Sarasota County Schools is restructuring its human resources department after a third-party investigation found leadership at Riverview High School and district investigators mishandled complaints of cheating, sexual harassment and misuse of school resources.
The April report concluded the district failed to properly handle three separate complaints: one involving a Spanish teacher in the school’s prestigious International Baccalaureate program allegedly helping students cheat on oral exams; another involving the IB program director allegedly profiting from a personal business using campus resources; and a third involving a teacher allegedly behaving inappropriately with female students.
In each case, the report by consulting firm Hultman + Joshi pointed to a broader culture of fear and mistrust — noting that in some instances, staff who filed complaints were subsequently investigated themselves — leaving students and staff afraid to speak up for fear of retaliation.
Although it was not released to the public by the district, Suncoast Searchlight obtained a copy of the report and independently verified its authenticity. The version reporters obtained did not include the underlying evidence referenced in it, although the outlet was able to corroborate parts of it using documents obtained through a public records request.
Some of the report’s language was colorful, referring, for example, to administrators burying their “head[s] in the sand” and calling the findings “mindboggling” and “simply shocking.” The author of the report also acknowledged in a footnote that he previously did business with one of three staff members whose alleged misconduct he reviewed. The relationship involved the employee’s private business, which later became a focus of the complaints reviewed in the report.
The original allegations were made starting in 2020. Initial investigations within the district cleared the teachers accused of cheating and sexual harassment. But complaints continued to mount, leading the district to contract the third-party review.
Without ever directly addressing the report — or the policy violations outlined — Superintendent Terry Connor told the school board earlier this month that he would be moving future misconduct investigations out of the human resources department and into a separate office to improve its process for handling complaints.
“The common theme was failure in culture and leadership,” wrote Nikhil Joshi, who authored the report. “The targets of the concerns included three primary individuals at RHS, but all also pointed to an alleged lack of presence and leadership from RHS administration, allowing for tumult and inconsistency to foment at the floor level of the school.”
Sarasota County Schools spokesperson Craig Maniglia declined to comment on the third-party investigation, saying the matter has not been “fully resolved.”
Riverview High School Principal Erin Haughey also declined to comment when reached by a reporter Wednesday.
During a school board work session in June, Connor cast the proposed changes to the human resources department as a way to improve the district’s internal investigative processes, but did not mention the report itself or any information about the failures it had outlined.
“We certainly want to make sure every complaint receives and deserves a fair, objective and professional review,” Connor told board members. “That is our responsibility is to really determine the facts, make sure that due process and all the rights of every individual is in compliance with applicable policies and the law.”
Details of the Riverview investigation
The report focused on three separate allegations at Riverview High that had triggered internal investigations by the district’s human resources department.
The first stemmed from complaints that a Spanish teacher in the school’s IB program had allegedly allowed students to use prewritten scripts on fluency tests that were supposed to be performed off the cuff. A Riverview teacher filed the complaint in the spring of 2020, when the district had begun remote schooling due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report found the district failed to interview the students identified as receiving aid during the exam and that the veteran teacher who reported the alleged violations was later investigated in an internal complaint herself.
The Spanish teacher accused of helping students cheat no longer teaches the course in question, according to the report.
The second complaint stemmed from a swirl of rumors surrounding a teacher who was reported by a colleague for allegedly making inappropriate and sexualized comments to girls in his classes.
District records that the consultant reviewed — and Suncoast Searchlight subsequently obtained through a public records request — show that the district interviewed multiple students, including one who alleged the teacher repeatedly made comments about her body. Those documents show the HR department determined it lacked evidence to pursue disciplinary action.
Neither the Spanish teacher nor the teacher accused of inappropriate comments returned calls from reporters Wednesday.
“Even if there was some exaggeration, or a couple of students were unable to later fully corroborate certain comments, I am not sure how human resources could absolve,” wrote Joshi. “Based on these findings, it is HR 101 to at least take some actions to ensure the complainants are protected and to ensure the behavior — even if there is some mixed messaging — is reinforced by discipline or counseling to not recur.”
The final matter reviewed by Joshi involved the Riverview IB coordinator and manager of the Riverview Performing Arts Center, whose outside company charged fees to handle audio/visual services for members of the public using the district facility. The 1,000-seat facility often hosts dance recitals and other events after school hours.
An HR investigator concluded in 2020 that the arrangement violated district policy yet the business was allowed to continue operating for years, according to the report.
“It does not take much to discern a substantial appearance of impropriety and potential conflict of interest here, between private gain and public resources,” Joshi wrote.
The IB coordinator responded to multiple emails from Joshi where the coordinator insisted he had prior approval for the arrangement and noted that it had been investigated multiple times by the district, according to the report. He pointed out that Joshi, the investigator hired as an outside consultant by the district, had rented out the performing arts center while using his company’s audio/visual services for Joshi’s daughter’s dance recital.
Joshi acknowledged that he did work with the Riverview employee in 2023 when he rented out the facility.
A phone number was not immediately available for the Riverview employee who ran the audio/visual company for the performing arts center.
Board member Liz Barker confirmed to Suncoast Searchlight that the third-party investigation was “a factor” in the district’s decision to change how future complaints were handled.
Last year, the district had 323 internal investigations during the school year, Connor told board members. Board member Tom Edwards brought up the volume of complaints, attributing the increase to retaliation against teachers who file complaints.
“There’s been an influx of new complaints in the last year,” said Edwards, who added that investigations had become “weaponized.”
Board Chair Bridget Ziegler, who also did not bring up the Riverview report, indicated that some of the district’s human resources processes needed improvement.
“I think there have just been processes and perhaps practices,” she said, “that allowed potential gaps.”
Alice Herman and Derek Gilliam are investigative/watchdog reporters for Suncoast Searchlight. Email them at alice@suncoastsearchlight.org or derek@suncoastsearchlight.org.
