By SNEJANA FARBEROV
A 24-year-old high school teacher from Nevada has been arrested for allegedly dating one of her male students - but police do not believe the illicit tryst went beyond kissing. Amanda Brennan, who taught English at Foothill High School in Henderson, told police that she knew it was wrong to carry on a relationship with a teenager, but she loved the boy and did it anyway, according to an arrest report.
The educator was arrested last Friday on two counts of luring a child and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She was booked into Clark County Detention Center on $20,000 bail, but wasn't listed on jail rolls as of Tuesday. The boy's parents were tipped off to the possible romance when Brennan picked up the teen at his gated community Wednesday against their wishes, according to a police report. She also reportedly brought the boy back home nearly two hours past his 10pm curfew.
Police said they visited the school Friday to interview the boy, who was described as being under the age of 16. He told authorities that he and Brennan loved each other and had kissed twice, although they'd only cuddled in the back of her car on the night he went out without his parents' permission. Officials also found 1,000 text messages between the boy and Brennan's number during a nine-day period before her arrest. Clark County School District spokeswoman Amanda Fulkerson said Brennan is on unpaid leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation.
Fulkerson said the district does its own, employment-based probe beyond the criminal investigation by school police officers. The boy's mother first became alarmed last Wednesday, when her son asked her to go to the movies, but would not say with whom, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The woman called the security guard at their housing complex and requested the name of the person admitted for her home address, who turned out to be Brennan. The boy's parents then pulled their son's iPhone records, which included numerous calls and hundreds of text messages exchanged between the teen and his teacher.
When confronted by police, the student said that he and the 24-year-old woman loved each other and had kissed only on two occasions. One of the times was 'when they were cuddling in the back seat of Brennan's four-door Toyota' on May 8, stated the report cited by the Las Vegas Sun. About two weeks earlier, the student and teacher sat in the front passenger seat of Brennan's car 'and kissed each other on the lips and spooned.' Brennan also reportedly came clean about her illicit relationship with the student in a recorded police interview. The teacher could face a minimum of two years in prison if prosecutors are able to prove that she took the boy from his parents' home with the intent to have sex with him.
Otherwise, her actions could be classified as a misdemeanor.
