transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:02] There is nothing quite devastating like a high school love triangle. It is the synopsis of many a book talk books, two people fighting over one love interest. It's probably what the quote, all's fair in love and war is inspired by, especially when two people are fighting over the popular quarterback to the high school football team. There are trilogy long sagas of real life instances where people have confessed to the craziest high school love triangles years down the line. One netizen, OP, the original poster, she gets a call from her old high school crush. They're so much older now. In fact, this old high school crush is about to get married to his high school girlfriend, but he's calling her and he's drunk. He's confessing his love to her instead. And he's saying things like, I know you never want me because back in high school, you rejected me. And this is all right before his wedding. But what's crazier is the original poster OP is like, what are you talking about? I never rejected you in high school. Back in high school, when they were all friends, this guy had asked his now soon to be wife to tell the original poster, hey, I have a crush on her. Can you tell her and let her know? And this girl, the soon to be wife decides, I'm actually not gonna tell her that. And I'm just gonna tell you that she rejected you and I'm gonna swoop in and start dating you instead. And now she is going to be the one walking down the aisle with him. Which, I mean, I don't know how someone would even feel if they find out the truth years down the line. I don't know if that changes him wanting to get married or not. Do you still get married all over this high school love triangle? People do crazy stuff when their frontal lobe is not fully developed. And in high school, everything means something. Like who you sit next to in the cafeteria, whose hoodie you're wearing, whose locker you're standing by between class. I hate high school. Dating becomes very territorial in high school. People decorate their crushes lockers. They'll wear the jersey numbers to the high school football games. They'll get the little candy canes delivered to them during Christmas. But even if a high school relationship withstands all of this drama, it almost always ends up with everyone separating because of college, which is why letters like these are written to the quarterback of the high school football team. I'm glad to have you as someone who I think will be in my life for a while. And this is a real note. This is very pertinent. Even if we don't talk all the time or even at all when you're in college, I feel like our little bond will always be there. So just hit me when you want to go get wasted at a bar together and I'll send you my wedding invite one day. I know you're a nostalgic AF, so I hope you look back at our time as a good one. And no, this isn't like me saying goodbye, but like I know things are going to be different. Like bro, you were the first person who got me to smoke weed. You're always going to have that title, so we're locked in for real. And maybe one day we'll be able to go to the aquarium. I'm here whenever, even though you never say it back. I love you and I wish you all the best. Always love, HB. This letter never gets delivered to the high school crush. Instead, it's found crumpled up in a kitchen trash can during a search warrant for Haley Beck's apartment. Because this letter is not between two high school lovebirds who are in love and their students that are separating for college. This letter is written by a 27-year-old teacher at Centennial High School who is caught grooming her student. We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mango to support the Joyful Heart Foundation, who are working to transform society's response to SADVCA and support survivors healing with resources like education, advocacy, and policy change. This episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mango's growing team, and we'd also like to thank you guys for your continued support. As always, full show notes are available at rottenmangopodcast.com. Today's case involves mentions of grooming predators in particular positions of power, harassment, CSA. Please take care while watching today's episode. Take a break. Put this on pause if you need to. We will see you back in the next episode. This episode is also currently ongoing, and so any information will be up to the date of publishing. And because there's no verdicts as of now and not even charges, all allegations are speculative, currently being investigated, and or only consist of publicly available information online. We did FOIA request this case, so we did receive like a 200-page police document. I will say, because there are no charges, there will be times where I'm quoting things from this police document, or I'm quoting other people talking about and referencing this police document. There's lots of labels of what this crime was. Some people are using the words like relationship and sex, but I just want to make it abundantly clear, this is none of those things. In my opinion, I think this is just a sex crime. I don't think that this is sex or a relationship. I think this is grooming. I think this is predatory behavior, and I think it's a crime. I think it's sexual assault. But because there are lots of people who reference it like that, likely because the victim is a male student, it's not me advocating for that, I'm just saying. So with that being said, let's get into it. Every high school has some sort of open secret. Married teachers are having affairs with each other. One netizen writes, quote, two PE teachers, one male and one female, they would vanish at the same time every day. She got pregnant. Her husband was also a teacher at our school and like the whole building pretended we didn't know that that's not his baby. Which is a pretty common theme. Another netizen writes, two teachers had an affair and the woman's husband came to the school during lunch and beat the shit out of the other teacher in the hallway. The kids were filming it, but both teachers kept their jobs. And then it becomes one of those things that nobody really talks about openly anymore. Married parents of students are having affairs with their married parents, perhaps with a married teacher. One person stated that their high school had this weird open secret. The football coach was having a very public affair with one of the player's moms. She was at every practice, every game, always in his office. His wife was also a teacher at the school, and like the whole town knew. Another student says, our principal was sleeping with at least two different student's moms. He would schedule parent conferences during school hours, like his secretary knew, his school office staff knew, everyone knew. He eventually got promoted to district administrator. Yeah. Open secrets about how seriously everyone seems to take high school sports is a huge thing. Like one principal who would change her own son's grades so that he could play football. This is a common thing. One faculty member writes, the star quarterback had a GPA of 0.8, 0.8, literally failing every class, but every quarter, his grades would magically adjust just enough so that he could play football. Every teacher knew it, nobody was allowed to talk about it. Or another, best player in our school basketball team got caught breaking into cars and robbing them, was kicked off the basketball team after they found his car full of all the valuables that were stolen. Half into the season, we're at the bottom. So the coach and the principal work out a deal and they get him back in. He ends up playing. We still lost though. This one isn't as much of a secret as it is a crime, but someone writes, the male science teacher hid a camera in the faculty woman's bathroom. Yeah. But Centennial High School in Arizona, their open secret would start making national news. Centennial High School is one of the entire state's premier athletic schools, particularly in football. So their team has won at least eight state championships. It's a heavy football school, meaning Friday nights, you drive by Centennial High School, it's gonna be packed. Everybody's talking about what they're wearing to the game, who's playing, who's that. Everyone knows all the players, their numbers, all the players and their parents. Then the rest of the weekend, if you go to the best spots in town, like if you go Saturday brunch, you're gonna run into people rehashing Friday nights game while eating brunch. And it's just high school football. Like it's that serious. And I grew up in the South, so like I get high school football. And there is something much darker going on in Centennial High School than just football. It starts off more like an open secret. It's like a rumor. Nobody has proof, but it just feels weird. When a student says, there were just things about the school that just kept getting swept under the rug. Look, I don't know the specifics, but everyone's heard the rumors. Like there was this male Spanish teacher that was very friendly and flirty with the girls' students last year. I don't know if anything happened, but he was fired before anything came up. And this is a real witness, a real student saying this to the police. Then there's the girl's soccer coach and psychology teacher. She's just kind of weird with her students, specifically her male students. She seems like one of those teachers that hates her female students but loves her male students, which is concerning, right? But she would just do this thing where she would constantly call out members of the football team, kids, students, out of their classes, and then bring them to her classroom and just hang out with them. I don't know, it's weird. Or she's constantly doing favors for them. She would let them leave the school campus to get food, which is generally not allowed. At some point, the other students and even some of their older already graduated siblings are confused. Their parents are getting word of this. After hearing all of these rumors, one of the students decides to just ask one of the football players. Like, you're always around the psychology teacher. Like, is that teacher being weird with you? Is something weird? Because I heard something weird is going on. He responds really cryptically. You'd have to ask the teacher that. Like, I'm not saying anything. What does that mean? Like, as in there's something to say, but you don't want to say it? But there is one student whose name keeps getting brought up in all of this with rumors about the psychology teacher. He's a football player, and we're going to be referring to him as Alex for the rest of the episode. That is not his real name. Anyone who is under 18 or even 18 but is a student, I'm not using any of their real names. Alex, just a fake name, like I said, but yeah, there's just like a rumor between Alex. Like, he's always around the psychology teacher. If you see her in the hallway, she always wants to be near him. It's, I don't know. It's just sometimes he'll be in her classroom when it's not even his class. And that's not to say that Alex is strange. The teacher is the only strange one here in this scenario, but it's odd to the point that people called her out on it. And she states that the only reason her and Alex are so close is because they're like siblings. He's like her brother, which I feel like when you hear people calling someone, oh, that's like my brother, there's only three ways this goes. Okay. A, they're literally siblings or cousins or related by DNA in some way, shape or form, which does not apply to this teacher and student. B, they grew up together and experienced a lot of hardship or something that they can relate to, which again, doesn't apply to this teacher and student dynamic. And C, when someone is trying to deflect and distract from the fact that they definitely do not see this individual as their brother. That's it. I feel like those are the only three ways it goes. That's it. But not only that, they would bicker like siblings. And on top of that, the teacher would just bring this male student up in every single conversation. Even if it's not about him, has nothing to do with him, she would somehow manage a way to weasel his name into this conversation with other students. It's just weird. Like, are you obsessed with Alex or something? But the teacher is on like the younger side of the other teacher. She's 27. And so while it's highly inappropriate, unprofessional and should stop, maybe there's nothing more to it. Like maybe that's why nobody reported it. But another recent graduate of Centennial says, I don't know, I overheard something really, really strange. A very strange conversation. The psychology teacher and the football student, they're in the hallway, kind of hush, hush, whispering, arguing. And as the former student is walking back, they heard the student say something to the teacher along the effect of, I have a girlfriend, why are you so worried about what I do? Which is just weird. Why would a teacher be so concerned about that? Then there's the video rumor. A couple of students started telling their friends who told their friends, who told their friends, who told their friends and maybe some of them told their parents. But the rumor is there's a video of one of the teachers giving a student oral in her classroom. Jess is a woman on a mission. It's not an open secret if it's a little crime. Jess goes straight onto the website submissions page and she starts typing up her tip. She enters her name.

Speaker 2:
[12:32] A student?

Speaker 1:
[12:33] Jess is the mother of a student, former student, graduated student. She starts typing up her name, address, phone number, email in the tip submissions part. And Jess writes that her daughter used to attend the school and was on the soccer team. And her soccer coach-

Speaker 2:
[12:47] I'm sorry, tip to what website?

Speaker 1:
[12:50] Oh, the police website.

Speaker 2:
[12:51] Oh, okay.

Speaker 1:
[12:53] And the daughter's soccer coach, who also happens to be the psychology teacher, has just always had this unprofessional air to her. The way she handles herself around the students, it just never felt right with Jess. She remembers distinctly how she spoke with the soccer coach, at least on one occasion, about quote, how it felt like her relationship was inappropriate with all the kids. However, I know that last year's team has a lot of info about a boy that she had, apparently, an inappropriate student teacher relationship with. He would meet her during non-school hours, and they were definitely Snapchatting. In the portion that reads suspect name, she types in Haley Beck, and sends it to the Peoria Police Department, where Detective Kraber, a detective in the Heat Division, so this is Human Exploitation and Trafficking Unit, picks up the tip. He immediately calls Jess back for more information, and she tells the detective, look, she's never been appropriate with her kids. She's never acted like some authority figure, and she cares more about being a peer to the students than anything. She gossips with the students, and she worries about what they think about her, and it's just like she wants to be our kids' friends. Apparently, Haley even texted Jess' daughter that Jess' daughter is being bratty. Like, you're being bratty. A teacher texting a student that the student is being bratty, which is weirdly unprofessional, and Jess describes it as being manipulative. But the reason for the tip is not because Haley Beck is one of those odd teachers that needs to get a grip to life and come to terms with the fact that these high school students don't see you as cool or their friend, all disrespect intended. Jess would not have filed a tip for that. It's because of Alex, okay? She's saying, there's this kid, this football player named Alex, and he just comes to all the girls' soccer practices, even when he has no reason to be on campus, and it doesn't seem like he's doing it to be around the girls of the soccer team. He would attend all of these lock-ins and students have started noticing that sometimes Haley and Alex would bicker, and some of the students were saying, oh, it's because they're like siblings. That's what Miss Beck said, right? But it feels like they're arguing like they're in some sort of relationship.

Speaker 2:
[14:56] So she's submitting because she's worried about Alex, right?

Speaker 1:
[14:59] Yes. And then she says, but my daughter specifically heard something when they were arguing. And it's different from what the other student overheard, because lots of tips are coming in simultaneously. And Jess says, you know, my daughter was walking by when they were arguing in the hallway, and she overheard Miss Beck, the teacher, say something along the lines of, this would wreck my career, not yours. And then there's just all the small, very alarming things. Sometimes Alex wouldn't be in class, but Haley would never mark him absent. Miss Beck would invite Alex and the entire football team to come swimming at her apartment swimming pool. And the other night, there was this whole conversation amongst the students that Haley had, Miss Beck had given Alex head. That's the phrasing of it. Like that's not me saying it, because I think that would be a crime, but you get what I'm saying. Jess states at the end of this call, she feels really guilty because she doesn't have the proof of any sort of video or anything, but like these are the things that she's heard. And she feels, she feels conflicted about making this tip because if she hadn't called, then nobody else is going to get dragged into it. And now the police want to talk to her daughter, the police want to talk to these other high school kids, but they really, really need to look into 27 year old, Haley Beck, who is pretty easy to Google for the officers, by the way, she's not just a psychology teacher at the local high school. She's also the well-known older sister of a pretty well-known influencer by the name of Noah Beck. If you are one of the lucky people that did not download TikTok during the pandemic and continue down the easy pipeline of brain rotting like myself, you may have no clue who Noah Beck is, which is neither here nor there. Just know that he's a big influencer with over 30 million followers on TikTok, and he makes a lot of money. And I don't wanna say definitively, but it seems like he has not been in any career ending controversies. He seems unproblematic compared to some of the other TikTokers during that time period. He mainly does a lot of big brand trips now. I think he's getting into acting. I think he has a few shows on Netflix that he's working on. So yeah, I think he's mainly trying to be an actor.

Speaker 2:
[17:08] He's dating...

Speaker 1:
[17:09] He did date Dixie D'Amelio, but I think they were broken up a long time ago.

Speaker 2:
[17:15] Oh, okay.

Speaker 1:
[17:16] Yeah, but he's like from that era, right? But he makes a lot of money, which may or may not be the only tiny detail that will hold relevance to this later. But he also did some family vlogs that feature two of his sisters. So you've got Haley Beck, the oldest Beck child. And it appears that she's always had the going down the right path type of childhood, while her younger siblings, Tatum Beck, her younger sister, her younger brother, Noah Beck, were the troublemakers. That's how they talk about their relationships. They're like Haley Beck is like the golden kid, the perfect child or whatever.

Speaker 2:
[17:48] Wow.

Speaker 1:
[17:49] And then Tatum Beck is like the troublemaker. She likes to throw pizzas at Haley Beck.

Speaker 2:
[17:54] But is Haley Beck also like influencer or not at all? Or she's just only as a sister?

Speaker 1:
[18:00] Only as a sister.

Speaker 2:
[18:02] So she doesn't have her own TikTok and all of that.

Speaker 1:
[18:04] She does, but now not anymore. It's pretty much gone. But she was never famous for her TikTok. She was really only famous for being Noah Beck's sister.

Speaker 2:
[18:14] Yeah. And I'm assuming everybody in school knows that too, right? That's Noah Beck's sister.

Speaker 1:
[18:19] Yeah. And apparently, oh my God, there's like this rumor. I couldn't confirm, but there were some anonymous students that were formerly in her class that said that because she's a psychology teacher, she would use Noah Beck and Dixie D'Amelio as personality references, which was just weird. Very weird. Very bizarre. Very parasocial.

Speaker 2:
[18:37] That's very interesting because you're saying that she wants to be a friend. And her brother is like basically the biggest star for high school kids. Must play a lot of roles in her brain and her interaction with the kids, right?

Speaker 1:
[18:54] Yeah, which makes it, I think, more sick. Not that Noah Beck did anything wrong. He doesn't even live in Arizona anymore. So just pointing that out. But more on that later, because there is a part about Noah Beck in the police report that is unverified. But we'll get there. Haley goes on to become a high school psychology teacher. And she says in an interview, teachers can have connections with kids. And I feel like that's one of the most important parts of teaching, because at the end of the day, you never know. I might be the only person in someone's life that does care. I try really hard to make that known in my teaching and in my interactions with my students. And then there's really not much else about her until recently, where every single TikTok of Haley Beck in her classroom teaching has seemingly gone viral, because there's a rumor that Haley Beck is the teacher in the video, where I would consider it essay, but oral is committed against a student. Do you remember the TikTok trend where two people would be running, filming each other? They take turns, so one person pretends to be the suspect, the other pretends to be the cop chasing the suspect, and as they're running, the cop, the one that's filming, will say something like, suspect is a 25-year-old and still takes a bubble bath every single day. Suspect can't grow a beard. You know, they're supposed to be oddly specific. You get it, you've seen it. Noah Beck has done one with his siblings a while back, and Haley Beck is running, and Noah Beck says, suspects' best friends are her students. And Haley stops running to say, they're nice to me. Then another TikTok is dug up. Same trend, but this time it looks like it's Haley and another, maybe a teacher or a student in a cafeteria. And Haley is running through this empty cafeteria, and a girl's voice on the other end says, suspect has a cult following of high school boys.

Speaker 2:
[20:37] Wow.

Speaker 1:
[20:39] And there is a TikTok that has since started going viral, which is a picture of Haley Beck in her class and on the whiteboard behind her, it's written, Mommy Beck. Whether she wrote that and told the students to call her Mommy Beck, whether one of the students wrote it and she just didn't erase it immediately, it's unclear. There's nothing inherently illegal or fireball in the videos of her in the classroom, at least the ones circulating online. Although I do think that she did break some school rules, because I don't think you're allowed to have students' voices or their faces in any TikToks without the parents' consent.

Speaker 2:
[21:11] Oh, so she films TikToks.

Speaker 1:
[21:13] She also would film TikToks in her classroom, and they were just so cringe. They've all been wiped from the internet, but you can see some reposts on TikTok, where she just behaves in a way that I would never want my child anywhere near her, and I don't even have children.

Speaker 2:
[21:29] What does that mean?

Speaker 1:
[21:30] She's the epitome of a teacher that I think is not all there in the head. She likes to sing at her desk while the students are trying to focus, and it's very like, oh, pay attention to me. And then she'd be like, oops, sorry, I don't even know why I'm seeing that. And then there's another part, like this one really just grinds my gears. And I do think that I have at times a very uncomfortable cadence and tone of voice. And maybe there is some vocal fry in my throat. But with Haley Beck, she's, this is a student, this is a professional setting. And she's talking to a student and she's like, Austin, stop. And I'm like, what is fucking happening?

Speaker 2:
[22:10] Is there like a trend that she's doing or just like clips of her life?

Speaker 1:
[22:13] These are clips of her life. And this is like at the time when a lot of teachers were filming themselves in classrooms. And then there was like a wave of teachers filming themselves. And then a lot of schools got mad. A lot of kids got mad. A lot of the internet got mad because they were like, you are like a toxic teacher. You're a weird teacher. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she has some of these, but I mean, maybe they're fireball offenses, but nothing inherently illegal in what has come up on TikTok. It's just a combination of all the things that she does. She has a tendency to consistently try to fit in with the kids and make the class about herself. There's another TikTok where she's up on the table while the kids are exiting the classroom. And it just seems like she's doing it to be cool.

Speaker 2:
[22:57] What do you mean up on the table, standing on the chairs?

Speaker 1:
[22:59] Yeah, and she's like watching them all leave. I don't know. Like I just never had teachers really behave like that. It just makes you uncomfortable. She's bickering with students. Later, another student would say that the football boys and Haley Beck would constantly be making TikToks in her classroom. So I guess like the football boys would post their own TikToks and that Haley Beck started acting more like a friend rather than a coach or a teacher. The football guys would always be behind her desk joking around with her. There is this one picture that one of the football guys took, boys, children, students, just emphasis. He's sitting at what it seems to be her chair, and she's leaned over her desk, and it's just like the most weird body language. Highly uncomfortable. One student says, Ms. Beck would be teaching her class, and suddenly when the football players came in, she would stop teaching and just talk to them. The way that they talked would be like that middle school teasing, flirting type of dynamic. There's also this newly circulating TikTok of a male student filming himself. I'm not going to post it, but it has gone viral. He's likely under the influence, given the caption, but he's stating that he invited Haley Beck to pull up to his grad party, and she did, and now she's another student's partner in Pong. I'm assuming Beer Pong. I don't know if there's beer in there or if it's Gatorade, probably not Gatorade, it's probably beer, but he flips the camera and sure enough, there's Haley Beck at a house party.

Speaker 2:
[24:24] That is wild.

Speaker 1:
[24:26] Other students have come out to say that being in Haley Beck's class was just weird. She would openly talk about her dating life, which is not normal classroom behavior. With all of this and the tip from one of the parents to the police department, the police decide that they're going to start a full-blown investigation. In fact, they have tips about other things going on in Centennial High School. They're just going to upend and do a full overhaul and look into everything. They start pulling up other names that they think are going to be good witnesses. They're calling their parents because most of them are underage, asking if they can come in for an interview, and all of them are led into the soft room. The soft interview room in big police departments is specifically designed to create a comfortable, calm environment. It's usually reserved for victims, witnesses, and for this situation, children, not the perpetrators. Multiple students are brought in from Centennial High School into the soft room where they're asked, can you tell us what you know about the ongoing investigation? One of the students responds, which one? The police don't start investigating Centennial High School because of a tip on Haley Beck. There is already an investigation under way on a separate teacher, 47 year old Angela Berlaca.

Speaker 2:
[25:36] What is going on in this school?

Speaker 1:
[25:38] While police are investigating Angela Berlaca, tips are coming in about 27 year old Haley Beck. So now they're like, okay, well, let's investigate both of them. And this is how both teachers are getting investigated for grooming their students. And random parents from Centennial High School end up opening their front doors, seeing a business card taped on the front for a detective. One of the mother calls the detective and says, I don't know what this is all about. Well, kind of. She says she figured out, you know, given all the recent events, she had heard rumors milling about concerning some teachers at the school, but she doesn't know all the details. But she heard that her child might know more. She and her daughter who we will randomly call Taylor, Taylor is 17, get called into the soft room. Okay, so the police, they don't do like an audio transcription. There is an audio and video file that we were not able to FOIA, which is understandable. This is still an open investigation after all as well. But they don't have a transcript for the audio. So this is the police officer paraphrasing their entire conversation based off the interview. So these are, I don't want to say they're direct quotes, but they're as direct as it gets. Like these are all the statements the police reiterated in the police report. So Taylor tells the detectives, I heard some rumors about Ms. Berlaca. What kind of rumors? That 47-year-old Angela Berlaca, a teacher at the high school, would send nudes to football players, and that she would add a bunch of the boys on Snapchat. But a lot of the students like Ms. Berlaca and felt that she was never odd in class. Like Taylor is like, oh, no, Ms. Berlaca is not like Haley Beck, where she's obsessed with the boys students. She's actually pretty nice to me. But I don't know, this is the rumor that I heard. So maybe the rumor is just a rumor. Taylor reports to the detective that she personally noticed that Angela Berlaca started getting weird to her when she started dating another student, redacted. So we're gonna call him redacted for now.

Speaker 2:
[27:31] Wait, Taylor, the 47 year old teacher getting weird to Taylor?

Speaker 1:
[27:34] Yeah, so 47 year old Angela Berlaca starts acting weird around 17 year old Taylor. And Taylor is like, all I know is it started when I started dating my boyfriend, another 17 year old at the school.

Speaker 2:
[27:48] Is he a football player?

Speaker 1:
[27:49] Yeah, so Taylor starts dating redacted male student in the school. And that's when Angela Berlaca, the teacher starts acting very strange as per the report. When Taylor would go to the bathroom, Angela would ask her if she's gonna go hang out with her boyfriend. She would ask Taylor about her boyfriend all the time. And like Taylor thinks it's weird. Also, Ms. Berlaca was one of the first people that found out that Taylor and her boyfriend were even dating. Like how did she even find out so quickly? And then Taylor finds out through mutual friends of her and her new boyfriend, that Angela had actually added her boyfriend on Snapchat when he was a freshman or sophomore. So this was like a while back. And she was always sending him weird stuff, like messages, allegedly like, my husband doesn't satisfy me enough. This is a 47 year old teacher sending this to a freshman or sophomore in high school.

Speaker 2:
[28:37] That's crazy.

Speaker 1:
[28:38] Ms. Berlaca, are teachers supposed to have a Snapchat with their students? No.

Speaker 2:
[28:44] Is that even allowed? That's crazy.

Speaker 1:
[28:46] So, teachers actually have email portals or sometimes they have these softwares. Each school is different. So, some schools have software where you can like message teachers, but it's like a school software and it's all monitored. But no, teachers are not supposed to have any sort of personal contact with students outside of class. And usually teachers, the last thing they want is to see a student outside of class or talk to them. So, this is really weird.

Speaker 2:
[29:11] Wow. Crazy.

Speaker 1:
[29:13] She would invite him to the classroom early before the rest of the students would get there and she would tell him not to tell anyone about what she's saying. But Taylor's boyfriend never told Taylor any of this himself. So, this is all she's hearing through mutual friends. She never saw these messages on his phone. So, she's like, I don't know if it's true, it's just what I've heard. But there are more rumors about Ms. Barlaca that multiple male students, children received similar messages and Taylor says, quote, I just know the whole football team is bonded over how weird the teachers are and that they've seen the same pictures of Ms. Barlaca, same pictures.

Speaker 2:
[29:51] Wow, so she's mass sending her nudes to the whole team?

Speaker 1:
[29:55] Could be. The police bring in Angela Barlaca and she tells the officers that she has been working as a teacher for the past 26 years. She's been employed as a teacher way longer than any of these children have been on the face of this planet. She also teaches at this redacted, it sounds like a daycare, and she teaches early child development and is in charge of the preschool. So initially, in the interview, even though Angela knows what's going on, she just tells the police that she really only has interactions with students via email and she only communicates with students for school-related purposes. The police report reads, I then asked her if she communicates with students outside of school purposes. I'm not going to answer that question. Would there be any reason why a student would have any images or videos of you in a state of nudity? Angela immediately states that she's not going to answer the question. She's just going to say, I'm going to say that I'm going to be viewed as wrong. I'm going to say that I'm going to be viewed as wrong. I'm going to say that I'm going to be viewed as wrong. I'm going to say that I'm going to be viewed as wrong. I'm going to say that I'm going to be viewed as wrong. I mean, that makes sense, right? Would there be any reason a student would have any images or videos of you in a state of nudity? Angela immediately states that she's not gonna answer the question and requests an attorney, thus ending the interview. And she knows why, because the second that the police get a warrant for her phone records and start going through it, they're gonna see that she is indeed on Snapchat talking to students, Taylor's boyfriend to be exact. On Snapchat, she messages Taylor's boyfriend, her student first. Who's your tattoo artist?

Speaker 2:
[31:29] Wow. Wait, but are these still recorded on Snapchat or they're gone?

Speaker 1:
[31:35] They're gone, but the police are able to subpoena Snapchat. So the police are out here subpoenaing Snapchat.

Speaker 2:
[31:41] So Snapchat also has a whole record of everything?

Speaker 1:
[31:44] Oh yeah. Snapchat actually has a back-end portal for law enforcement, where they can go in and ask for search warrants.

Speaker 2:
[31:51] Interesting.

Speaker 1:
[31:52] Yeah, they have all the big tech companies, and I'm saying this because I don't know why people are so dumb in this day and age. If you're committing a crime, all the big tech companies, they have preservation requests that law enforcement fill out, and they preserve all the metadata. They're legally required to. I'm not saying that so you can get away with the crime. I'm saying that because it's so mind-boggling to me. I would say that this is more so if you're not committing a crime, and maybe you have other sensitive information that you wouldn't want certain government agencies to know. Just know that, right? But. Wow. So she's like, who's your tattoo artist? This guy named Creep on 43rd Avenue in Grand. And then he responds, shaking my head, why'd you un-add me? So she added him, un-added him, and then Angela Berlacca responds, just trying to stay out of trouble. If you say so, you got any free time coming up, B? So they all call her Ms. B. I'm leaving town this weekend. Where to? Colorado for a week, last vacay before school starts. Summer goes fast. It really does. No response. So Angela Berlacca messages again in the morning, good morning. Now he responds, good morning, curious if your offers are still on the table. Wait, who? The student is asking if your offers are still on the table. We don't know the offers based off this conversation, but Angela Berlacca responds, yes, but not right now. The student responds, catch me in December. I'm curious if you teach some things or not. Are you graduating early? Yeah, I am. I'll be done in December. So catch me over break when you got free time. I need to see if you got any special tricks and I'll be 19. Nice. And I'd be happy to. We'll see what you got up your sleeve. And I guess he copied her message on Snapchat or something, but she's like, anything you want, you know, what's with you copying my message, though? Should I be worried?

Speaker 2:
[33:50] Who is the student?

Speaker 1:
[33:52] Angela Berlaca is like, you copied my message. Should I be worried?

Speaker 2:
[33:55] Screenshotting and stuff.

Speaker 1:
[33:57] And he's like, not about me. Good to know.

Speaker 2:
[34:00] So she's 47.

Speaker 1:
[34:01] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[34:02] The student was like 17.

Speaker 1:
[34:04] He is now 18. Yeah, turning 19.

Speaker 2:
[34:07] So she's 30 years older.

Speaker 1:
[34:09] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[34:10] Does she have any children? Do you know?

Speaker 1:
[34:12] She's married and has children.

Speaker 2:
[34:14] God.

Speaker 1:
[34:16] It is atrocious, but the deep dark abyss of hell can always get darker. Once investigators start digging, they interview Taylor's boyfriend's grandmother. And she states that her grandson confided in her that his teacher was being inappropriate with him. She also reached out to the police on a separate tip, stating that a teacher has been sending her grandson, Taylor's boyfriend, inappropriate messages and videos. One video is described in the police report as, quote, a video where the teacher was nude and masturbating with a, a... A toy? Yeah, a DI., a cucumber shaped device. In addition to this, the female teacher was saying Redacted's name in the video, as well as stating that she wants to S him dry. The video footage shows the teacher's face as well as identifying tattoos. As well as another video of Angela Berlaca, in addition to Redacted, there are three other students involved.

Speaker 2:
[35:10] What do you mean three students involved?

Speaker 1:
[35:12] Whether they received similar messages or similar offers, but there are other students that are semi-involved in being groomed. Now, this video was sent to the student when he was 16 years old, not when he was 18. There's another video that the police find, which includes an adult female, likely Angela Berlaca, in the shower unclothed. Her face is not in it, but it appears to be her. It matches with her shower. It matches with the containers in her shower and some of the identifying tattoos. The video is two entire minutes long, and she's just pointing the camera downwards and soaping up her body. Angela Berlaca is very clearly, in my opinion, a predator. Neither of them have been charged yet, but can the same be said about Haley Beck, at least as far as this investigation right now at this point. It's like the police opened up a can of worms with Angela Berlaca's case, and that leads them to open up another can of worms or can of eels with Haley Beck. So they're like, okay, we've got Angela Berlaca, we've got these videos, and now everybody's talking about another teacher, named Haley Beck, like, what's happening? Another student is brought in, and she tells officers that she's heard a rumor that Haley Beck and Alex have been together since Alex, that student, was 16 years old, and that wouldn't surprise her. They're like, what do you mean by that? Ms. Beck acts like she's still in high school and she's obsessed with the football team. She would mention how when she was in high school, she dated a football player. Not only that, another student states, one time I was in yearbook class, I stopped by Ms. Beck's classroom. When I got there, there was at least 30 football players inside. They're having a pizza party. The student walks in and Ms. Beck looks at her and goes, well, this looks weird. She didn't think it looked weird, but now that Ms. Beck said that it was weird, that made it weird. She never allows female students to hang out in her classroom after class, but she allows all the male students. Another student who graduated states, she hated being in Ms. Beck's classroom. Why? She just has a weird focus on guys. Her classroom environment was annoying. She would prioritize the male student's attention over teaching. There's also rumors that she gave a male student a Christmas present, that she filmed a TikTok inside of the car of one of the male students. Like it wasn't scandalous, but why are you in a student's car filming a TikTok? One student says something incredibly alarming though. They state that there are at least a group of eight to nine football kids that she knows of where they were in a competition. And that competition was to see who could get the most inappropriate videos and pictures of either of the two teachers, Angela Berlaca and Haley Beck. Now, normally this type of competition would be a reason for students to be in trouble because it is inappropriate, but no teacher in their right mind would ever send anyone any material for the sick competition that they have going on, right? Police subpoena Angela Berlaca's phone, and they also subpoena and do a search warrant on Haley Beck's phone. Inside Haley Beck's, they find text messages between Haley Beck and this student named Alex, and they're both referencing faculty pictures, so specifically of Haley Beck. Each teacher, they need like an ID tag, and Haley Beck, she's talking about her ID tag picture, and Alex states bluntly, those ID pics are funny. Haley Beck, the teacher, responds in a confused manner like, funny? Why? Oh, let me guess. I was a beluga in the first few. Yeah, so she's saying that she was much heavier in the first few pictures when she first started teaching. Bro, my sophomore year, you were 1 billion percent overweight, and now you look fire. One that is in writes, if someone told me I was 1 billion percent overweight, I would have to KMS. Alex goes to like, oh, Alex goes on to like the text message. Oh, let me guess, I was a beluga in the first few years, and he responds to that. The student responds and he says, man, ain't that right. Yeah, but like you still fucked with me then, like as a person. Negative. You were a cool teacher, though. Is my one this year good then? And you're my current teacher. Or better, at least, you're telling me you wouldn't have tried with me back then solely because of the teacher aspect? No, not at all, because it wouldn't have been, because it would have been like, she's not even a flex, she's rough. Right, right. I was just cool. Okay, be nice. You asked. Same way I think about Miss B. If she was a little more fit, I would have died in the... Pussy.

Speaker 2:
[39:34] Miss B?

Speaker 1:
[39:35] Burlaca.

Speaker 2:
[39:36] Oh, he's talking about the other teacher too.

Speaker 1:
[39:39] To Haley Beck.

Speaker 2:
[39:40] Like, Haley Beck knows what's going on.

Speaker 1:
[39:42] Yeah, and she's not reporting it because she's doing the same thing. And Haley Beck...

Speaker 2:
[39:48] Does Miss B knows about Haley Beck, though?

Speaker 1:
[39:50] We don't know.

Speaker 2:
[39:52] What?

Speaker 1:
[39:53] And Haley Beck responds, bro, she's also like 50, though. But she's too damn big for me right now. Question mark, question mark. Age is just a number, baby. She's starving for the young dick.

Speaker 2:
[40:04] Who said this?

Speaker 1:
[40:05] The student.

Speaker 2:
[40:06] Oh.

Speaker 1:
[40:07] And I do want to preface that there's going to be a lot of uncomfortable messages where this 18 year old student is saying sometimes uncomfortable things about women, women's bodies, and his girlfriend in particular. But I don't think that he's at fault for anything. I think there's no crime in an 18 year old talking like this, behaving this way, especially when you have to factor in the trauma element of like, we don't know how long he's been preyed on in this school and how that could alter the way that he also thinks and speaks. I'm not justifying it, but I'm just saying he's genuinely a victim in this situation. Haley responds, I mean, yeah, I guess, even though our situation is still not right, at least we're closer in age. I don't like being compared to Ms. B. Is she jealous? Yeah. She's jealous that someone else is grooming her victim. And he responds, nah, 100%, a tad more normalized. Like if I'm 25 and you're 33, who cares? But if I'm 25 and she's 55, holy gilf. Alex likes the message that Haley sends of not wanting to be compared to Angela Berlacca. And he writes, luckily, I haven't cracked her yet. Right, like this sounds more normal. Like an older woman, go you, sick. I can't even look at her without thinking of her literal vagina. Right. So investigators put two and two together that both Angela Berlacca and Haley Beck are victimizing the same student. The message where she is sending the video with that object and saying a student's name, it's Alex. It's the same student. And on Haley Beck's end, she knows what Angela Berlacca has been doing and this has not reported it because she's doing the same thing to the child. Alex's age-appropriate girlfriend, Taylor, tells the police, Ms. Beck is-

Speaker 2:
[42:04] Oh, Taylor is Alex's girlfriend?

Speaker 1:
[42:07] And she tells the police, Ms. Beck is a weirdo. She's weird with all the students, she's weird with the high school boys, she's flirty, and she's fixated on still being in high school. Everyone knows that, including the other teachers. Haley Beck would go around telling students that other teachers questioned her about being inappropriate with students or too friendly, but she doesn't even appear to be worried about it. She almost says it as if it's something to be proud of, like some sort of badge of honor, that she's so cool that even the other teachers are telling her to stop being one of the kids. Taylor says-

Speaker 2:
[42:34] And other teachers know about this?

Speaker 1:
[42:36] Yes, or at least it seems like they have an idea. Taylor says she never liked Ms. Beck. She had Ms. Beck for psychology all last year, didn't like her, especially because Ms. Beck was always texting Alex. Haley Beck would text Alex, I mean she would text all the football boys, but specifically Alex and she would send him money and weird shit. According to the police report, Taylor says weird shit and she was constantly asking Alex about his high school girlfriend, Taylor. Haley would be texting Alex, what are you doing? And with Taylor, bro, Haley would just call him weird, which Alex would get offended by and he would respond to Haley, like his teacher, that he's going to be rude and weird to her because she's weird for texting him. He would straight up tell her, your ass is going to get in trouble because you're texting me. Haley Beck did not care. Taylor states, I never saw anything like freaky in the text messages from Ms. Beck. It would just be like her sending money and asking him, what are you doing today? Or like, let's go grab food. It was like she's trying to hang out with him.

Speaker 2:
[43:40] That's fucking crazy. In what scenario would a teacher send student money?

Speaker 1:
[43:44] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[43:45] How much money?

Speaker 1:
[43:46] It's always 20 or $30 each time, but it added up in the span of a month and a half to $630 on a teacher's salary.

Speaker 2:
[43:53] Like what? Like Vemo him or?

Speaker 1:
[43:56] Apple Pay.

Speaker 2:
[43:57] Oh, like those like gift card money on the text?

Speaker 1:
[44:00] Yeah. Not even just any teacher. I think any adult sending any child money that is not directly related that the parents know about is so alarming.

Speaker 2:
[44:16] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[44:17] But a teacher makes it even more alarming. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[44:19] 100%.

Speaker 1:
[44:20] Wow. And Taylor was like, I know of at least one time where Haley Beck and Alex hung out. They went to this place called Fired Pie, which ironically is not like a pie place. It's a pizza spot. Well, I guess that makes more sense. But Alex is there with his friend and Haley Beck just shows up, meets up with them offering to pay for Alex's food. Taylor didn't even know about any of this until she asked Alex about it because she heard about it from someone else. In this instance, he got mad that she asked. These are the small things where I think it's really important. When you just read the messages between Haley Beck and the victim, the student, because he's a lot more aggressive in the text messages, some netizens have gotten into this weird mindset where he's not a victim because he was 18. He's a victim and I think these small instances where when he's asked about, did you see Haley Beck with his high school girlfriend, he gets upset. That might be from a whole list of traumatic reasons that maybe have not been digested as being trauma. These are the little things where it's very clear, it's still impacting him in a tremendous way. He got mad and he didn't want to talk about it. Now, the whole thing is odd. Taylor says that Haley Beck was constantly just texting Alex as if they were friends or something. She would send him pictures, selfies, not inappropriate or freaky. That's how she phrases it, though they are inappropriate. But just like pictures of herself. And she would just be asking, oh, should I post these on Instagram? Like he's some sort of social media manager, to which Alex would respond, I don't know. Or sometimes he would just not respond at all. What would happen then? The detective is asking. Ms. Beck would get mad. Also, Haley Beck would constantly save photos of Alex on her Snapchat. And Taylor, a 17-year-old is telling the detective, because the detective is like, why do you think she did that? And she's like, I don't know if maybe like Alex look good in the photos or what. I don't know. And if you read the 200-page police document, these are the moments where I feel like, okay, this is where you see the impact on these kids, because we know why Haley is saving those pictures. But this is a 17-year-old girl who is just confused why a teacher is saving the pictures to begin with, and she's trying to come up with reasons in her mind. I think these are very impactful moments that should be remembered. But the police report reads Taylor, quote, told Alex that Ms. Beck was chasing him and that what Ms. Beck was doing was weird. And Ms. Beck is not all that. And then March of 2025, there was this whole incident where Taylor is in the car with Alex, and he's saying that he needs to drop off his school computer because someone is going to do his homework for him. And she's like, who? Who's going to do your homework? Where are you dropping off your laptop, like your school laptop? He's not responding. So she's like, okay, I'm just not going to question it then. They go and they drop off his computer. She doesn't see who he hands it to, but now she's connecting the dots, and it's very clear that it was Haley Beck's apartment. So she connected the dots then, and then later she sees text messages from Haley Beck to Alex that read along the lines of, the computer is charged. She turned in all the assignments except for one because the computer died. And she was like, it's just so weird.

Speaker 2:
[47:17] Wow.

Speaker 1:
[47:18] According to the police report, Taylor states she did most of his homework for his junior year, I think.

Speaker 2:
[47:24] Do you know the timeline of things? When did it start? How long did it last?

Speaker 1:
[47:28] So a lot of these text messages that we're going to get into between Haley Beck and the student are when he's 18 years old, but repeatedly throughout the police report, it states that Haley Beck and the grooming of the child probably started when he was closer to 16.

Speaker 2:
[47:45] So 18, he was a senior?

Speaker 1:
[47:47] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[47:47] So it was like sophomore, they started, okay.

Speaker 1:
[47:52] Alex advised that Miss Beck does his homework for him for no reason and that she is just quote, a weird ass bitch. And just every time Taylor and her boyfriend Alex would hang out, sure enough, Haley Beck would be texting Alex. I mean, there's always some notification from Haley Beck, their teacher. Most of the conversations that Taylor saw of Haley Beck were Haley Beck talking about food, going to get food with him and asking if he wants to hang out with her in her classroom. Oh, and Haley Beck has this really weird thing against Taylor. She's telling the detectives, there was this one time where she was bringing Miss Beck food and drinks. I don't know if like, okay, cause there would be a lot of times that they would go out to eat and Haley Beck would give them the credit card, her credit card, and then Alex would buy his food on her credit card, but also bring Haley Beck something back. So I guess Alex told Taylor to bring it to Miss Beck, her food and her drinks. So she goes, Haley Beck would not acknowledge her. And then she goes on to text Alex, never have Taylor have your little girlfriend bring stuff to me again.

Speaker 2:
[48:50] This is getting crazy.

Speaker 1:
[48:52] She would constantly ask the other football boys whether or not Alex and Taylor's relationship was serious and if they were actually really dating. The statement report for Taylor's interview reads, Ms. Beck was just weird. She was always flirty and trying to text Alex. Ms. Beck would also excuse all of his absences so that he could pass the class. She would give him all A's. Same thing with Ms. B, Angela Berlaca. Ms. B didn't have Alex as a student, but when he asked her to excuse one of his absences, she would. It was wild.

Speaker 2:
[49:19] What does Ms. B teach again?

Speaker 1:
[49:21] I think math. And the whole school knew to some degree, like they've been receiving tips about this for a while. One tip that the school received was, hello, I hope you're doing well. I'm writing to share a concern regarding Ms. Beck and a student that I believe warrants your attention. My sister, Redacted, who is a student, has mentioned feeling uncomfortable about Ms. Beck's interactions with Alex. She has observed and heard about several instances that seem inappropriate, including frequent communication texts between Ms. Beck and Alex via Snapchat. Ms. Beck gives Alex a Christmas gift while not giving anything to other teammates. Ms. Beck and Alex have been seen in a vehicle together. My sister and other students have noticed this behavior, but are hesitant to report it due to the fear of being labeled as a snitch. There also seems to be a reluctance to speak up due to the stigma surrounding a male student in this type of situation. While my sister is unwilling to provide further details, I believe other students may be able to share more information if approached. I understand this is a serious concern and I trust that the school will handle it and the appropriate discretion and urgency will be applied. Please let me know if there's anything further I can do. Thank you for your time. Best regards.

Speaker 2:
[50:28] So, this school do anything like, is there anybody spoken out?

Speaker 1:
[50:31] Yes, the principal did reach out to Haley and stated, Haley denied any of the accusations but was receptive to the feedback. So, they basically just tell Haley, hey, don't be so inappropriate with the kids, don't act like their friend. That's not even what the tip is. It's not like, oh, she's being inappropriate. So, there's a lot of anger in Arizona right now against the school board.

Speaker 2:
[50:54] You think they know they just choose not to do anything?

Speaker 1:
[50:56] Yeah, I think they choose not to do anything because it likely causes a lot of scandal. And when you're dealing with a, this Centennial High School seems like a heavy football school. And if you ever go to like a football heavy high school, it's just really, they act like they're part of a fucking NFL. I don't know how to describe it. And I do think that there is some understanding to that in the sense of like a lot of these kids, they do start their entire NFL career in high school, obviously, but the way that they don't want any sort of scandal involving their athletic teams. And I think if there is a victim of a teacher, it doesn't look good with all the parents. I think it's easier for the school board to ignore it. And this is exactly how receptive to feedback Haley Beck was. Haley Beck messages Alex that she's in a teacher's group chat with Angela Berlaca and the other teachers, and she texts in a group with Berlaca for our meeting feels so wrong. Alex laughs at the message because she's likely referencing the fact that she saw Angela Berlaca's videos that were sent to Alex, but she's almost acting like, oh, your ex-girlfriend's in the room with me. Like it's so weird. What do you mean the other predator is in the room with you, also a predator, and you're gonna tell the victim that and that you feel weird about it? Later word spreads about a potential investigation into Berlaca, Haley messages Alex, like what am I supposed to do about this right now? If I don't provide later, like you can call me lame. And he's like, deal. So the provide, we're gonna get to that context later. But she's like, I'm kind of freaking out. Delete everything about me in your phone probably. I don't think it's about you though. So she's saying like, I'm freaking out about this investigation. And the victim is like, delete everything about me in your phone probably. I don't think it's about you though. I think Ms. B is in some shit and they're trying to get me in for questioning. Haley Beck is saying, everything has been deleted. You do the same, but let me know what it's about. I'm nervous. I have no clue. I think she just got caught up with some other kids and they said my name and it got brought up.

Speaker 2:
[52:51] Are these texts or Snapchat?

Speaker 1:
[52:53] Some of these are Snapchat. Yeah. I have something to give you also. Okay. So as long as it's about her, I just got an email about Burlaca. What's the email about? Haley screenshots the email about Angela Burlaca being placed on administrative leave. Haley then asks, I wonder who said something. Are you going to have to call the police? Just don't text me right now. They can eat a dick. I don't know anything at all. I don't know what they're talking about. I don't know what's going on. All right, well, I hope you're not weird with me or something, but okay.

Speaker 2:
[53:25] Wait.

Speaker 1:
[53:26] There is an investigation going on into Angela Burlaca and Haley Beck is worried about him being weird with her, pulling away from her.

Speaker 2:
[53:33] What is going on in her head?

Speaker 1:
[53:35] He's the one that's like, delete everything, get a grip.

Speaker 2:
[53:38] Exactly.

Speaker 1:
[53:39] He's like, nah, just trying not to create any new situations. You see this shit in front of your face, just wanting to be updated about your stuff, really? Like, yeah, this is like a you and me thing, though. Not that it's right, but others were involved with her, so no need to get automatically standoffish with me, though. He goes on to state that the police, quote, they showed up at my door banging on it at 6 a.m. on the first day of school and fucked up every plan we had up there. Didn't get to talk to any coaches or any people or anything. Wait, what? They came to your house? I got to go delete this shit. You're being weird, but OK.

Speaker 2:
[54:17] Yo, my jaw is on the ground. What is going on?

Speaker 1:
[54:20] If you were to redact both names in the messages, it's hard to say which ones are Haley Beck and which ones are the victim because at times, it appears the victim seems to have a stronger grip on reality and the circumstances. And that's not excusing anything for Haley Beck. That's just emphasizing how perverted everything is. Even the victim is more aware of the happenings and what the implications could be rather than Haley the perpetrator. And somehow it all gets worse. Exponentially worse with all the other messages between Haley Beck and her student. And that is where I leave you with the audio part one. In part two of the audio podcast, we're going to dive into every single message that is in that 200 page police document. Because I think every single one is important. The way that she talks to this victim, the way that she grooms him, it's not the typical one that we expect. And I think that's why it's, I mean, yeah, it is shocking. But I think to a large degree, it's very eye-opening for how male students can become victims. And even just reading these messages, the way Haley does it, she almost makes it seem like she's being taken advantage of. And I think that's sick. So with that being said, stay tuned for part two, stay safe, and I will see you in the next one.