A 34-year-old former Eastvale high school teacher who engaged in sex acts with a boy in one of her classes pleaded guilty Monday to lewd acts on a child under 15 years old and other charges.
Amanda Leigh Quinonez admitted the felony charge, along with two counts each of sexual penetration with a foreign object and providing sexually explicit material to a minor, as well as one count each of oral copulation of a child and annoying a minor. The admissions were made under a pretrial agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.
Superior Court Judge Joshlyn Pulliam scheduled a sentencing hearing for May 29 at the Riverside Hall of Justice. A prospective term of imprisonment was not published in court minutes.
Quinonez remains free on a $50,000 bond.
According to sheriff’s investigators, the defendant, formerly a language arts teacher and water polo coach at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, began communicating with the victim, whose identity was not disclosed, in the fall of 2020, leading to multiple encounters.
Quinonez sent the youth nude photos, leading to intimate meetings, according to investigators. The locations of the meetings were not specified.
Sheriff’s detectives were alerted to the acts by unnamed witnesses. Sufficient evidence was gathered to justify an arrest warrant, and Quinonez was taken into custody without incident in April 2022. She posted bail almost immediately.
At the time, Eleanor Roosevelt High Principal Greg Anderson publicly acknowledged there had been an “inappropriate relationship.” In a letter sent to parents and guardians, he affirmed the Corona-Norco Unified School District has “zero tolerance for any behavior that endangers our students.”
Quinonez was initially placed on unpaid administrative leave and then subsequently dismissed.
She had been a teacher at Roosevelt since 2016.