School teachers in Jacksonville may or may not be having sex with students. We would like to tell you which, but we can’t afford to buy the information from the school system.

We asked the question a couple of months ago. The school system got back to us, eventually, and said they would tell us how many schoolteachers have been accused of inappropriate behavior with students, but it would cost Eye on Jacksonville $107.60 for the information.

The estimated cost was: “Extensive clerical support, 5.0 hours at $21.52 per hour = $107.60.”

We demurred.

But we would still like to know.

There are stories almost daily nationwide about teachers having sex with students. But we don’t know if it occurs in Jacksonville or not.

As far as we know, the lazy local media haven’t published the information.

Curiously, no members of the School Board have asked either.

Wouldn’t they want to know?

Wouldn’t the new school superintendent want to tell the School Board members, even if they didn’t ask?

At the least, she should say, “This has been a problem elsewhere, but we don’t have it here.” That would be something they would like to advertise, wouldn’t it?

We can’t understand the lack of interest in this subject, especially given the amount of play it gets in the media when it happens.

The $107.62 charge was based on the amount of time they calculated it would take to retrieve the information. Why would it take five hours? Wouldn’t that be information a school district would have at their fingertips? Are there so many instances that it would take that long to retrieve the information?

So many questions.

These are the kind of questions the media used to ask, and get answers to. Free.

But times have changed.

These days, reporters have to pay to get public information. Maybe Eye needs to get up a crowdfunding account so that we can tell people what is going on.

Or, maybe no one cares.

[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://eyeonjacksonville.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Lloyd-Brown.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Lloyd was born in Jacksonville. Graduated from the University of North Florida. He spent nearly 50 years of his life in the newspaper business …beginning as a copy boy and retiring as editorial page editor for Florida Times Union. He has also been published in a number of national newspapers and magazines, as well as Internet sites. Married with children. Military Vet. Retired. Man of few words but the words are researched well, deeply considered and thoughtfully written.[/author_info] [/author]