Lawsuit
Complaint alleges school kept teacher in the classroom after family reported the assault
A Pensacola family has sued S.L. Jones Christian Academy and one of its teachers, Da’Quarius Britt, alleging the 32-year-old science teacher sexually assaulted a 15-year-old student on campus, then took her to a motel off Pensacola Boulevard and raped her. The suit also alleges the school did not suspend or discipline him after the family reported it.
- The complaint was filed Oct. 28 in Escambia County Circuit Court. The girl is identified only as J.D., and her mother as Jane Doe. The plaintiffs have also filed a motion to proceed under pseudonyms because of the nature of the allegations. See 7-24-20-143.
The Allegations
The suit alleges the assault happened Aug. 29, 2025, weeks after the girl enrolled at the school. It claims Britt asked about her home life during third period, told her she had no one to depend on and proposed becoming her “sugar daddy.” The complaint says she understood the arrangement to involve sex with adult men and declined.
- The complaint then alleges Britt asked that she be excused from her next class and walked her outside without any staff member intervening or questioning him. It says he pushed her against an exterior wall, put his hand in her shorts and told her not to say anything.
Later that day, according to the suit, Britt contacted a family member who was helping care for the girl and got permission to take her home after “cheerleading try-outs.” The suit says there were no tryouts. It alleges he:
- Put her in his car and engaged the child safety locks
- Sexually assaulted her while driving
- Took her to the OYO Hotel at 6911 Pensacola Blvd., about 18 minutes from the school
- Raped her in a room there, then drove her home
The School’s Response
Four of the 15 counts target the school: negligent hiring, negligent retention, negligent supervision and negligent security. The complaint says the school learned of the allegations no later than September 2025, when the family reported them and the school learned Britt had lied about the tryouts. It alleges Britt was not suspended, investigated by the school or otherwise disciplined, and that he remains employed with “unrestricted, unsupervised access to children.”
- On hiring, the suit alleges “upon information and belief” that the school took part in state scholarship programs, including the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program. It says that participation required state and national background screening of instructional staff under Section 1002.421 of the Florida Statutes. The complaint alleges the school either failed to screen Britt properly or ignored what screening turned up.
On campus security, the complaint alleges no staff member was monitoring the exterior doors, and that cameras did not cover the area or were not monitored. It alleges the school failed to adopt or enforce policies barring staff from taking students outside during class or being alone with a student out of view. It also alleges staff were permitted to smoke on campus with students present.
No response from the school. Inweekly left a message Friday, Oct. 30, for Rev. William Demps Sr., the CEO, and Principal/Chief Administrator Millicent G. Hatcher Demps. Neither has returned the message.
The suit seeks damages above $50,000 and does not currently seek punitive damages, though the plaintiffs reserve the right to ask to add them.
- The plaintiffs are represented by Madeline E. Pendley and Troy A. Rafferty of Rafferty, Domnick, Cunningham & Yaffa.
“Hard to Believe”
Pendley told Inweekly that Britt was still teaching at S.L. Jones at the beginning of the school year.
“We do a lot of cases that involve harm against children, usually in the online space, like Roblox platforms, sexual exploitation, underage gambling,” Pendley said. “But this is my first, definitely local one, with these types of allegations.”
“It’s hard to believe a story like this, and it has nothing to do with her and her credibility. It’s just you would like to think these things aren’t happening here, but she is very credible. She’s calm. She consistently provides the same story. So, honestly, it was just jaw-dropping when we first heard it.”
“I’m extremely excited to get discovery started,” Pendley said. “I want to talk to the teacher directly. I want to talk to the school and figure out how in the world this was allowed to happen. And then after it happened, how in the world could anyone justify keeping this teacher on the payroll?”
- On oversight of private schools: “[Private school] teachers don’t have to be certified,” Pendley said. “But I don’t even think this teacher was certifiable technically. And so, part of what we ran into in trying to find disciplinary history and things like that is my understanding is private schools don’t have to report to the Department of Education as far as filing grievances. So, if you look up a certified teacher, there is a public website where you can pull a lot of the info on disciplinary history. They don’t have an equivalent for private schools.”
All allegations are claims in a civil complaint and have not been proven in court.