Clay County Superintendent David Broskie told the School Board on September 3 that a third-party investigation into the district’s volunteer screening led to nine policy changes. The timeline does not support that claim.
Clay News & Views has reviewed board meeting records from July 23, August 6, and September 3. The nine recommendations Broskie credited to the outside investigator match a list the district’s own safety director presented publicly three weeks before that investigator, by Broskie’s own account, had reported any findings.
CN&V has also been seeking the investigation report itself since September 3. The district has twice cited exemptions that do not match Florida’s public records law.
The Case
Mikal Detoro volunteered as a wrestling coach at Wilkinson Junior High until his arrest in April. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office says he was caught in a sting operation, attempting to have sex with an underage boy in his Jeep. CN&V has reported that Detoro did not have a completed, cleared Level 2 background check, and that his criminal record dates back to 2008.
Detoro’s brother, Mark, is the head wrestling coach at Ridgeview High School. Mark and his wife, Whitni, own Iron Forge Wrestling Academy, which operates inside Ridgeview’s gym.
The Timeline
On July 23, district safety director Matt Boyack presented nine recommendations on volunteer screening to the School Board at a workshop meeting. The list included tighter background screening, clearer distinctions between Level 1 and Level 2 volunteers, more consistent handbooks, and a new district portal for tracking volunteers.
On August 6, Broskie told the board he had ordered both an internal investigation and an external investigation by a Tallahassee law firm. He said the findings would determine whether employees had violated policy. At that point, no findings had been reported publicly.
On September 3, Broskie updated the board; he said:
“We conducted an independent investigation by a third-party investigator out of Tallahassee. As a result of that, their recommendation was really nine things that have already been instituted.”
He went on to list the same nine items Boyack had presented on July 23: rescinding and replacing Board Policy 9200, expanding Level 2 background checks to more volunteer categories, raising the standard for Level 1 volunteers, aligning district handbooks, improving the volunteer application process, training employees, having principals and coaches sign attestations, reviewing about 3,000 existing Level 2 files, and creating a new “One Clay” portal for tracking volunteers.
Broskie also said discipline had been completed. “Appropriate disciplinary action was taken and applied to those people responsible for policy and communication oversights,” he said. “They’ve completed their work.”
The Gap
The recommendations Broskie credited to the outside investigator were already public before that investigator, by his own account, had reported anything.
At most, his September 3 remarks describe an outside investigator reviewing and endorsing a list the district’s own staff had already presented.
Broskie did not name the investigator or the firm. He did not say what the firm found, how Detoro came to serve as a volunteer without a completed background check, or who was disciplined and how.
He did not mention Iron Forge, Mark Detoro’s coaching role, or two earlier cases CN&V has reported involving Clay County wrestling programs.
The Records Delay
CN&V requested the full investigation report on September 3. After more than two weeks without a status update, CN&V sent a written follow-up on September 21.
The district responded the same day. In an email from its public records department, the district stated that its legal team had reviewed the request and determined the report is exempt under “Florida Statutes 119.071(d)1 and 119.07(3)(d).”
Neither citation matches the current text of Florida’s public records law. The first is missing a subsection number required to identify a specific exemption under section 119.071.
The second, section 119.07(3)(d), does not appear to exist. Section 119.07 sets out the general right to inspect and copy public records and does not contain a lettered list of exemptions; Florida’s substantive exemptions are codified in section 119.071.
One possibility is that the district intended to cite section 119.071(2)(k), which exempts a complaint of misconduct against an agency employee and the resulting investigation until the investigation is no longer active or the agency notifies the employee in writing that it has concluded.
Broskie’s own September 3 statement that discipline “has been taken and applied” and that the investigators “have completed their work” would appear to satisfy that condition.
CN&V has asked the district to provide a complete and accurate citation, along with a written statement of the basis for any exemption, as required under section 119.07(1)(e) and (f), Florida Statutes.
Unanswered Questions
CN&V sent written questions to Broskie and the district on September 21, with a response deadline of end of business Wednesday, September 24. The questions include:
Who is the outside investigator, and when was the firm engaged?
Were the nine recommendations written by the investigator, by Boyack, or both?
Did the investigation determine how Detoro volunteered without a completed background check?
How many employees were disciplined, and what discipline was applied?
Does the new policy apply to outside organizations that use district facilities, such as Iron Forge?
Has Mark Detoro’s role at Ridgeview changed since April?
What did the outside investigation cost, and will the district release the report?
The district had not responded to those questions at the time of publication.
This story will be updated with any response from the district or Superintendent Broskie.
It would appear that our local government has a transparency problem. Hopefully this issue will work itself out quickly. If this keeps up, it seems an example of the cover-up being worse than the crime...if that's possible in this particular case.