ORANGE CITY, Ia. — The picture was at a school, left there to be found.

It was drawn by a young boy, showing himself holding a gun to his head, the hands of God reaching for him. The child’s mother, sitting at the front of a Sioux County courtroom filled with more than 100 people Friday, held the image up to Curtis Van Dam.

"This is what you made him draw," she said.

The mother’s world came crumbling down the day she learned her son was a victim of the former Sioux Center teacher, who admitted to having sexual contact with at least six boys. He was sentenced Friday to 60 years in prison.

Van Dam, 37, will be required to serve at least 17½ years of his sentence, which won't begin until he finishes a 15-year federal prison term for filming other boys showering.

In November, Van Dam pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree sexual abuse, five counts of third-degree sexual abuse and one count of sexual exploitation by a school employee. He had faced up to 80 years in prison.

Van Dam worked as a teacher and coach at the private Sioux Center Christian School. He was charged with more than 140 sex charges, the rest of which were dismissed as part of his plea deal.

One by one, parents of victims walked from wooden benches to the stand in front of Van Dam, telling horrors of their anxiety and guilt for trusting a child molester masked as a teacher. Some said they worried about their sons killing themselves.

"You are a monster; you are evil," one mother said. "You have robbed these young men of their childhoods."

The Des Moines Register is not identifying the parents to protect the privacy of the child victims. The parents and boys, some of whom wrote statements read in court, asked District Court Judge Steven Andreasen to sentence Van Dam to the maximum term.

Prosecutors said Van Dam sexually touched six boys, usually many times throughout multiple months. Among other acts, Van Dam persuaded students to masturbate in groups, measure their genitals and ejaculate in his presence, court records show.

His charges stemmed from crimes that occurred at various locations, including the school where he coached boys' basketball, police said. The school fired him after the allegations came to light.

Embarrassed and ashamed, some students, many of them preteens at the time, thought they would get in trouble if they told anyone. Orchestrating sexual conduct among at least 15 students, Van Dam told other students to not tell, prosecutors said.

In one case, he threatened a student's grades if he did not allow him to touch him, authorities said.

Van Dam was ordered to register as a sex offender. In considering the sentence, the judge said Van Dam expressed little or no remorse for his actions.

Asked by the judge if he wanted to make any statements in court, Van Dam responded: "Not at this time, your honor."

The allegations rocked the religious town of 7,500 residents and 20 churches. The crimes turned the community upside down, leaving family members reeling with anger and devastation, Sioux County Attorney Thomas Kunstle said.

Of 36 victim impact statements filed, 19 were read in court. Parents said their sense of trust was shattered by Van Dam. Some lost faith in their churches.

For months, when one mother went to bed, she imagined Van Dam abusing her son. Others said they struggled to watch the news or movies, worried a scene about sexual acts or abuse would trigger their sons.

Many guardians appeared to blame themselves, unsure if they missed warning signs, and said they raised their kids to listen to authority, no questions asked. Some became overwhelmed thinking they handed their children to a pedophile.

"I literally drove them to evil every day at school," one woman said.

The grades of some victims, who their parents described as bright and talented, fell sharply. In a letter to the judge, one boy said he missed school for counseling and to talk with authorities. And, he wrote, "like the day I missed school for writing this."

Some in the crowd sniffled or placed their faces in their hands, wiping tears from their eyes. A couple of parents took deep breaths before reading their statements.

In pleading with the judge for a harsh sentence, one parent said she admired Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, who sentenced USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar to prison in Michigan for up to 175 years for abusing athletes and others. A long term, the parent said, would send a message to abusers that sexual assault would not be tolerated in Iowa.

A number of parents described their sons as brave heroes who helped prevent abuse for other children, including their siblings, who would have had Van Dam as a teacher.

Kunstle said reviewing forensic interviews of children was the most difficult part of the case. He has tried child sexual abuse cases before, he said, but none with this many victims.

In September, Van Dam pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a child, admitting he recorded children engaging in sexual conduct between November 2013 and October 2017. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for filming the boys, who were on the basketball team he coached.

He stored the images using cameras, mobile phones, SD cards and a MacBook laptop.

The accusations against the teacher began in October 2017, when police received a report that Van Dam had an 11-year-old disrobe and "urinate in a bottle" while he watched, according to a criminal complaint.

After the initial complaint, more people came forward. Van Dam had no criminal history in Iowa before he was charged.

Andreasen said the sentence he imposed was based on the charges Van Dam pleaded guilty to, not unproven crimes. The parents said they feared there were more victims.

"There are many, many other survivors," a parent said, looking at Van Dam, his hands and feet shackled. "I pray every day for all the young men affected by you."

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