A former California teacher pleaded no contest after she was arrested last year for having sex with a 14-year-old boy on his graduation day in a locked classroom, prosecutors said.
Michelle Christine Solis, 46, entered the plea on Tuesday to a sex charge tied to the 2021 case involving one of her students, the Butte County District Attorney’s Office announced on Tuesday.
The teacher appeared in court for a preliminary hearing, “but instead changed her plea and admitted her guilt,” the district attorney’s office said.
Solis, who taught the boy at Sycamore Junior High School, “friended” the middle schooler on Instagram in the weeks leading up to his graduation.
She sent him four explicit photos of herself before having sex with him in a locked classroom on the same day as his 8th grade graduation, prosecutors said.
Rumors of the illicit encounter and photos began to spread in Gridley, a small city 50 miles from Sacramento, in October 2023, prompting a police investigation.
Investigators contacted the boy and looked at the contents of his phone where they found messages between him and Solis and two explicit pics of Solis, prosecutors said.
She was arrested in November, but put up a $15,000 bond to remain out of jail as her case moved through the legal system.
Keep up with today's most important news
Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update.
Thanks for signing up!
Solis will be required to register as a sex offender and could face as much as four years in state prison.
Her sentencing is scheduled for June 6.