Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Teacher Admits to Having Sex with 8th Grade Boy on Graduation Day: ‘Disgusting’

Episode Date: July 26, 2024

Michelle Solis, 46, has admitted to locking the door of her classroom in Gridley, California and having sex with one of her 8th grade students on his graduation day. The sexual assault happened in June 2021 but the incident didn't come to light for more than two years. At first, Solis denied it happened but instagram messages revealed she'd sent the boy nude photos. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey about the disturbing case and how the boy felt about the encounter with Solis in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Use the code LAW15 for 15% off at https://www.citybeauty.com/LCCrimeFix. That’s promo code LAW15 for 15% off your order!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Mike Ramsey https://www.facebook.com/ButteCountyDA CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Photos were the thing that then led us to her as they kind of got out onto the children's social media and then parents saw it and going, what the heck is this? A nude teacher. A former middle school teacher admits to locking her classroom door and having sex with one of her students on graduation day. Michelle Solis had tried to deny the crime for more than a year. Now she's learned her punishment and the D.A. who put her away is here to talk about how they found out about the crime. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette

Levy. Michelle Solis was an eighth grade teacher in Gridley, California. She was trusted to teach and lead her students. Instead, the district attorney in Butte County said that she preyed on one of her students, a 14-year-old boy, and then had sex with him on graduation day. The incident happened back in June of 2021. Solis and the boy were 29 years apart in age. The DA says Solis, a wife and mother to two children herself, started following the boy on Instagram in the weeks leading up to graduation. The grooming started with messages.

And then Solis sent the boy explicit photos of herself. Four to be exact. DA Mike Ramsey will join me in just a bit. Ramsey said at first, the student kind of liked the attention that he was getting online from Michelle Solis. But then on graduation day, Solis committed the ultimate act of betrayal. The 14-year-old boy was brought into her classroom at Sycamore Middle School in Gridley, and Solis locked the door and forced herself on that child. You're going to hear how that student felt about this right from Mike Ramsey. Time would pass, but rumors started to circulate in Gridley. It's a small town, and the photos that Solis had sent to the boy started making the rounds. This was around October of 2023, more than two years later.

Gridley police started investigating. Solis, knowing it was wrong, told the student to delete their messages. He did not. Police found the messages and the photos on the boy's Instagram account. At first, Solis denied all of this, but in the spring, she pleaded guilty to one count of sex with a minor. A judge last week sentenced Solice to the max, four years in a California state prison. Her attorney had argued that Solice should get probation because this was only one act. Can you imagine? A teacher. Someone trusted to teach and provide a safe environment for a student argues to a judge, but I only forced myself on the kid one time. And in a classroom, no doubt.

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He's the district attorney of Butte County. Mike, thanks for coming on. Tell me, first of all, your reaction to the sentence. You got the maximum sentence for Michelle Solis. Her attorney had asked for probation. Yeah, actually, her attorney had asked for probation, but in the way he asked for it was probably not the best way. He told the judge, well, it was just one act, only one act.

Well, that only one act was at the end of a long series of grooming that had happened. And so the judge was not impressed with that and gave the maximum sentence. Let's talk about the grooming aspect of this, because these days, everybody, and I mean everybody, teachers, students, they have one of these and everybody's on social media. And so I don't know. When I was a kid, we didn't have social media and we didn't have cell phones so my teachers never called me at home on the phone to talk to me to chat with me but these days it sounds like a lot of these cases start with the teachers interacting with the students on social media

so that's how this started she reached out to him on instagram started sending messages and then it developed into explicit photographs is this normal is this what teachers do these days i mean are teachers actually communicating with their students on their cell phones and on social media when we're talking about like a normal teacher-student relationship? No. And that became apparent in our investigation that she had been warned at other times to not be down at the level of her students. She had been kind of chastised that she was acting too much like an eighth grader with her with her students that she was doing social media she in fact we had one indication from some of the girls in her class that she seemed to want them out of the class so she could be alone with the boys and act flirtatious with them. Whoa. Wow. Wow. And we've heard that. That's a common thread, too.

We've heard this in other cases where these teachers try to isolate the male students from female students or get them away from their girlfriends. I mean, have you seen cases like this before? We've seen, fortunately, they're very rare, but we have seen cases in which we have student and teacher romances. by virtue of the fact that this 14-year-old boy was just sucked into this situation by this teacher that obviously was sending Instagram and Snapchat kind of flirtatious activity over the phone, social media, and then photos. And then eventually into the classroom on his the morning of his eighth grade graduation, brought him in, locked the door and had sex with him. And he, as he indicated, pretty shocked and confused and didn't know what was going on. He had felt that the attention that the teacher was giving him was good at the beginning, but then to suddenly get to this point really was for this boy. As he said later, he said he felt he had been raped. His friends noticed and his family noticed the entire change in his attitude. And he started being much more lonely, much away from his friends.

But it was in a sense those friends that unveiled this because he had shared some of these photos with some of his buddies. Those photos were the thing that then led us to her as they kind of got out onto the children's social media. And then parents saw it and going, what the heck is this a nude teacher yeah i well thank goodness those friends and there are a couple of things i want to unpack there you know and we've talked about this on the show before um the fact that a lot of times there's this weird stereotype that oh it's a boy and so this is what boys would enjoy something like that. He's a 14 year old kid. First of all, he's a child. So obviously you're saying he didn't enjoy it.

It sounds like he liked the attention he was getting from the teacher on social media, but then things escalated very quickly. And it's my understanding too, like not only did she rape him, sexually assault him in the classroom on his eighth grade graduation day, she also locked the door. So he wouldn't he's not going to be able to escape and get out. And she's an authority figure. So talk to me about this misnomer, this this ridiculous assertion that people have that, oh, it's a boy. He'll like it.

Obviously, this what this boy didn't. And I would think most of them don't. Right. And what you have is the old saws. Geez, where was she when I was 14? You know, that type of thing. But that is not the way that these spin out. I mean, this child had something fairly precious taken from him, and he had a very difficult time with it. And in fact, when the rumors first started back when this was his

eighth grade graduation, now this is three years ago. The rumor started. He was asked, have you had sex with your teacher? There appears someone saying there's pictures and so forth. And he was so frightened that he thought he was in trouble and so therefore denied it and kept that to himself until the picture then a couple of years later resurrected itself, one of the pictures. And then he was a little older, a little more mature at that point,

and decided this was wrong, and I will tell the truth now. And you ask, you know, why did she get the upper term? Well, back when this was first, the rumor first came about that a teacher was having sex with this boy. She reached back out to him on social media and said, Oh, please don't say anything. Please dump all your social media. Please do not do this to me. And that's, you know, that type of activity, that lack of responsibility caused the judge to give that upper term. What's concerning to me as well, you know, as a mother, is the fact that, you know, I don't think these things happen in a vacuum.

And you said she had been warned in the past. So is there any evidence or any suspicion or belief that there are other victims out there? Lots of rumors, lots of suspicion, but nothing, no hard evidence on that. You said that she had been warned in the past by school officials to stay away from the students or at least to to not be engaging them she had major boundary issues it sounds like with reaching out to them in the way she shouldn't have been to put it lightly i mean what did it just not go rise to the level where they felt they had

to discipline her or possibly dismiss her right yeah it had not risen to the level where they felt they had to discipline her or possibly dismiss her? Right. It had not risen to that level. It was just, geez, what's, you know, get your boundaries straight here. You're a teacher, you know, get, you're not one of the, not one of the kids. This is what was indicated to us that she really wanted to be part of the class. That was how she interacted with her class was being another eighth grader. And some other teachers and even friends said, you know, you got to knock that off. Sounds like she didn't. And she took it really, really far.

I'd be interested to see if she has done this any to any other students um you know is the investigation still going on or is it still ongoing it it's no it's pretty much concluded at this point with the investigation where it we uh got the information, which was last October, October 23, filed the case in November with somewhat of the expectation that we might see people come forward. Gridley, California, where the school is, is a very small town. It's only about 5,000 people. Everyone knows everybody. So the expectation was, well, she's been there for a while that we might see some other students come forward. But then again, we also see that small town, some of the kids that may have been victims would not want that out there on their reputation.

And I think you see that type of thing a lot. If it happened, if, you know, there's shame that accompanies that type of thing. You know, she got four years in prison and you explained the reasons why she did. And that was the upper end of what she could have received. But we've covered a lot of cases and we've covered you said they're rare. I mean, obviously rare in your county in Butte County. But we've covered a lot of these on the show. A lot of these female teachers who are getting in trouble for having sex with students, inappropriate relationships and the such. I mean, I don't understand it.

Do you have any maybe thoughts on that about why we're seeing so many more female teachers? For a long time, it seemed like there were a lot of male teachers. Now it's a lot of female teachers. Yeah, I've seen the media on that. And to explain explain that we were looking forward to at the sentencing hearing her attorney had sent her to a psychologist to do a deeper dive into her psyche as it were as to maybe the reasons why and that report was completely useless and she all she did was say, yes, I will now admit after denial, after denial, after denial, yeah, that I had inappropriate's you're a 46 year old woman. Why do you need to do this with a 14 and a mother? She's also has children of her own.

Right. We've seen that. It's confounding. Well, Mike Ramsey, we hope that victim, you know, the boy, the teenage boy gets the help that he needs because he's going to need some help in the years to come to kind of deal with this and come to terms with it and move forward. Thank you so much for coming on. We appreciate it. You're very welcome. And hopefully, hopefully somewhere sometime we can kind of figure out a magic potion to stop this. This is besides discussing is devastating to the to the victims. No doubt. Thank you. All righty. After Michelle Solis serves her time, she will have to register as a sex offender.

And she has been ordered to stay away from that boy for 10 years. That's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.