Teacher and Her Student Missing

A 33-year-old science teacher from San Bernardino and one of her male freshman students have been missing since Monday and may have fled together as far as Canada, according to police.

Tanya Hadden, a teacher at Cajon High School, and Richard Pena, 15, disappeared after police questioned the teacher Monday about giving alcohol to several male students at a house in Rialto on April 26.

“Tanya, please bring Richard home,” the student’s tearful mother, Ida Pena, said at a news conference in front of the police station Wednesday. “You can just drop him off; that’s fine. Richard, you’re not in trouble. Don’t be afraid. We just all miss you.”

Pena’s parents said their son was in Hadden’s first-period science class. They said she often drove him and a carload of his friends to their homes after school. But they never suspected any inappropriate behavior, Ida Pena said.

“My son just said she was very nice,” said Pena, surrounded by her husband and teenage daughters.

But for at least the past five weeks, the pair had been having a relationship, police said.

Ida Pena said she took her son to school Monday morning. That afternoon, Pena and several of his friends were contacted by a Rialto police investigator.

A parent had called the officer to say she believed Hadden supplied alcohol to several of her students during a Friday night gathering.

After interviewing the students and Hadden, police decided to forward the case to the district attorney to determine whether charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor should be filed, said Rialto Police Lt. Joe Cirilo.

But by the time school let out Monday, Hadden and Pena were gone.

Pena told a friend at school he was afraid to go home. He’d be in trouble over the Rialto incident, he said. So when his mother came to pick him up that afternoon, he never showed.

Ida Pena said she was stunned by the situation.

“The woman is... 30 years old,” she said. “And my son is only 15.”

Police said Pena called a friend about 7:30 p.m. Monday and left a message saying he was OK. He did not say where he was or who he was with.

Hadden called her family about 3 p.m. Tuesday and asked them to feed her pets for the next several days, police said. She didn’t say where she was. Relatives said they didn’t know anything about Hadden’s relationship with Pena, and that she rarely calls them.

Police said they believe the pair may be driving to Canada in the teacher’s white, 1991, four-door Toyota Corolla, California license plate 2XMX831.

It is the second time this year that allegations of inappropriate conduct between a student and a teacher have hit Cajon High School. About two months ago, police said, another female teacher was accused of having a relationship with a male student. But the student denied it, and no charges were filed, San Bernardino police Lt. Frank Mankin said.

Principal Don Simpson, schools Supt. Arturo Delgado and the school’s spokeswoman declined to comment on the incidents, referring all calls to the police. But stunned parents were talking Wednesday, trying to make sense of what’s been happening on their campus.

“This is beyond belief,” said Rick Medina, vice president of Cajon High’s booster club, who learned about the missing teacher and student during a school volleyball game Wednesday. “We don’t understand why this would be happening.”

In another case, deputies in Riverside County on April 19 arrested 28-year-old Shawna Castellanos, a teacher at Redlands East Valley High School, on suspicion of having sex with a 17-year-old student.

Police said Castellanos hosted parties at her house in Moreno Valley and at a hotel room in Newport Beach during spring break. Both times, she provided alcohol to the students and had sex with the 17-year-old, authorities said.

Cindy Andrews, deputy superintendent for the Redlands Unified School District, said the teacher resigned after the investigation began. She is awaiting trial on charges of unlawful sex with a minor and contributing to the delinquency of minors.

In the Hadden case, authorities asked that anyone with information call Det. Mark Plonski at (909) 384-5619.

“Please, son,” Pena’s father, Herman Pena, pleaded. “We love you. Come home.”