An assistant Tooele High School football coach will be terminated by the school district next week after he was arrested for patronizing a prostitute in Salt Lake City.
Mark Lyne Jackson, 39, of Tooele, was arrested by Salt Lake City police for patronizing a prostitute and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Aug. 23.
The Salt Lake City Police Department was conducting a week-long prostitution sting to disrupt clients soliciting prostitutes, according to a department release. Patronizing a prostitute is a Class A misdemeanor and carries a fine of up to $2,500 and one year in jail.
Following his arrest last Wednesday, Jackson self-reported the incident to the Tooele County School District the next day, according to Marie Denson, the school district’s communications director. Jackson was required to self-report his arrest as part of school policy and state law.
Jackson was placed on administrative leave after he self-reported and was subsequently placed on unpaid administrative leave on Aug. 29, Denson said. Jackson, who was hired as an assistant football coach in 2011, will be officially terminated on Sept. 7. He does not work for the district in a teaching or classroom capacity.
Denson said the school district must follow the process outlined in its policies before terminating an employee, hence the delay between Jackson’s arrest and termination.
Denson said the school district performed a background check on Jackson through the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification and it came back with no prior arrests. Court records show Jackson pleaded guilty to three counts of misdemeanor lewdness in 2002 and no contest to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in 2004.
Denson said the school district will look into why the prior charges were not discovered in the background check.
Two other Tooele County School District football coaches have resigned or been terminated for alleged misconduct in the past year.
Former Tooele head football coach Kyle Brady resigned in January amid an investigation by the Utah Professional Practices Advisory Commission. Brady was under investigation by UPPAC for an alleged “boundary violation” of “inappropriate communication” with a female student.
Former Grantsville High head football coach Curtis Ware was arrested regarding alleged illegal sexual activity with two female students last September and the school board accepted his resignation at its Oct. 11 meeting.
Ware, 48, is charged with first-degree felony forcible sodomy, three counts of second-degree felony sexual exploitation of a minor, four counts of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse and four counts of misdemeanor lewdness.
Ware is also charged with third-degree felony tampering with a witness in a separate but related case.