TEMECULA -- A special education teacher in Temecula who is accused of inappropriate actions with two 17-year-old students is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on two criminal counts.

Eve Victoria Pierson, 37, of Temecula, has been charged with two misdemeanor counts of annoying or molesting a child under the age of 18, according to Riverside County Superior Court records.

Court documents show there were notes and text messages exchanged between Pierson and the two teens and that she kissed at least one of the alleged victims.

Pierson has been employed by the Temecula Valley Unified School District since August 2000 and had been a teacher at Rancho Vista High since January 2007, district spokeswoman Melanie Norton said.

Pierson was placed on paid leave in February, when the accusations came to light, Norton said. She was put on unpaid leave after she was charged earlier this month, the spokeswoman added.

Pierson has not been arrested but was sent a letter by the district attorney's office ordering her to appear in court at Southwest Justice Center on Thursday or face arrest.

She could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Court documents show the investigation started because of a note found in a shredder that was taped back together and given to Rancho Vista's principal, who then notified Temecula police.

Investigator Darin Gray detailed parts of his investigation in an affidavit seeking a warrant for Pierson's arrest.

That court document states that another teacher at Rancho Vista High recognized handwriting on the note as belonging to Pierson as well as a teen that teacher had as a student.

Gray wrote that he interviewed that 17-year-old who told him he did not remember the note.

"I asked him what the line in the note about (Pierson) being older than him and it being hot meant," Gray writes. "He told me I was 'tripping' him out and he did not want to talk to me."

The investigator later spoke to Pierson and he asked her what the note was about.

"She said, 'I don't know. We were just kind of flirting and playing,'" Gray wrote.

Gray said he told Pierson some of the note's content concerned him, to which she replied, "Yeah, I can see that. It would totally concern people," the affidavit states.

Gray wrote that he asked Pierson if there were other students who would tell him of similar notes or comments.

"She told me that I would be able to find inappropriate things if I considered calling a student gorgeous or saying I love you was inappropriate," the court document states.

In early March, Gray obtained a search warrant for Pierson's cell phone records, which showed multiple phone calls between Pierson and the teen whom officers consider to be the second victim, the affidavit states.

There were also multiple text messages between the two, according to the court document.

"Some were of a sexual nature," Gray said in the affidavit. In some, the investigator wrote, the teen asked for naked pictures of Pierson in exchange for naked pictures of himself.

During another interview with Pierson after a judge authorized a search of her home, she told Gray that she did not send the teen any photos nor had she ever touched him, the document states.

In another interview of the second teen, he told Gray that Pierson kissed him while they sat in her car outside his house, according to the affidavit.

"He told me it made him feel really weird. He thought that she had crossed the line," Gray wrote.

The teen said that was the only time she had kissed him, the affidavit states.

"He told me it was weird and he did not understand why she would do that when she had a husband and children," Gray wrote.

The teen also said the flirting started as it did with the first alleged victim, the affidavit states.

"He told me the first thing was the note that said she 'hearted' him," and that it progressed to her putting sticky notes on his folder or schoolwork, Gray wrote.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.