On October 24, 2012, Ceres Police Detectives arrested 24 year old Matthew Beale, a resident of Turlock, after a parent discovered her 16 year old female daughter received inappropriate and explicit text messages from her teacher over the weekend.
Beale, a former City of Turlock Recreation employee and CSU Stanislaus graduate, had been employed as a math teacher at Whitmore Charter High School since August, 2012.
On October 23rd, a parent complained to the Ceres Unified School District (CUSD) about the text messages her daughter received from Matthew Beale over the past weekend. The district personnel notified the Ceres Police School Resource Officer, who launched an investigation and Beale was immediately placed on administrative leave.
Ceres detectives quickly followed up on the case and discovered the student and teacher corresponded via hundreds of text messages over the week. Among those text messages was a request from Beale for the student to send him “sexy” pictures of herself. Detectives also found that Matthew Beale had sent the student a photograph of his genitals.
It is further alleged that the student and Beale met in his classroom on Monday October 22nd during lunchtime to make out. Detectives contacted Beale on October 24th, at his home in Turlock, where he was confronted with copies of the text messages and admitted to his involvement with the student.
Beale was arrested for sending harmful matter to a minor and lewd and lascivious acts on a minor, both charges are misdemeanors. Beale was booked at the Stanislaus County Jail with a $10,000 bail. Beale was released from custody after making bail on Thursday morning.
Ceres Detectives believe this is an isolated incident. However, they are asking anyone with any information in reference to this case to contact Detective Arthur Hively at (209) 537-5728.
