A Northern California teacher was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for having sex with her 14-year-old student in a classroom on the day of his graduation, prosecutors said.
Michelle Christine Solis, 46, pleaded no contest to having unlawful sex with an eighth-grade student in April under a plea deal in which a charge of distributing harmful material was dropped.
The investigation began in October 2023 when rumors swirled through the Butte County city of Gridley about students having explicit photos of Solis. Solis, an educator for 20 years, was a teacher at Sycamore Junior High School in the Gridley Unified School District.
Gridley police learned through their investigation that Solis "friended" the victim on Instagram while he was her student in June 2021 and began messaging him in the weeks leading up to the graduation.
She sent him four explicit photos of herself before having sex with him on graduation day, prosecutors said. Prosecutors in court said Solis handled the boy with "special treatment" in school and directed the victim to delete their "communications," according to a news release.
The attorney for the former teacher argued that she should receive probation because the incident was only "one act." However, the DA's office said the sentence was appropriate due to the 29-year age difference between the minor and Solis, her position as a trusted member of the community, and a pattern of conduct that amounted to "grooming."
In addition to her prison sentence, Solis will be required to register as a sex offender and has been ordered to stay away from the boy for 10 years.
