Married teacher learns her fate after having sex with 14-year-old boy in classroom on middle school graduation day
A married former junior high school teacher has learned her fate, months after she pleaded no contest to charges of having unlawful underage sex with a 14-year-old boy on his graduation day.
Michelle Solis, 46, of California, was sentenced last month to the maximum term of four years in prison following her guilty plea for having sex with a minor and sending harmful photos to a minor.
Prosecutors have said Solis 'friended' the 14-year-old at Sycamore Junior High School on Instagram in June 2021 and sent him four explicit photos of herself in the weeks before his graduation.
Then on the day of his graduation, Solis - a 20-year veteran educator - had sex with the boy on his graduation day inside a locked classroom, the Butte County District Attorney's Office said.
Michelle Solis, 46, a married former middle school teacher, was sentenced last month to four years in prison for having sex with a 14 year old
Eventually, rumors about Solis started circulating in Gridley - a city about 30 miles south of Chico - as did some of the explicit photographs of the middle-aged educator.
The rumors and explicit material, which eventually made their way back to local parents, prompted the police to pursue the investigation, which included contacting the boy.
Authorities found the pair's messages and four explicit pictures of Solis on the boy's phone.
They also discovered that Solis directed the victim to delete their 'communications,' The Sacramento Bee reports.
Solis was finally arrested last November, but was quickly released on $15,000 bail.
She had been arrested last November, after officers found that she sent explicit messages to the boy on social media in the weeks leading up to his graduation
The incident allegedly occurred on eighth grade graduation day in 2021 in a locked classroom at Sycamore Junior High School in northern California
In court, Solis' attorney asked Butte County Superior Court Judge Michael Deems to grant his client probation - citing the incident as only 'one act,' according to a news release from the District Attorney's Office.
But prosecutors fiercely contested that characterization.
They argued that the 29-year age gap between Solis and the boy, her 'special treatment' of the victim in school, her position as a trusted community member and her pattern of contacting the victim amounted to 'grooming.'
Prosecutors said she should therefore face the maximum sentence allowed by California law.
asked Butte County Superior Court Judge Michael Deems to grant his client probation - citing the incident as only 'one act'
Deems concurred.
'The manner in which the crime was carried out demonstrated criminal sophistication in that the defendant groomed the victim in order to get the victim in a situation for sexual contact,' he said, according to KRCR.
'The court finds that there is a factual basis for the plea, and it is the judgment of this court that the defendant is guilty of that offense.'
Solis must now register as a sex offender and was ordered to stay away from her former student for 10 years, Deems ruled.
Community members said they were left 'dumbfounded,' 'horrified' and feeling 'manipulated'
Community members at the courthouse said they were left 'dumbfounded,' 'horrified' and feeling 'manipulated' by Solis' actions.
They said that her crime has had a detrimental effect on the close-knit community.
But they now hope that with the sentence, they can rebuild and ensure the safety of school children in the district.
Solis has 60 days from July 18 to appeal to appeal the decision.
