US school basketball coach fired over posting Facebook photo of fiancé holding her breast - but he is allowed to keep job at same school

Laraine Cook coach was sacked from an Idaho high school on grounds that image was 'immoral'

Laraine Cook was dismissed as Pocatello girls' basketball coach shortly after this photo of her and boyfriend Tom Harrison was posted on Facebook

A former girls' basketball coach at an Idaho high school in the US was fired for posting a photo on Facebook which shows her fiancé holding her breast.

Laraine Cook said she does not know how the photo reached the office of the school district. The image, which shows Cook in a bikini posing with her fiancé in front of a lake, was taken on a family holiday in the summer, she said.

Her fiancé, Tom Harrison, an American football coach at the same school, was not fired over the incident, but received a reprimand. Cook said they were told this was because he was not the one who put the photo up on the social media site.

"I don't feel that photo was something to have me terminated on," she told Local 8 News. "I don't feel that it's an immoral photo, and that's what the termination is based on."

"I would love to be able to coach those girls again," Cook said. "I love teaching. I love coaching. I love working with the kids."

"I don't do it because the money is great. I do it because I really enjoy it."

Cook, along with a number of her students and their parents, were hopeful that she might get her job back, but School District 25 has said that the decision to sack her is final. Pocatello High School has already started interviews for a replacement.

When asked about an appeal by parents, the district spokesperson Shelley Allen said: "Parents expressed their concerns and asked the administration to reinstate Coach Cook.

"After discussion between superintendent Vagner, secondary director Bob Devine, human resources director Doug Howell and Pocatello High School administration, it was decided that the decision would remain."