A Lake Forest, Ill., middle school principal resigned Nov. 21 in response to controversy over how the district handled his use of a work-issued cell phone to send vulgar text messages to a 22-year-old college student, reports the Chicago Tribune. Parents only recently became aware that Deer Path Middle School Principal John Steinert, 40, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment through electronic communications in May 2009, after a Tribune report described police and court records. As a result, Lake Forest School District 67 officials re-examined the case by viewing a completed police report that they said they had not seen before. The report showed that Steinert repeatedly sent sexually explicit messages, as well as a photograph of his penis, to the young woman after she ignored him or told him to stop. At the time, the district wrote a letter admonishing the principal, ordered him to counseling, confiscated his cell phone, and temporarily froze his salary. But the district expanded his job duties and gave him a bonus within the next year, officials said. On Nov. 18, Superintendent Harry Griffith announced that he planned to recommend Steinert’s dismissal during a special closed-door school board meeting today. Steinert instead offered his resignation, which was accepted by the board at its meeting…