Teacher And Boy, Apparent Lovers, On Run

Police Searching For Female Middle School Teacher And 13-Year-Old From Nebraska

(CBS/AP)  Authorities were searching on Thursday for a 13-year-old boy and a female middle school teacher believed to be on the run after police began investigating an alleged intimate relationship between the pair.

Kelsey Peterson, 25, a sixth-grade teacher and basketball coach at Lexington Middle School, was placed on administrative leave last week. A judge issued an arrest warrant Monday charging her with kidnapping, child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Authorities believed the two were traveling together in Peterson's car and police nationwide were notified about them. Court documents said the boy was last seen Oct. 26.

"We're still focused on locating both of them, whether they're together or not," Dawson County Attorney Elizabeth Waterman said Thursday. "I think right now anything is possible."

The boy was a student at the school, but it was not clear if Peterson was his teacher.

Court documents showed authorities had recovered several e-mails and letters in which the two professed their affection for one another.

In letters, the boy called Peterson his "Baby Gurl," and said their relationship was "just not about the sex but that it was pretty good," according to court documents.

Court documents say Peterson's school-issued laptop contained letters to the student, including one from April saying she loved him, thought he loved her, was "100 percent faithful" to him and would always be faithful.

Police said the boy contacted his family over the weekend and said the two were in Grand Island, about 85 miles east of Lexington, according to court documents. Police also said the pair were apparently spotted Friday night at a Denver convenience store, then again Sunday in Ogallala, in western Nebraska near the northeast tip of Colorado.

Police on Thursday referred questions to Waterman, who would not say where police were focusing their search or comment on reports about where the pair were spotted.

A message left for Todd Chessmore, the school district's superintendent, by The Associated Press was not returned Thursday. A Lexington Middle School official referred questions to Chessmore.

"I just think Lexington is a model community and school,'' Chessmore told the Lexington Clipper-Herald. "This could happen anywhere, and unfortunately it's happening way too often nationally.''

He declined to comment on whether the school district had begun the process of firing Peterson, who began teaching at Lexington in the fall of 2004, shortly after graduating from the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

Lexington, a farming and meatpacking town of about 10,000, is about 220 miles west of Omaha in central Nebraska.

The teacher and the boy apparently fled in Peterson's white Pontiac, according to the Lexington Clipper-Herald. . They reportedly were spotted Friday night at a Denver convenience store and then at an undisclosed location in Ogallala, Neb., early Sunday.

[michellem99-2009]

That is why I try so hard to educate the bloody fools..I have almost closure, They died free.crzmeat you did not do the horrors. Debby I feared may have been sexually abused in Bucksport..If so I hope he is dead..She told me once Maine is too painful for her and she never said why.I never asked..I heard my foster parents passed on..Good they wont hurt any more children.It is the children that are hurt by this behaviour..We suffer.. As adults it hurts as they robbed us of our childhood. I know that pain. Beaten..That is too easy..Lock them up for life..I will have complete closure when I get my birth name bave thru legal means..They better find that boy..Kick that teacher''asre..The same with ScarletPhD for her sick verse..Some body has to think of the children that are abused. They fall thru the cracks and teacders know this..A power control fear the child may be beaten if he/she tells..BS..I saw a girl beated by her mother..She begged us to take her..We could not..Called the place that was supposre to help,they was not interested. Thru this board will nublind them.

[Krazcarl]

MichelleM99...my heart cries for you as a man I apoligize for the horror that was inflicted on you there is no excuse and yes the perpetrator should be beaten for every inch of his life. Take-Care and think happy thoughts....

[michellem99-2009]

We as people know that that teacher crossed the line..I am a female..I raised in foster homes and was sexual abused in them..Had no place to turn..I knew it was wrong and the more I tryed to push him away and fight the best I could..If A CHILD IS SAVED FROM THEM SICKOS I WILL BE GRATEFUL..He used my legal blindness..Had he said a word I would have known..My father taught me to tell the truth oh yes..
That boy is a child..a child..that adult knew better and she abused her job as educater..This is why I am against them teachers knowing their pupils are birth control as they may prey harder..They have no right to use children in this manner..Paws off...I feel for the boy..

[scarletphd]

This teacher is nothing more than a pedophile. If this kid were any younger I am betting that people might look at this differently instead of basically patting this kid on the back. Would it still be cool if it was a 9 year old? 6 year old?
Posted by yoopermom

Uhh, YEAH! What don''t you get about "it''s cool to pop the teacher!!!"

HOT FOR TEACHER

Oh wow, man !
Wait a second man. whaddaya think the teachers gonna look like this year ?
My butt, man !
T-t-teacher stop that screaming, teacher dont you see ?
Dont wanna be no uptown fool.
Maybe I should go to hell, but Im doin well,
Teacher needs to see me after school.
Chorus:
I think of all the education that I missed.
But then my homework was never quite like this.
Got it bad, got it bad, got it bad,
Im hot for teacher.
I got it bad, so bad,
Im hot for teacher.
Spoken:
Hey, I heard you missed us, were back !
I brought my pencil
Gimme something to write on, man
I heard about your lessons, but lessons are so cold.
I know about this school.
Little girl from cherry lane, how did you get so bold ?
How did you know that golden rule ?
Chorus
(guitar solo)
Oh man, I think the clock is slow
I dont feel tardy
Class dismissed

[Krazcarl]

tucker go back to your sick porn movies and leave the intellegent alone your only showing how pathaticaly stupid you are.

[Krazcarl]

tucker your wrong period no matter how many post you throw up ask anyone that has any intellegence i know you thought you were a man at 13 but you weren''t.

[nordeck52]

tuckerndfw

Are you insane? Calling for all laws relating to sexual activities to be repealed is ridiculous. You''re essentially saying that rapists are doing nothing wrong. You''re saying that the person who sexually assaulted me when I was little did nothing wrong. We have an age of consent because by age 18, most (but not all) people have developed enough mentally to decide for themselves what they want with their body. I''m not saying it isn''t possible for someone to develop this mental capacity at an earlier age, but I am saying that there is an average age for when this mental capacity and control has developed.

[yoopermom]

tuckerndfw
I think we could debate this all day and still not see each others point of view. So, I guess we will have to agree to disagree!

[Krazcarl]

tucker don''t be the village idiot we all see your trying to get attention he is 13 what kind of sorry piece of puss would find pleasure in that. No matter how proud you are of the kid it''s wrong by any defination. If you uphold it your just showing how sick you are like the cops that killed that lady she asked for it..you have really been getting sick lately is everything ok at home.

[momintn]

I''ve never posted on here before, but after reading some of these comments I couldn''t resist.
I can''t image what a 25 yr old would even see in a 13 yr old! There are so many consequences for their actions that are going to effect both of them for years to come.
Look at the case of the teacher here in TN. The boy she was having an affair with was killed by her husband. Now, she''s on the run with her children. There are so many lives affected by this type of behavior. I would be going nuts if that were my son. It needs to be stopped regardless of the gender of the teachers!