Peoria Unified School District served with search warrant in teacher sex scandal case

The Peoria Unified School District was served with a search warrant Thursday related to a police investigation into two former teachers who allegedly engaged in sexual misconduct with a student.

The district said it was given until June 5 to provide police with documents related to Haley Beck and Angela Burlaka.

Peoria Unified School District Governing Board member Heather Rooks implied in a post on X the warrant is a result of the district not giving the police the information they previously requested.

Staff members at the district office immediately turned over hard copies of Beck’s statement of charges, miscellaneous notes, the redacted police report and Burlaka’s employee file. They are working to compile the electronic documents requested in the warrant, the district said.

“Working cooperatively and transparently with local law enforcement has always been the cornerstone of our focus on safe schools. Peoria Unified has consistently responded to requests from law enforcement and remains committed to assisting within the bounds of the law and supporting the judicial process,” the district said in a statement Thursday after the search warrant was served.

The warrant was served two weeks the Peoria Police Department submitted multiple public records requests to the district.

In a meeting Tuesday, district officials told police they were consulting with legal personnel first to make sure the documents handed over were in compliance with state and federal law.

Peoria Unified teacher sex scandal background, fallout

Burlaka and Beck are accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a student while they were teachers at Centennial High School.

Burlaka, 47, surrendered her teaching certification on Jan. 26, the same day the district terminated her.

Meanwhile, the district fired Beck, 27, on March 26 for violating its sexual harassment policy. Her teaching certificate remains under investigation by the State Board of Education.

The district has been under fire for how it responded to the allegations against the teachers. The case drew national attention because Beck is the sister of popular content creator Noah Beck, who has more than 30 million TikTok followers.

On May 5, the board removed Rooks as president after she independently asked the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to investigate mandated reporting.

Two weeks later, the board changed the district’s leadership plans by voting make Tahlya Visintainer its interim superintendent instead of Ryan Ladouceur, who had been in line to take over for Superintendent KC Somers, who previously announced his resignation. Tuesday was Somers’ last day.

Although Ladouceur asked to be removed from contention for the interim job, Rooks accused other board members of pressuring him to withdraw.

The fallout continued last Friday, when Centennial High School Principal Scott Hollabaugh announced his resignation.

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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