MILLBURY, Ohio — Josh Andrews, the Lake High School football head coach and assistant principal placed on leave on Sept. 19 for "improper communications," has resigned from his positions in the school district effective Oct. 5.
An investigation into allegations made against him concluded "that he did engage in a pattern of inappropriate communications involving alumni of the district."
Flannery/Georgalis, the firm that was hired by the board of education to conduct the investigation, also concluded that Andrews "did not engage in inappropriate or unprofessional communication with any students while they were still enrolled in the district."
"The investigation also concluded that other staff members were not aware of Mr. Andrews' conduct," according to a press release from the Lake Local School District Board of Education.
The firm interviewed current and former students and administrative and other staff members as part of the investigation, according to the press release.
Andrews' resignation was accepted by the board of education Tuesday.
He was hired as the Lake High School football head coach in 2019 after serving as a varsity assistant for six years. He was initially hired at Lake in 2013.
According to a 2019 post on the official Lake Local Schools Facebook page, Andrews was a teacher and assistant coach at Swanton Local Schools prior to his position at Lake Local Schools.
WTOL 11 first reported last month Andrews was also disciplined at Swanton Schools in 2011 for sending inappropriate text messages to students, according to public documents found in the Ohio Department of Education's educator search database. An agreement between Andrews and the Ohio State Board of Education states "Respondent treated several students as his peers, and sent the students text messages which were too friendly and excessive in view of appropriate teacher-student boundaries and were therefore not appropriate."
Documents obtained by WTOL 11 show a student reported feeling "uncomfortable" with a text conversation he had with Andrews in December 2010.
A printout of the conversation is pictured below.
Lake Local Schools Superintendent Jim Witt previously told WTOL 11 he was not aware of the 2011 incident involving Andrews.