Anamosa Middle School gym teacher charged with sex exploitation of minor resigns

ANAMOSA — An Anamosa Middle School gym teacher accused of sending sexually explicit messages to a 15-year-old student has resigned, and the school board accepted the resignation Monday.

Superintendent Darren Hanna of the Anamosa Community School District, said in a statement that Wayne Michael Lasack, 50, charged two weeks ago with sexual exploitation of a minor, submitted his resignation and requested to be released from his contract on July 25.

District administrators recommended the school board approve the resignation and immediately release Lasack from his contract, Hanna said.

“This decision was viewed as being in the best interest of the District and all its stakeholders,” Hanna said in the statement. “Personnel matters often require extensive investigations and due process procedures which can take additional time and District resources.

“The District will continue to cooperate fully with outside entities regarding this matter, and the administration has already made all legally required notifications and filed all necessary reports with appropriate state agencies,” Hanna said. “We will continue, as always, to make student safety our number one priority.”

Lasack had been on administrative leave pending his trial.

According to a criminal complaint, Lasack sent the inappropriate messages to a 10th-grade girl, who was 15 at the time, in 2014. Those messages were first sent anonymously to the district in 2018.

The district investigated the allegation, which Lasack denied, and shared the information with Anamosa police. No charges resulted.

The messages again were sent to the district this May, but with the student identified this time, leading to Lasack being charged June 17 in Jones County District Court.

Investigation

The Anamosa principal, identified as “L.V.” in the criminal complaint, told police the messages were turned over to the Anamosa Police Department in 2018 and that she believed the allegations were “unfounded” at the time, the criminal complaint states.

According to the complaint, the principal contacted the department two months ago in May about the messages being sent again, but with the former student identified this time.

A Facebook conversation between Lasack and the student “clearly” stated she was in the 10th grade, according to the complaint.

In the messages, Lasack commented on the student’s physical appearance and told her if they were going to chat, “we should probably keep this fairly quiet, with you being so young and me being so old.”

He also asked the girl to send him a “naughty” photo. She declined, and Lasack left the conversation.

During the investigation, an officer contacted the former student and she confirmed the messages were sent by Lasack, her former teacher, in 2014. She had screenshots of the conversation and sent them to police.

When the matter was first investigated in 2018, Lasack said he was “shocked” and had no knowledge of the conversation.

A search warrant was obtained for Lasack's Facebook account, but nearly all the messages had been deleted, according to the complaint.

When Anamosa police interviewed Lasack on July 17, he denied knowing the girl in the Facebook conversation. Lasack was asked if he knew the student but Lasack said he had been teaching for 25 years and had a "million thousand names in his brain.”

Bail hearing

Assistant Jones County Attorney Sara Smith previously filed a motion to ask a judge to place Lasack under pretrial supervision with the 6th Judicial Department of Correctional Services, since an associate district court judge released Lasack without bail.

District Judge David Cox set a bail review hearing for Lasack on Aug. 5.

If convicted of the charge, Lasack faces up to 10 years in prison.

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