Judge: Teacher put on blast by state officials should be reprimanded, not suspended

An Alachua County teacher should be issued a written letter of reprimand for allowing classmates to label a student the “most likely to become a dictator” during the 2022-2023 school year, an administrative judge ruled.

This recommendation came more than a year after former Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas vowed to “take every necessary action to ensure this teacher never teaches again.”

Lauren Watts, a world history teacher at Gainesville High School, was cast into the public spotlight last year by Kamoutsas and a mom who told the State Board of Education the teacher had given her son that label in history class years before. 

The administrative judge did not find that Watts intentionally embarrassed the student. She did find that Watts violated the Principles of Professional Conduct for the Education Profession by not making a “reasonable effort to protect the student from conditions harmful to learning and/or to the student’s mental and/or physical health and/or safety.”

A teacher chose to designate a student as the “most likely to become a dictator.” A parent brought this issue to my attention. I immediately took action to investigate the issue. I found probable cause and will take every necessary action to ensure this teacher never teaches again.

— Anastasios Kamoutsas (@StasiKamoutsas) August 21, 2025

Despite Kamoutsas’ vow to keep Watts from teaching ever again, the state ultimately tried for a one-year suspension of her teaching certificate followed by two years of probation, but was unsuccessful. Additionally, the state tried for a $1,000 fine and a written reprimand in her certification file.

Judge Yolanda Green recommended a written reprimand be issued against Watts and that a suspension was not necessary.

Due process

The Florida Education Association said the ruling “strongly upholds Florida educators’ fundamental right to due process.”

Kamoutsas, according to the FEA, “filed an administrative complaint without conducting the statutorily required investigation or giving Ms. Watts her statutorily required opportunity to respond.”

The student’s mother brought the incidents to Kamoutsas’ attention during an August 2025 Board of Education meeting in which board members questioned Alachua County School Board members about unrelated matters.

The mother identified herself as a “proud conservative” during the meeting, calling the district “toxic for conservative families.”

The alleged treatment of her son was “all because of his conservative values and our perspectives,” she said. 

According to Kamoutsas’ formal complaint, Watts “allowed students to disparage” the son, a ninth grader at the time, “when students suggested that [the student] was a Hitler sympathizer.”

Kamoutsas posted to social media last year that he’d complained to the Education Practices Commission one day after the parent brought the matter to his attention. 

The student’s mother did not testify during the formal administrative hearing. 

According to statements in the record of the investigation, a student “testified that at the beginning of the lesson about Hitler, Ms. Watts remarked that every year a student ‘falls in love with Hitler.’” 

According to statements on the record, a student “recalled no one saying [the student] was a Hitler sympathizer in that moment.”

A classmate testified that “another student said [the student in question and one other] looked like they would sympathize with Hitler. [The other student] distinctly recalled that Ms. Watts ‘shut it down’ by telling students to ‘stop because it was inappropriate and we weren’t allowed to say that type of stuff,’” according to the ruling.

“This ruling sends a clear message: Florida’s educators have a right to due process,” Spar said in a news release. “But what happened to Ms. Watts goes beyond due process. The Commissioner made an unsubstantiated claim that Ms. Watts intentionally targeted a student for their political views, rallying the public against her before the facts were established.”

The investigation was launched as State Board of Education grilled Alachua County School Board members during a series of hearings over allegedly politically charged remarks.

“Rather than targeting educators online or subjecting them to the court of public opinion, state leaders should focus on strengthening public schools and fostering environments where every student can pursue their dreams,” Spar said. 

The court record references comments from the student in question that Watts “displayed a Black Lives Matter and Pride flags in her classroom, but did not display other flags.”

Superlative

As for the “dictator” superlative, the investigation found the awards were peer-nominated.

“[The student] took a photo of the whiteboard and sent it to his family group chat, stating, ‘so the only negative thing on the board, I was voted for,’” the ruling states, adding that Watts later encouraged the class to nominate other students for the dictator superlative. 

The student felt “embarrassed” and did not say anything privately to Watts, according to the ruling. He did not walk to the front of the class to receive the award. 

“[The student] stated that based on his personal family experience he did not want to be associated with dictators and felt the superlative was a gross misrepresentation of his character,” the ruling states. 

The student identified himself as “a big history aficionado.”

“[The student] was questioned about screenshots of a public YouTube channel that he created and managed called ‘The Student T.M. Manifesto’ (a play on the Communist Manifesto); a photo of him wearing a Soviet-style hat; as well as a social media post in which he stated he wanted to be a ‘Central African dictator.’ [The student] authenticated the screenshots but explained these were jokes or were related to his interest in history, not indications that he wanted to be a dictator,” the ruling states.

The student said he could not say that Watts intended to embarrass him and acknowledged the superlatives activity was voluntary.

Watts has no other negative notices on her record.

Watts testified she would have stopped the activity had she known a student was upset. Afterward, when she learned the student was unhappy, she sent an apology to the student’s mother.

Now president of Polk State College, Kamoutsas’ tenure as education commissioner was marked by him putting local education officials on blast via social media for various perceived grievances, including the appropriateness of library materials in schools.

In the specific post in which Kamoutsas called for the teacher to lose her livelihood, state Rep. Taylor Yarkosky, a Republican from Montverde, replied that Kamoutsas was displaying “excellent work and leadership.”