Charges filed against substitute teacher for alleged inappropriate relationship with student

By Bethany Barnes

Monday, March 17, 2014 | 4:16 p.m.

Allegations that lunchtime tutoring turned into 12 days of dating has a substitute teacher behind bars, facing more criminal charges than days she and the student allegedly were together.

Tanikka S. Queen, 22, Las Vegas, is charged with 29 criminal counts that stem from an alleged relationship with a 15-year-old Hyde Park Middle School student, including 12 counts of first-degree kidnapping, multiple counts of luring a child to engage in a sex act and statutory sexual seduction.

At a preliminary hearing scheduled for March 31, a Las Vegas Township Justice Court judge will determine if there is enough evidence against Queen to send the case to trial.

A concerned parent alerted district officials about a possible inappropriate teacher-student relationship on Feb. 26. The subsequent investigation led to Queen's arrest Tuesday.

District officials said Queen had been teaching as a substitute in the district for about 13 months. She has not been allowed back in the classroom or on the Hyde Park campus, which is in the southwest valley, since the investigation began.

Police say that during their time together, Queen and the teen exchanged more than 2,400 text messages, called each other 108 times and sent each other 38 cellphone photos. In the texts, they often discussed dates, declared their love for one another and expressed concern about revealing their relationship, according to an arrest report.

Queen remains in Clark County Detention Center on a $100,000 bail, according to jail records.