A former junior high school teacher in northern California has pleaded no contest to charges of having unlawful underage sex with a 14-year-old boy.

Michelle Christine Solis, 46, entered a no-contest plea earlier this week at Butte County Superior Court in Gridley, California, related to sex charges that include unlawful intercourse with a minor, as well as sending harmful photos to a minor. 

The charges stem from interactions between Solis and a 14-year-old boy in 2021, when he was in his eighth grade year at Sycamore Junior High School.

The Gridley police obtained evidence that suggests Solis first followed the teen on social media before sending him messages and explicit photographs of herself in the weeks leading up to his graduation.

Michelle Christine Solis, 46, entered a no-contest plea earlier this week at Butte County Superior Court in Gridley, California related to sex charges that include unlawful intercourse with a minor, as well as sending harmful photos to a minor

The incident allegedly occurred on eighth grade graduation day in 2021 in a locked classroom at Sycamore Junior High School in northern California

According to a press release from District Attorney Mike Ramsey, Solis, a 20-year veteran educator, had sex with the boy on his graduation day inside a locked classroom.

Rumors about Solis circulated 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. 

Last November, Solis was arrested and released on $15,000 bail.

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

She is free until her sentencing hearing, which is currently scheduled for June 6 at 1.30pm.

As part of her freshly entered no contest plea, she agreed to register as a sex offender.

She is also facing up to four years in state prison, according to the DA's office.

Solis's case is part of a disturbing trend in the US of female teachers facing legal action in relation to allegedly unlawful sexual behavior between themselves and their underage students.

DailyMail.com discovered that 25 female teachers had been arrested in 16 states in only the last 12 months as the so-called 'cougars in the classroom' epidemic begins to take formal shape.