HORSESHOE BEND –The Horseshoe Bend School Superintendent has been placed on administrative leave for what district officials are only calling "personal reasons."
It all happened Tuesday night, when Superintendent Cook’s personal life was revealed at the meeting. Trustees then came out of a closed executive session with the decision to place him on leave.
Boise resident, Don Reiman presented a letter to board trustees Tuesday night that states his 30-year-old daughter is involved in a polygamous relationship with Superintendent John Cook.
“This is not easy to step up and essentially be exposing my daughter as a polygamist but sometimes it’s hard to do the right thing,” said Reiman.
Wednesday evening Reiman spoke with KTVB about the relationship between his daughter Jana and Superintendent Cook.
“She started alienating herself from the rest of the family, her friends and so we became concerned,” he said.
Reiman says his daughter met Cook during a rafting trip two years ago and their platonic relationship turned into something more. Then, it was about a year ago, Reiman sat down with Jana and Cook to discuss what was going on.
“(We) confronted him about it and told him that we were concerned that he was setting my daughter up as a second wife,” he said.
Then on Christmas Eve, Reiman's other daughter Julie received a letter from Jana explaining the details of her relationship with Cook.
“His existing wife Crystal was uncomfortable with it,” Reiman said.
Reiman shared the letter about the life she shared with Cook and the relationship with Cook’s current wife, Crystal.
"We began to see God's word clearly,” Jana wrote in the letter. “This same understanding, however, was not easily accepted by Crystal."
The letter continues to talk about how Crystal eventually came around to the idea of marriage.
"He simple [sic] changed Crystal's heart,” she wrote. “She saw what scripture was saying on marriage, then it was her leading, picking the date and preparing the bed chamber for our wedding,” Jana wrote.
Later in the letter to her sister Julie, Jana started to explain the nuptials.
"This summer we were married with cakes, rings, steak dinner, vows and photos,” she wrote. “You may say or think that it is unfair or not right for a man to love two women."
Tuesday night, Reimer saw his opportunity to take the letter and any other evidence he had to the Horseshoe Bend school board.
“So at that point we had the evidence that this was obviously an inappropriate relationship from a couple of standpoints,” he said.
He said, first; polygamy is illegal in the state of Idaho and although Reiman said John Cook and Jana never signed a marriage license he feels Superintendent John Cook should not be leading or influencing the school.
“We feel that bringing it out in the open was something we had to do. It's not something we are excited or proud of,” said Reimer.
After he presented Jana’s letter to the board, board trustees placed Superintendent John Cook on administrative leave. They gave no additional comments.
The board stated "personal reasons" for his departure and would not elaborate beyond that.
Reiman plans to take this opportunity to lobby this legislative session in an effort to bring awareness to the issue of polygamy in the state.
KTVB contacted Superintendent Cook by phone Wednesday afternoon, he declined to comment.
