Two women who taught at the same Arizona high school face potential criminal charges after authorities say they engaged in separate acts of sexual misconduct with the same teenage male student, whom officials and advocates describe as a victim of child abuse.
Haley Beck, 27, and Angela Burlaka, 47, both worked at Centennial High School in the Peoria Unified School District. Beck, who taught psychology and sociology, is accused of grooming the student before he turned 18 in December 2024, providing him with gifts, alcohol, drugs and money — referring to herself as his “sugar momma” — and exchanging thousands of explicit text messages.
Burlaka, a special education teacher with 25 years at the school, is accused of recording videos of herself naked that referenced the student by name; those videos ended up on the student’s phone.
Police in Peoria say the investigation began last July after the victim’s grandmother contacted authorities upon discovering one of the videos. Rumors of inappropriate relationships had circulated at the school for months. The student’s mother later told detectives her son was having sex with a teacher named Haley Beck, and the principal provided Beck’s name to police amid complaints from students and staff.
A nearly 200-page police report details the allegations. According to authorities, Beck gave the student special treatment, completed his homework, altered his grades and attendance records, lent him her car and bought him gifts, food, alcohol and drugs. She paid him more than $600 and exchanged more than 4,000 texts with him over six weeks discussing sexual and illegal activity. One handwritten note from Beck to the student read in part, “for this ‘relationship’ being extremely wrong, I feel like we have really made the most out of it.”
In the messages, Beck reportedly expressed discomfort at being compared to Burlaka, writing that their situations were “still not right” but noting they were closer in age.
Burlaka is accused of furnishing obscene material to a minor. Beck faces potential charges of pandering.
Both teachers were placed on administrative leave in August 2025. The Peoria Unified School District Governing Board voted unanimously March 26 to fire Beck; she had until April 8 to request a hearing but had not done so as of early April. Burlaka voluntarily surrendered her Arizona teaching certificates.
Peoria police resubmitted the cases to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office on Thursday. No arrests have been made, but detectives say they believe there is sufficient evidence for charges and have not ruled out additional victims.
The district said it responded appropriately to the allegations and that there was no indication of reporting failures on its part.
Child abuse prevention specialist Jessica Nicely described the situation as child abuse and child rape rather than relationships.
“This was not a relationship,” Nicely said. “He was a child, and this was child abuse and child rape. These women are the 4% because 96% of the time child sexual abusers are men. It’s not funny. It’s not an achievement. He’s a victim. That is not a relationship they were having. That is rape.”
A parent speaking at the March 26 board meeting said, “We send our kids to your schools 10 months a year, five days a week, seven hours a day. So as a parent, I’m glad to see that these pedophiles like Haley Beck are being held accountable as much as possible.”
The teenage student and his family have not cooperated fully with detectives, citing concerns that it could affect his college athletic scholarship opportunities.
Authorities continue to investigate.
This story has been updated with the latest information from police and the school district.
