May 23--
During Bryan Lankhorst's six years as mayor, Kennedale asserted its all-American values by installing a 9-11 memorial in a city park and by banishing a cluster of sexually oriented businesses that used to sit at the city's northern gateway.
Lankhorst, a real estate agent with two grown children, was held in such high regard that his bid for a fourth term went unchallenged and he was re-elected May 12.
But last week, while he was serving as a substitute teacher at Miller Elementary in Arlington, six sixth-grade girls reported that Lankhorst touched them provocatively and talked to them about pregnancy and childbirth -- topics they hadn't covered in class.
After school administrators began investigating, Lankhorst resigned as mayor and hired a prominent Fort Worth attorney to represent him. On Tuesday night, the City Council accepted his letter of resignation, which he had submitted Saturday.
Police and the Arlington school district confirmed Tuesday that a substitute teacher is being investigated but declined to release a name. However, Mark Daniel, Lankhorst's attorney, acknowledged that Lankhorst is the teacher.
Lankhorst did not respond to a phone message Tuesday, but Daniel said his client will "categorically deny that anything improper happened."
"We're in the process of doing our own investigation," Daniel said. "We're optimistic about a favorable outcome. The allegation is completely contradictory of what the public knows of Bryan."
In the presence of their mothers, Cheryl Holloway and Daisy Wood, two of the students told the Star-Telegram on Tuesday that Lankhorst took the class to recess, even though it wasn't a usual part of the sixth-graders' day, and played tag and a similar game with them. But instead of tagging them on an arm or shoulder, he reached around and touched their bottoms, the girls said.
He also asked three of them to go to a separate area of the playground for a private game with him, which they declined, they said. Back in the classroom, Lankhorst began asking what the students knew about pregnancy and childbirth -- topics they had never been taught at school.
"He asked us if we knew how many of us would be pregnant before we were 18," one girl said. "He asked us if we knew how babies were made. This is not something I would expect a health teacher to ask me. This is something that I would only talk to my mom or a trusted family member about."
After hearing what the girls described, school officials started an administrative investigation, which triggered a ban of the substitute teacher from all district schools, spokeswoman Amy Casas said. When the substitute stopped cooperating, the investigation was referred to police, she said.
Two of the parents filed a police report. Lankhorst could face three charges of assault by provocative contact, a Class C misdemeanor, according to a copy of the report provided by Holloway.
Under the city charter, Mayor Pro Tem John Clark became mayor, leaving Place 1 vacant on the council. Clark, an attorney by trade, called Lankhorst "a very genuine, straightforward man."
"In all my time with him I've never seen him mad," Clark said. "I've never heard him raise his voice. He's got grandkids. If anything happened, I can't see Bryan intending to hurt anybody."
The charter allows the council to fill a vacancy without a special election if the two-year term has less than 13 months remaining. The remaining Place 1 term is just under a year.
The council agreed Tuesday to accept applications from interested residents through July 2. The interview process could take about a week, with a new member appointed around July 12 -- in time to participate in preliminary planning for the fiscal 2012-13 budget.
Patrick M. Walker,
817-390-7423
Twitter: @patrickmwalker1
Copyright 2012 - Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
