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Teacher runs off with 13-yr-old
07/11/2007 09:06 - (SA)
Kansas City - A Nebraska school teacher captured after running off to Mexico for what police said was a tryst with a 13-year-old boy should be returned to
her home state to face charges within the next two weeks, a
county prosecutor said on Tuesday.
Sixth-grade math teacher Kelsey Peterson, 25, has been
charged with kidnapping, felony child abuse and contribution to
the delinquency of the minor in Nebraska and is facing federal
charges as well for fleeing the state with student Fernando
Rodriguez, said Dawson County Attorney Elizabeth Waterman.
The two were missing for a week before they were found on Friday in Mexicali, Mexico, after the boy reportedly called relatives asking for money.
Peterson was being held on federal charges in El Centro,
California, and scheduled to appear before a US magistrate
judge on Wednesday.
Waterman said it could take a week or two to deal with
extradition and jurisdiction issues before Peterson returns to
face the charges in Nebraska, where the escapade has roiled the
state and drawn nationwide attention.
Peterson taught at the middle school in Lexington, a rural
central Nebraska community of about 10 000 people, where the
average per capita income is less than $20 000 a year and the
economy is built around cattle ranching and farming.
She and the boy disappeared on October 26 after officials at
Lexington Middle School placed her on administrative leave and
confiscated her school computer after receiving complaints
about her behaviour.
The federal charges include transporting a minor across
state lines or a foreign border for sexual activity.
The boy remains in Mexico because it was determined he was
living in the United States as an illegal immigrant, Waterman
said.
- Reuters
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