A San Bernardino middle-school teacher was arrested Friday afternoon on suspicion of kidnapping and two sex-related offenses with children under 14 after school officials investigated his relationship with two students, jail and school officials said.
Frank Nathaniel Bell, 34, a physical-education teacher at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in San Bernardino, was arrested at his home in Bloomington, said Arturo Delgado, superintendent of the San Bernardino City Unified School District.
"We feel pain for victims whenever kids are involved," Delgado said by phone. "This type of investigation is painful for us as a district."
San Bernardino County jail records show Bell was arrested Friday on suspicion of kidnapping a child under 14 as well as two offenses of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 years. He was being held in lieu of $500,000 bail in the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga. No court date had been set.
School district Police Chief Gary Underwood said Friday that Bell was placed on indefinite administrative leave in mid-June when the district began investigating the accusations against him. He said the district worked with the San Bernardino County district attorney's office.
"The investigating officer found the evidence in this case to be quite compelling," Underwood said. "It's always disappointing when you have adults in positions of responsibility and trust with children and they violate that trust."
Underwood said Bell first started working for the district in July 1999.
Delgado and Underwood said two female students in the San Bernardino school district were victimized. They declined to state the girls' ages, the evidence against Bell, or their relationship.
A woman answering the phone of Bell's wife, Dion Bell, said Friday that Frank Bell did not want to comment.
Dion Bell is a vice principal at San Bernardino High School, according to a San Bernardino County schools directory. Delgado said she has been on medical leave, but was unsure of how long. |