An English as a Second Language teacher from the Rancho Santiago Community College District who worked in the jail has been arrested in connection with the escape of three inmates, Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Hallock said Thursday.

Nooshafarin Ravaghi, 44, of Lake Forest is accused of helping the three inmates escape, aiding them by bringing Google Maps, which Hallock said might be useful because they show the roof of the jail. The three inmates, Hossein Nayeri, Jonathan Tieu and Bac Duong, rappelled from the roof last Friday when they escaped.

Ravaghi denied bringing cutting tools into the jail, Hallock said.

Hallock said Ravaghi and one of the escapees, Hossein Nayeri, had a student-teacher relationship that “developed into a closer relationship.” She had been cleared to teach at the jail since July of 2015.

Hallock said as many as 10 arrests have been made, but the three escapees are still at large. Authorities have not released names of the people arrested because they don’t want to hinder the investigation.

Investigators believe the three escapees stole a utility van Saturday in the South Los Angeles area.

“Investigators feel strongly that these inmates may be living out of this vehicle,” Hallock said.

On Saturday, Duong answered a for-sale advertisement for a white GMC Savanna, took the car for a test drive and didn’t return the car, Hallock said. The van’s license plate number is 8U66466.

Stolen Vehicle ACTUAL 2008 White GMC Savana Utility Lic: 8U66466 plates/stickers may have been removed pic.twitter.com/MASIlWnYxe — OC Sheriff, CA (@OCSD) January 29, 2016



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“We feel very strongly they may still be together,” Hallock said.

Ravaghi’s website, called “The Noosha Collection,” says she was born in Iran, has traveled extensively around the world and speaks English, French, Arabic, Farsi, German and Spanish.

A former middle school classmate, Sepideh Safavi, 46, of Watertown, Mass., described Ravaghi as a shy, smart loner.

“She’s the kind of person that people take advantage of,” said Safavi. “She was always the best kid in the class, the most quiet. I always thought of her as an intellectual, but very naive.”

Safavi said she and Ravaghi kept in touch over the years.

“This is absolutely unbelievable – of all the people I know, not her,” Safavi said. “You’re kind, you’re sweet, you’re good. … It’s very strange.”

The website says she received a master’s degree in French literature from the University of Tehran in Iran. She has translated literary articles from French to Farsi.

The website also says she got a master’s degree from Cal State Fullerton in “Education — Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.” Cal State Fullerton confirmed that Ravaghi got the degree in education with a certificate for ESL in 2013. She is currently listed as an ESL teacher at several institutions, including Saddleback College.

Amir Shakerifar, 36, of Irvine and an English student of Ravaghi at Saddleback College, said he was shocked by the arrest because he has always known Ravaghi as being very kind but stern and adamant about following rules.

Shakerifar said she was very happy with the work she was doing in the jail.

“She said, ‘I go to jail because the people there, they need help for reading and writing.’”

Since 2007, Ravaghi has worked part-time with elementary school children at the Brea-based Professional Tutors of America. Professional Tutors CEO Robert Gordon said he was shocked to learn of her arrest. Gordon said Ravaghi has a reputation of being a good tutor who received positive reviews from the families with whom she worked. Gordon noted that all of the tutors go through extensive background checks.

Ravaghi started working at the jail through the Rancho Santiago Community College District Inmate Education Program.

The district released this statement: “Ms. Ravaghi began working for the program in fall of 2014 and had undergone a background check by the Sheriff’s Department before her part-time assignment began. RSCCD is working closely with the Sheriff’s Department to provide whatever information they require.”

The escape from Orange County Jail, and the alleged involvement of a teacher, is similar in some ways to a jailbreak case last summer in upstate New York. In that case, convicted killers using power tools to cut through pipes at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y.

An investigation in the Dannemora case revealed that a tutor named Joyce Mitchell, who worked in the prison’s honor program, provided the inmates with hacksaw blades.

The reward has reached $200,000 for any information that leads to the capture of Nayeri, 37; Tieu, 20; and Duong, 43. Authorities last saw the men during a routine inmate check about 5 a.m. Friday. They weren’t discovered missing until after a second head count at about 8 p.m. that evening.

All three are accused of violent crimes: Duong is charged with attempted murder, Tieu is charged with murder and attempted murder, and Nayeri’s charges, which include torture, aggravated mayhem and two counts of kidnapping, stem from him being accused of kidnapping a marijuana store owner and severing his penis.

Sheriff’s officials have described the escape as sophisticated and well-planned. The men cut through barriers, squeezed through plumbing ducts and rappelled down the roof using bed sheets as a rope, authorities said.

Tieu and Duong both have local gang ties and authorities have been targeting a Vietnamese gang in Garden Grove in Westminster.

Authorities this week visited Little Saigon, appealing for help within the community.