A former California teacher, Amanda Leigh Quinonez, wept in court as the mother of the 14-year-old boy she sexually abused described how he and his brother were bullied after the abuse came to light, forcing them to leave their school and quit the baseball team. Quinonez, 34, pleaded guilty in March to two counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object, one count of providing sexually explicit material to a minor, and one count of lewd acts on a child, following a sentencing hearing at Riverside Superior Court nearly four years after the abuse was uncovered.

The boy's mother told the court she discovered the abuse after being directed away from the baseball field to find her son sitting silently with a sheriff's deputy; he later disclosed that Quinonez had told him he needed to protect her. Quinonez, formerly a teacher and water polo and swim coach at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, was arrested in April 2022 after allegedly sending the boy nude photos and meeting him for intimate encounters. She apologised in court and admitted to failing as a teacher. She will now undergo a mental evaluation in state prison ahead of formal sentencing on 10 November.