Nebraska teacher arrested for fleeing with student

A 13-year-old student with whom a middle school teacher is accused of fleeing with in order to create a romantic life in the boy’s native Mexico might be required to stay there.\nAn illegal immigrant while residing in the United States, 13-year-old Fernando Rodriguez may not be able to return to the rural Nebraska town where he was an eighth-grader.\nKelsey Peterson, 25, and Rodriguez were taken into custody without incident after the boy’s relatives told police he had called home asking for money, leading investigators to a shopping mall in the border city of Mexicali on Friday.\nPeterson, a sixth-grade math teacher and basketball coach at Lexington Middle School, fled with the boy after police began investigating whether the pair had an intimate relationship, authorities said. Court documents said the boy was last seen Oct. 26.\nAn international hunt was under way after Peterson’s car was spotted crossing into Mexico on Tuesday.\n“They didn’t have a very well-defined plan, it was basically to continue driving into Mexico to hide,” said Alfredo Arenas, the Baja California state police official who detained Peterson. “This was a mutual agreement to flee after the story came out that they were having sex.”\nThe Associated Press generally does not identify people who may be victims of sex crimes, but the boy’s name had been widely publicized as police searched for him.\nPeterson was turned over to the FBI early Saturday. The boy was turned over to relatives in Mexicali because he was an illegal immigrant in the United States and was not allowed to return, Arenas said.\nFernando’s uncle, Pedro Raya, said he spoke to the boy Saturday and they agreed he would go to the family’s rural hometown in the southern state of Guanajuato, mainly because of his immigration status.\n“He’s OK,” said Raya, 47, of Yuma, Ariz. “I just told him to stay over there in Mexico and the FBI is going to take care of everything.”\nDawson County Attorney Elizabeth Waterman said she knew about Fernando’s immigration status but did not know how it was going to affect her case against Peterson.\n“That’s one of the things we need to evaluate so I really don’t have an answer at this time,” Waterman said. “I don’t know if that information is completely accurate or if that’s subject to change, but we’re dealing with that.”\nPeterson is charged with kidnapping, child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a minor in Nebraska. She also faces federal charges of transporting a minor across state lines or a foreign border for sexual activity, U.S. Attorney Joe Stecher said.\nStecher said he did not intend to double-prosecute Peterson, and would work with Waterman to decide in which jurisdiction she would face charges.\nCourt documents showed authorities had recovered several e-mails and letters in which Peterson and the boy professed their affection for one another.\nIn 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 the court documents.\nFernando was an eighth-grader at Lexington Middle School, but district Superintendent Todd Chessmore said Rodriguez had been in Peterson’s 6th-grade math class. He said he placed Peterson on paid administrative leave on Oct. 25.\nAssociated Press writer Anna Jo Bratton in Omaha contributed to this report.