Chaffee Trail Middle School, which opened on Jacksonville’s Westside in fall 2024, logged 117 reported fights during the 2024-25 school year – more than any other public school in Florida. Principal Dr. Cicely Tyson-White has said the campus was incredibly overcrowded during that first year, and two other Duval County middle schools, Highlands and Westside, also landed in the state’s top ten for reported fights. Duval’s new school year begins next Monday, and district leaders say boundary changes, added supervision and new campus routines are meant to push those numbers back down.
The No. 1 ranking comes from Florida Department of Education data analyzed by WJXT News4JAX, which maintains the state’s School Environmental Safety Incident Reporting system. Highlands Middle School reported 89 fights and ranked sixth statewide, while Westside Middle School reported 92 fights and ranked fifth – giving Duval three of the state’s ten most-cited campuses for reported fighting.
Raw Counts vs. Per-Student Rates
Chaffee Trail opened with more than 1,200 students enrolled, well beyond what the campus was built to hold, before district boundary changes trimmed enrollment down to just over 1,000. The Westside campus was constructed as a $50 million to $56 million, 124,000-square-foot facility designed for 994 student stations, funded through Duval County’s 15-year half-cent sales tax that voters approved in November 2020, according to Gilbane Building Company construction records. Students from different communities contributed to conflicts on campus during that crowded first year, per the outlet’s report.
Raw totals aren’t the only way the state measures the problem, though. Ranked by fights per 1,000 students instead of total incidents, Chaffee Trail actually falls to 18th statewide, while Highlands climbs to third and Westside lands at 15th, according to the same account. The shift suggests Chaffee Trail’s sheer enrollment size, not just its climate, helped push its raw fight count to the top of the list.
Boundary Changes Reshape Two Other Campuses
Dr. Jenifer Boatright, Duval County Public Schools’ regional superintendent for middle schools, said Westside and Highlands both saw shifts tied to boundary and attendance zone changes. She said a cultural shift happens when students from different neighborhoods start attending the same campus together, and that those students may experience friction while getting used to one another, per the same report…