A teacher’s aide at a special needs school in San Dimas was arrested this week and is accused of having a relationship with a teen student who is allegedly the father of the woman’s baby.
Mandy Morales, 30, an aide at independent Canyon View School, was arrested Wednesday for unlawful sexual intercourse.
The Sheriff's Department said Thursday that Morales was due in court that day, but later said she was set to be arraigned Sept. 11.
A felony complaint for an arrest warrant, filed in court July 3 and signed by a judge on Tuesday, alleged Morales had unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor under age 16 between Oct. 1, 2011 and July 5, 2012.
"He think he loves her, and she thinks she loves him," said Sgt. Peter Hahn of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Authorities became aware of the relationship in December but waited to take legal action until DNA tests confirmed the baby girl's father, Hahn said.
Canyon View School -- a private K-12 school in San Dimas, about 30 miles east of LA -- provides education to students aged 6 to 22 with special needs, according to its website.
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Morales has been a bus driver and aide at the school since 2004, Hahn said.
On Thursday, a school official said Canyon View School -- part of McKinley Children's Center, pictured below -- would have no comment except to say the campus is cooperating with law enforcement.
Later, Chief Executive Officer Al Mason issued a statement, according to City News Service.
"Ms. Morales is no longer an employee of Canyon View School,'' Mason wrote. "The protection, privacy care, and safety of the children we serve is our highest priority, and we shall continue our cooperation with law enforcement authorities.''
An NBC4 reporter on campus was told the school was private property and he should step off the grass.
A teacher at the school found a journal belonging to Morales that detailed an ongoing sexual relationship with the student, Hahn said. Morales gave birth to the student’s baby when the teen was 17, Hahn said.
The child is just over a year old, Hahn said.
"It's my understanding that he does have contact with the child, so he does still have contact with the woman," Hahn told NBC4.
Morales was arrested about 5:30 Wednesday evening and held at the Sheriff's Department's San Dimas Station, online inmate records show. She was released on $50,000 bail at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.
The story is similar to another in Redlands, where 28-year-old Laura Whitehurst, a teacher at Citrus Valley High School, is accused of giving birth to a baby fathered by a teen student. Whitehurst pleaded not guilty this week with 41 sex crimes allegedly committed with three teen students.
Hahn said it's possible detectives will find additional victims of Morales.
NOTE: The Sheriff's Department gave Morales' age as 31, but inmate records show a birth date that would make Morales 30.
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