A local advocacy group filed formal complaints to the federal government regarding alleged misconduct and systemic cover-ups from the Okaloosa County School District.
Acting as President of YES For Okaloosa Schools, Patrick Ryan alleged OCSD deliberately bypassed Florida’s Sunshine Law transparency requirements and mandatory child abuse reporting statutes to protect Superintendent Marcus Chambers and other senior administrators during an internal investigation.
Complaint to the State Attorney
Ryan’s complaint to the State Attorney stems from a 2025 incident where the Florida Department of Education’s Office of the Inspector General received an anonymous complaint alleging years of misconduct from Okaloosa County school administrators and educators.
The complaint alleges that OCSD may have violated Florida’s “Sunshine” Law, which prohibits public boards from doing business in secret, and Florida’s mandatory reports of child abuse statute.
The school district hired attorneys from Tallahassee who investigated claims that Chambers gave favorable treatment and promotions to his fiancée, Tracey Lamb, and created the Director 1 — Curriculum position for her. The report also claimed Chambers had covered up several other instances of employee misconduct/interactions with law enforcement. The Investigator found these allegations to be unfounded.
Ryan’s complaint asks the State Attorney to determine whether OCSD violated the law because the district did not inform the public that there was an investigation underway, and did not report findings. The allegation became public after Cara Marion, who ran for the School Board District 5 seat in 2022, brought up the investigation during public comment at an OCSD Board meeting on April 27, 2026.
“While they arranged for the independent investigation, there’s really no mention of it on any School Board meeting agenda, and it was approved by the School Board under somewhat very secretive circumstances,” Ryan said. “It was approved at a board meeting, but there was never any mention on an agenda or at a board meeting that a complaint had been received about senior leadership of the district, and that investigation was required by the Inspector General.”
Though the investigators concluded claims of misconduct by OCSD were unfounded, Ryan said he questions whether the investigation was thorough.
“We found several things in there where the investigator did not interview all of the witnesses that, in our opinion, should’ve been interviewed,” Ryan said. “… One of the allegations was of two administrators at a school in the district engaging in a sexual act on campus and that they were observed by a student. That happened several years ago. The only individual who was interviewed about that allegation was the Superintendent.”
According to the report, investigators questioned Chambers but deemed a more in-depth investigation too complicated.
“Considering the age of the incident, the lack of any identifying information regarding witnesses, and that the school has over 1,700 students and well over 100 faculty and staff, such an investigation would be an extraordinarily time-consuming fishing expedition.”
Complaint to the Department of Justice
Ryan also filed a complaint to the DOJ Civil Rights Educational Opportunities Section alleging “that the school district and board may have violated its 2022 agreement with DOJ,” according to YES For Okaloosa Schools.
The agreement in question is a settlement between OCSD and the U.S. after multiple district employees were charged with child abuse and neglect, leading then-Superintendent Mary Beth Jackson to resign.
“That agreement, one section of it, mandated that the school district essentially conduct investigations properly by conducting adequate fact-finding and interviewing all appropriate individuals, which I’m contending they did not,” Ryan said.
What’s Next?
Due to the volume of complaints the DOJ and State Attorney receive, on their website they note they receive thousands per year, a response to Ryan’s complaints will likely take a while. Investigators will look at the complaint and use public records and past findings to determine whether a deeper investigation or legal action is warranted.
Mid Bay News reached out to OCSD and the State Attorney’s Office for comment, but neither have responded at this time.
We will continue to follow this story and report as it develops.
