A Gainesville High School (GHS) history teacher is fighting a legal case to keep her teaching certification after Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas said he found probable cause against her license over bullying accusations.
Records show that Lauren Watts filed her case with the state’s Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH) on Oct. 1. Judge Yolonda Green has been assigned to consider the case.
Watts’ case stems from an incident during the 2022-23 school year that was brought up by a parent at the Aug. 20 State Board of Education meeting.
During the public comment portion of that meeting, Dr. Crystal Marull said her older son’s history teacher – referring to Watts – “allowed students to label him a Naziphile, simply for his interest in World War II history and participation in ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps).”
Holding up a certificate at the lectern, Marull said Watts later nominated her son “as the most likely to become a dictator,” adding Watts “had his classmates vote on it and try to force him to the front of the class to receive the certificate,” which he refused.
In an administrative complaint filed with the state’s Education Practices Commission (EPC), Kamoutsas, the petitioner, accused Watts of allowing students to “disparage” Marull’s son during the 2022-23 school year after his classmates suggested that he was a “Hitler sympathizer.”
Attorneys representing Watts disputed the above allegations by Kamoutsas in a Sept. 12 document referred to as “Election of Rights for Ms. Lauren Watts.”
“Each of these statements is false, intentionally misleading and not supported by the ‘investigation’ and are, therefore, in dispute,” the attorneys wrote in the document. “Furthermore, the material allegations contained in the Administrative Complaint are insufficient to support the statutory and rule violations alleged.”
In the document, the attorneys also raise concerns about how the FLDOE handled Watts’ case. They claim the administrative complaint was distributed publicly via Twitter/X “prior to [Watts] receiving formal notice of the complaint, investigation, or probable cause determination.”
The attorneys further argue that “No actual investigation was conducted, and no witnesses were sought or interviewed,” and “probable cause was found simultaneously, on the same day, with the opening of the case.”
In a X post with pictures of the administrative complaint below, Kamoutsas said he would “take every necessary action to ensure [Watts] never teaches again.”
He reiterated these comments at the Sept. 24 state board meeting, in which he announced the probable cause findings against Watts’ teaching certification.
In the document, the attorneys expressed concern with Kamoutsas’ remarks, saying his comments about preventing Watts from teaching again further “a clear unwillingness for the Department [of Education] to provide Ms. Watts the process and impartiality required by law.”
When news first broke about the accusations against Watts, Jackie Johnson, spokesperson for Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS), told Mainstreet that she was placed on administrative leave while an investigation was carried out.
In an email reply to Mainstreet on Monday afternoon, Johnson confirmed that Watts was still on administrative leave.
Nick Anschultz is a Report for America corps member and writes about education for Mainstreet Daily News. This position is supported by local donations through the Community Catalyst for Local Journalism Fund at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.