LAKE MILLS, IA - It's not a discussion any school board wants to have, but it's a step the Lake Mills board is taking.
As of Tuesday night, girl's varsity basketball coach Mark Van Gorkom is finished at the Lake Mills school district. His firing follows claims from some students that he sent them inappropriate text messages.
"What’s in the Iowa code, what's in our school policies, the definitions of what's inappropriate between an adult and a student,” said School Board President Debra Georgia, “and I think the board is very clear that we felt all of those criteria were met."
Van Gorkom wasn't present at the Tuesday night meeting, and so far, the only thing he's released to KIMT, is that the text messages in question were “taken out of context."
School leaders aren't offering any details about the content of the messages, but they are praising the students who came forward.
"I really want to commend the students that brought this to our attention and were willing to share the information with an adult," said Superintendent Daryl Sherman.
"This was a person that they respected, that they played hard for, that they wanted to win for, and they were in a complication situation," said Georgia.
School leaders say it's been tough on the whole community. Now, they hope to bring the focus back to education and put this behind them.
"We paid attention to all the details we needed to, to make sure that it was a fair and equitable decision,” said Georgia.
We did talk to some local parents at the meeting who said this needed to happen, and they're glad its over as far as the school is concerned.
Along with his coaching duties, Van Gorkom is also being released from his contract as a 4th grade teacher at Lake Mills.
