A desperately worried mum says she wants her daughter back, after the teen moved in with a former teacher.
The lower North Island mother said her daughter, now 19, had become distant and hard to contact before she learned of the relationship in July last year.
The teaching professional standards body, the Education Council, is investigating the relationship.
Stuff is not naming the teacher, the school, or its location for legal reasons.
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In September, the teen moved in with the man, understood to be in his 50s.
About three weeks ago, the teen texted her mum to say the couple had left the country, but she won't say where they are now.
"She's 19 and has been living with him for six months, but she no longer has anything to do with us. I think she's been brainwashed," the teen's mum said.
"It's still hard to accept that we're no longer able to see our child. It's a nightmare."
The mum has received text replies from her daughter's number "now and again", but a friend of her daughter warned texts coming from the daughter's number were being typed by someone else.
"I've had a couple of messages from her, but they don't sound like her. I know what my daughter sounds like, it's like, who is this?"
The relationship is not illegal, because the teen is over 16, the legal age of consent.
However, the mother said it was still not appropriate because the man had taught her daughter for two years, before she reached high school.
The mother has met with the principal of the school the daughter attended, where the teacher was still working, and complained to the Education Council about the relationship.
"They [the school] responded and said this is not a school matter, it's an adult matter, but he remained on suspension with full pay."
After an Official Information Act request from Stuff, the Education Council confirmed it was investigating a teacher from the same area as the school.
Its investigation began the same month the mother first contacted the school, and the teacher is not currently working, a council spokeswoman said.
"We are not able to provide further detail at this stage as to do so may prejudice the investigation," she said.
Further worrying the mother is the possibility of a police investigation in some way linked to the relationship.
The mother said she'd received a visit from a detective. Police did not respond to requests asking to confirm an investigation was being carried out.
"She's just fresh out of high school... and bang, she's in a relationship with a 50-year-old. How can you teach someone, have no contact, and they turn 18 and bang, you're falling in love? I can't work out how they re-picked up," the mother said.
"She was a person who had lots of goals and wanted to get out into the work force and go into hospitality and management, and now she's doing absolutely nothing. She's been ripped away from her family."
Relationship guidelines for teachers set by the Education Council do not provide black and white rules about relationships between teachers and adult former students.
In August last year, a 37-year-old teacher was deregistered by the Education Council after marrying a former student.
The woman had taught the teen at a youth justice residence when he was 16 and stayed in touch with him after he was transferred to jail. When he left jail two years later, the couple moved in together and later married.
The council accepted the couple were not intimate until he left jail, but still said her relationship with him while in jail had been inappropriate.
"A boundary violation will occur if the relationship shifts to serving the needs of the teacher instead of the student, at a time when the practitioner remains in an influential position.
"Here that is exactly what occurred – whether or not the respondent intended it," the decision said.
In 2016 – the last year full data was available for – the Education Council investigated 340 conduct cases and 33 were sent to the Disciplinary Tribunal.
From the 33 who faced the tribunal for bad conduct, by late February, at least 14 educators had been censured and 11 had their registrations cancelled.
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