DeSantis appointee’s family complained about a teacher. Uthmeier called for her firing

The grandchild of a DeSantis appointee is at the center of complaints filed against a teacher who Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier accused last week of trying to “cancel” an eighth-grade boy over his political views.

Uthmeier’s letter to the Superintendent of Sarasota County Schools — which he also posted on X — said his office had “been informed” that  Pine View School history teacher Elizabeth Ballard had labeled a student a misogynist, disparaged that student’s father and potentially broken state law.

“If true,” Uthmeier wrote, the allegations warranted firing her and revoking her teaching certificate. 

It was an unusual intervention by the state’s top legal authority into a local personnel matter involving a public school teacher — raising questions about how a classroom dispute reached the attorney general’s attention. 

Although Uthmeier did not name the complainants, government records reviewed by Suncoast Searchlight identify the family that appears to be at the center of the allegations. Suncoast Searchlight was able to connect that family through other public records to Lon Deckard, a business owner, Argus Foundation board member and Gov. Ron DeSantis appointee.

Deckard, who is the student’s grandfather, was appointed by DeSantis last year to State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota District Board of Trustees, along with Sarasota County School board member Karen Rose. 

Deckard has contributed more than $40,000 dollars to Republican candidates and conservative political committees in 2026 alone, according to federal and state campaign finance records. Contributions include donations to Sydney Gruters for Congress, former Florida Speaker of the House Paul Renner, who ran for governor but lost in the Republican primary and state Rep. Fiona McFarland, who seeks reelection. He also contributed to the Keep Florida Moving Forward PAC. 

Investigative reports relating to the complaints also mention the boy’s grandfather as being a supporter of the prestigious public school that his grandson attended. Numerous people familiar with the situation also corroborated the identity of the student’s family.

The records do not indicate whether Deckard was involved in those complaints, and Suncoast Searchlight could not determine how the dispute ultimately could have reached Uthmeier’s office. Deckard did not return calls or emails requesting his comment. The boy’s family declined to comment. 

Sarasota County Schools records also provide a fuller account of classroom conflicts that preceded Uthmeier’s intervention, including one involving the grandson’s comments about abortion and social media influencer Andrew Tate, disagreements over classroom behavior and a dispute that continued long after the student left the teacher’s class.

According to a heavily redacted human resources investigation obtained by Suncoast Searchlight through a public records request, the boy’s family had been raising concerns about Ballard with school officials for more than a year. 

The investigation, which was first reported on by WUSF, found no clear evidence that Ballard acted with “ill intent.” But it concluded that the student’s family could have reasonably viewed her handling of the situation as disproportionate. 

In August, Ballard received a three-day suspension.

Ballard’s case — stemming from her first HR investigation in more than 20 years of teaching, according to a review of her personnel file — illustrates, too, the high stakes environment for teachers, who operate under intense scrutiny during a time in which political figures use the internet to call out and shame private citizens. 

Uthmeier “used his platform to identify a target [and] elevate a message against her,” said Shauna Dillavou, CEO of the doxing prevention organization Brightlines. “And he did it with the state behind him.”

The records also reveal that Pine View Principal Stephen Covert told investigators that the incidents involving Ballard initially amounted to “a series of small incidences [sic] that didn’t warrant a large response at the time.” He referred the matter to human resources after the parents indicated they might take legal action.

It remains unclear what, if any, investigation Uthmeier’s office conducted before he publicly identified Ballard and asked for the school district’s response by Oct. 1.

Uthmeier’s office did not respond to a request for comment. 

“Every student deserves a classroom where they feel safe, respected, and free to learn. No student should face harassment, humiliation, or retaliation because of their beliefs or their family’s views,” said Superintendent Terry Connor in a statement. 

According to the statement, the district will examine the relevant records and respond to the Attorney General’s Office.

Ballard told Suncoast Searchlight the Attorney General’s comments and ensuing media frenzy have negatively impacted her students. She added that she had received a deluge of calls and messages of support. 

“The outpouring of support I’ve received from the community has really warmed my heart,” Ballard said.

No more talk of Andrew Tate

The origins of Ballard’s conflict with the boy and his family began in October 2024, according to the district report.

The student made comments about abortion during a U.S. history class, sparking an argument between him and “the girls in the room,” Ballard wrote in the report. The specific comment was redacted from the report. 

According to three people with direct knowledge who spoke to Suncoast Searchlight, the comment— which they said generated an uproar in class — was that the student opposed abortion unless the fetus was female.

“I told him that abortion was not a part of our curriculum and that we are not discussing the topic in class,” Ballard wrote. 

She then called the student’s parents. Ballard described the conversation as “productive,” writing that the father “mentioned [the student] had recently been watching YouTube shorts … and he thought the algorithm was suggesting Andrew Tate clips,” referring to the self-proclaimed misogynist social media influencer. 

Tate, who is currently in U.S. custody and faces charges of human trafficking and sexual abuse in Romania and the U.K., has achieved widespread attention among young male viewers, spurring a far-reaching reckoning over the influence of misogynistic content on school-aged boys.

The father said his son “was being a typical teen and not listening to Dad,” according to Ballard. She said she asked if there was a coach, uncle or another adult who might be able to talk to the student. 

Ballard wrote that she received an email from the student’s mother thanking her for the call and “how impactful it was.” 

But Ballard told investigators the student continued to make comments she considered “inappropriate.” In one instance, she said, the student “had made a comment about Andrew Tate [in class] and then said he would ‘wipe the floor’ with any female he fought.” 

Ballard then sent the student a stern email, which was included in the HR report.

“I find some of the comments you have made in class recently offensive and disrespectful to me as your teacher and women in general,” she wrote. 

She added that she believed Tate was “poisoning the minds of young men” and warned the student that if he continued to make comments “that are inappropriate for my class” she would ask him to go to the assistant principal’s office and write a referral. 

“I want to see you succeed in my class,” she wrote, “I like you and I think you have a lot of potential.”

According to a “summary of concerns” and interviews compiled by the district, Ballard spoke with a coach and a private tutor about the incidents.

The student was withdrawn from Ballard’s class the month after she first raised concerns about his behavior. 

But the dispute did not end there. Over the course of roughly a year and a half, the parents continued to meet with Pine View’s principal and sent a “Formal Retaliation Letter” to Sarasota County Schools superintendent, according to the HR report. 

In an interview with HR this February, the principal seemed to thread a careful needle in his description of the situation. According to the report, Covert described the parents as “wonderful people,” and noted that “the grandfather is very involved in supporting the school.” Covert, the report says, sought to assuage the parents’ frustrations.

“During their recent interactions, [Covert] has tried to focus on the fact their child isn’t in her classroom and to instead focus on their student’s achievements and move forward,” the report reads. 

Covert told investigators that none of the issues raised about Ballard would previously have prompted an HR investigation. That changed after the parents suggested they would take legal action — then, he decided to escalate the matter to HR.

Another incident was mentioned in the investigative file into Ballard’s handling of the student. It noted that this past January, Ballard reportedly became involved when another student in a substitute teacher’s class across the hall allegedly made a sexual comment in class. 

According to the file, the substitute teacher spoke with Ballard and other teachers about the incident, and Ballard later mentioned it to a coach. 

Student complains about grading

Ballard was the subject of at least one additional HR complaint, according to a review of public records in her personnel file, which includes only probes that have been closed. That was triggered by allegations against the teacher of “inappropriate behaviors through grading practices, sharing private information relative to the student and [making] inappropriate comments to the student.” 

In a lengthy response to the grading complaint, Ballard wrote that the student, who was not the same as the boy from the previous complaint, had complained about a poor grade on a test — one that other students had also received lower grades on than they had hoped. 

“The students were upset that their A grades weren’t high enough,” Ballard wrote, referring to some of the other students who had come into her classroom during lunch to debate their scores. Ballard wrote that she was already feeling overwhelmed by the other investigation, a strain compounded by the recent death of her dog. 

According to Ballard, after a later conversation with the student about academic expectations, the student shouted something — redacted from the report — down the hall as Ballard left the classroom. 

“Something inside me broke at that point,” wrote Ballard, who described snapping at the student to “go ahead” and report her.

Ballard wrote that her doctor recommended she take two weeks off for her health.

The HR report into the grading allegations concluded that, based on interviews, statements and documents obtained by the district, “Ms. Ballard had acted in full capacity of her responsibilities as an instructional staff member and that the student had negatively reacted to the style of instruction Ms. Ballard had provided the entire class,” and that the “allegations were not supported.” 

The complaint was closed.

Uthmeier’s letter quickly spreads beyond Sarasota

Once Uthmeier posted about the situation on X, Ballard’s name and the allegations against her quickly spread beyond Sarasota. 

Christian Ziegler, the former chair of the Republican Party of Florida whose wife, Bridget Ziegler, chairs the Sarasota County School Board, responded to Uthmeier’s post, writing that Ballard “also signed a petition to shutdown @TPUSA clubs in Sarasota County,” linking to the petition and posting a screenshot of an article about an LGBTQ+ book series Ballard had written. 

Lara Logan, a rightwing media figure who has 1.5 million followers on the social media platform, re-shared the Uthmeier post. 

Jason Means, president of Sarasota Classified/Teachers Association, said he himself first saw the news about Uthmeier’s letter on social media. He criticized the attorney general for publicly naming Ballard while the district’s process was still unfolding.

“I was disgusted,” Means said, adding that Uthmeier’s letter to the district did not reflect ongoing investigations and interrupted the district’s “due process” for handling complaints. 

“It’s way off base,” Means said. “It’s rather unfortunate that he released it [on X] and all these places, and then everybody shared it, and now are commenting on it, about this poor person who has been accused of something that she didn’t do.” 

To Dillavou, the CEO of the doxing prevention group, Uthmeier’s post naming Ballard and calling for her firing struck a familiar note.

Since Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September of last year, Dillavou said she has seen a pronounced increase in non-public figures facing public denunciations by powerful figures in politics. 

“We had folks who would post something in a private group or in a group chat with friends, and it would get screenshotted and shared and tagged, and moved upward to higher levels of influence until it reached this national audience, and then became a matter of job losses, death threats, lawsuits,” said Dillavou. 

Traci Couden, an educator who said she had filled in for Ballard while substitute teaching at Pine View and whose child had attended the school, described it as a pressure-cooker environment, where heavily involved parents scrutinize teachers. 

“I hope that Ms. Ballard keeps her job,” said Couden. “I just hope this doesn’t give the state reason to keep looking for reasons to remove teachers from classrooms.” 

Alice Herman is a watchdog/investigative reporter for Suncoast Searchlight. Email her at alice@suncoastsearchlight.org.