abuse hotline when they know or suspect abuse, under Florida Statute § 39.201. Failure to report suspected abuse can itself trigger criminal liability for staff who witness it.
A Campus With a History of Scrutiny
Love Grove Elementary serves roughly 380 Pre-K through fifth-grade students and hosts specialized Exceptional Student Education programs, including physical, occupational, and speech therapy, according to First Coast News. The campus has drawn scrutiny before: a 2017 federal civil rights lawsuit alleged staff used an unsafe drywall “discipline box” referred to as “jail” to confine special needs students, including a 3-year-old with cerebral palsy, as reported by CBS News.
In February 2020, the school drew national attention again after staff called law enforcement to involuntarily commit a 6-year-old special needs student with ADHD to a mental health facility under Florida's Baker Act, with body camera footage at the time showing officers calling the girl “pleasant” during transport.
Part of a Wider Pattern Across Duval Schools
Akers' arrest follows a string of similar cases across Duval County Public Schools in 2026. In July, district police arrested Donald Heine, a paraprofessional at Jacksonville's Alden Road Exceptional Student Center, on felony child abuse charges involving a special education student; he was removed from campus while criminal and internal investigations proceeded.
That same pattern prompted Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier to publicly declare “enough is enough” in September, after multiple district educators — including a middle/high school math teacher and a substitute teacher — were arrested on child abuse and student-related charges within a single week. Hoodline previously reported on one of those cases in its Darnell-Cookman teacher charges coverage, noting that Florida Statute § 1012.315 permanently bars anyone convicted of disqualifying felonies, including child abuse, from holding a public school position with direct student contact.
Duval County Public Schools requires ESE instructional paraprofessionals to hold a high school diploma plus 60 college semester hours, or a passing Praxis Paraprofessional exam score, and assigns them to spend at least 80% of their workday assisting teachers with instruction, discipline, and childcare needs under direct supervision of certified ESE classroom teachers. News4JAX said it was waiting for a response from Duval County Public Schools after reaching out for comment.
