Sarasota Schools responds to Uthmeier, describes complaints against Pine View teacher

Sarasota County Schools responded Wednesday to Attorney General James Uthmeier’s allegations about a teacher he said had bullied a conservative student — writing that the family of the student had submitted multiple complaints that the district was in the process of handling, or had closed.

The dispute between Elizabeth Ballard, a history teacher at Sarasota’s competitive public magnet school Pine View, and the politically connected family of one of her former students stretches back nearly two years and continued long after the student left her class, according to the district.

Although the dispute began while the student was in Ballard’s class in October 2024, no human resources complaints were filed against the teacher until January 2026, after the family’s repeated complaints over more than a year culminated in threats of legal action against the district. The district’s response to Uthmeier shows the family has since filed two more.

The student’s grandfather, Lon Deckard, is a Gov. Ron DeSantis appointee to State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota District Board of Trustees and a Republican donor, though publicly available records do not indicate whether Deckard was personally involved in the complaints.

On Sept. 21, the ongoing dispute escalated suddenly when Uthmeier sent a public letter to the school district and posted about it on the social media site X, where he wrote that his office had received information that Ballard had bullied a student for his political views. 

“If true,” he wrote, Ballard should be fired and have her teaching license revoked. 

Ballard, meanwhile, has characterized the dispute differently. In a school district human resources report obtained by Suncoast Searchlight, Ballard wrote that “being accused of targeting a student when I am following the Student Code of Conduct is very uncomfortable,” adding that she feels she is “being targeted by this family.”

Jason Means, the president of Sarasota Classified/Teachers Association, has said Uthmeier’s allegations bear little resemblance to complaints filed at the district level against Ballard. 

Ballard said she received an “outpouring of support” after Uthmeier posted about her. 

Pine View community members have circulated a petition in support of Ballard, calling on the district to conduct a “fair, thorough and respectful process.” It had garnered signatures from more than 230 people identified as parents and students, in addition to 100 community members and Pine View alumni earlier this week. 

The district’s response to Uthmeier, who had requested an answer by Oct. 1, outlines four complaints involving Ballard. Three came from the family at the center of the dispute. 

The fourth came from a different student and alleged inappropriate grading, disclosure of private information and inappropriate comments — allegations the district found not supported and closed the case. 

The first complaint involving the family stemmed from incidents in October 2024 and alleged that Ballard behaved unprofessionally and targeted a student. 

Those interactions began after the student allegedly invoked the self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate and made disruptive comments in class. The student’s most inflammatory remark, according to people with direct knowledge, was that he opposed abortion except for female fetuses.

Ballard contacted the student’s parents after he allegedly made that comment, and then emailed the student directly after she said the behavioral issue continued, according to public records Suncoast Searchlight reviewed. That student was removed from her class the following month.

According to a human resources report, Pine View principal Stephen Covert viewed that situation, and another outlined in that complaint involving a student who allegedly made a sexual remark in a substitute teacher’s class, as “a series of small incidences [sic] that didn’t warrant a large response at the time.” Covert filed an HR report more than a year after that incident, when the family indicated they were considering taking legal action. 

The district ultimately found Ballard had not acted with “ill intent” but concluded the student’s parents could have reasonably interpreted her handling of situations involving him as disproportionate.

In August, the district suspended Ballard for three days without pay.

A second complaint arose from an incident in May this year. According to Sarasota County Schools attorney Patrick Duggan’s letter responding to Uthmeier, the family alleged that Ballard “made false allegations against a student,” who she claimed had leaned into her classroom and yelled something. 

The evidence, including surveillance footage, “did not support that the student entered Ms. Ballard’s classroom doorway or [engage] in the specific conduct as described in her initial report,” Duggan wrote. But it “did corroborate that the student walked past the classroom and may have called in the hallway.”

The investigation did not find Ballard had knowingly provided false information to the district, but “the allegation against the student was determined to be unfounded and thus had resulted in a false allegation,” the district concluded. 

The district sought to suspend Ballard for five days after that complaint was concluded. According to Duggan, the union has contested that suspension. The district submitted paperwork about both cases to the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Professional Practice Services.

A third complaint submitted by the same family on Sept. 11, the nature of which Duggan did not describe in his letter, remains open.