A former teacher in Arizona has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy after his parents discovered a series of vulgar messages between the two on the youth’s phone, Fox News .
Married sixth grade teacher Brittany Zamora, 28, was arrested in March 2018 on charges of sexual conduct with a minor, attempted molestation, and public indecency.
The teen’s parents explained their son had begun acting strange, prompting them to monitor his phone usage.
They installed the app Sentry Parental Control on his phone, which monitors messaging apps for “suspicious content or behavior,” and sends parents alerts if it detects the user has been sent suspicious images or messages.
The parents were alerted to inappropriate text messages on the 13-year-old’s phone.
When the parents confronted the teen, he confessed to having sex with Zamora.
“‘So we just need you to tell us the truth,'” the boy’s stepmother said when telling police how they confronted him.
“We showed him the conversation and we said, ‘Who is this? Who are you talking to?’ And he said, ‘My teacher.'”
She added that her husband asked him if he had had sex with his teacher, at which point the teen admitted, “Yes.”
The affair reportedly began after Zamora told her students to use the app Class Craft to keep in contact with her.
Her private messages with the teen on the app turned romantic and then lewd as the two exchanged sexually charged texts.
Soon after, the two began meeting up in real life, with one incident reportedly taking place while other students in the class watched a video.
Fellow students allegedly knew about the relationship.
“Everyone talks about them having an inappropriate relationship outside of class and at recess,” said one of the students in an interview with the principal.
In one series of texts, Zamora admits to the teen that she wants to sleep with him “every day with no time limit.”
After asking the boy what he was up to, he responded, “Thinking about your sexy self”, prompting the teacher to type back, “Aww baby. I wish you were with me.”
The teen then asked when they could have sex again.
“Whenever we can you know I’m down,” Zamora responded, later added, “I want you every day with no time limit.”
The two sent explicit photographs to each other over text and sent each other love notes in class.
Zamora reportedly twice drove to the teen’s grandparent’s home to have sex with him while her husband was away on a fishing trip.
The two engaged in sex in a classroom, and once even had relations in front of another student who was instructed to act as a lookout for the pair.
After the teen’s parents reported the relationship to police, Zamora was arrested.
She was charged with 10 counts of sexual conduct with a minor, two counts of molestation, two counts of furnishing sexually explicit material to a minor, and one count public sexual indecency.
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At first, Zamora pleaded not guilty to the charges.
However, on Monday she entered a guilty plea and will be sentenced on July 12.
Speaking about the relationship, the Arizona school district superintendent Richard Rundhaug said they had investigated allegations but had found no evidence of romantic relations between the teacher and student.
“We determined there were some elements of favoritism, ” he said.
“And we gave the teacher some very specific direction on not allowing that favoritism to continue, and then we monitored to make sure those directions were followed.”
A second student has come forward to tell police he witnessed Zamora engaging in sexual relations with the 13-year-old.
This student also admitted to receiving naked photos from the teacher, but said she had never pressured him into having sex.
Court papers filed on behalf of the 13-year-old’s parents allege the school district could have ended the alleged molestation because their investigations took place before most of the events of their relationship.
“It was preventable,” their attorney Michael Medina said.
“We want to hold the school district accountable so this never happens again in the future.”