Julie Rizzitello, who had previously worked as an English teacher at Wall Township High School, was revealed to have told the boy she got pregnant after convincing to have unprotected sex on his birthday in court on Wednesday (February 11). The 37-year-old, who shares two children with her husband, later informed the teen, who she groomed as a freshman in 2017, that she’d terminated the pregnancy.

“Not only does he have to deal with the fact that he’s groomed throughout his entire high school years, that he was preyed upon by his teacher who he loved and trusted … that he was sexually abused by this teacher,” said Monmouth County Judge Jill Grace O’Malley via Jersey Shore Online. “But now he’s struggling to come to terms with the fact that this individual had an abortion and [he] wasn’t comfortable with it. This is the psychological impact — the devastation.”

Rizzitello, who was arrested in July 2024, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree sexual assault, abusing the two teens for months at a time, according to prosecutors, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The teacher told the boy that she dreamed of having sex with him prior to having relations multiple times in 2017 and 2018 and an 18-year-old student in early 2024.

“This is grooming. It is traditional grooming that I see every week here in this courthouse. This is the behavior of a standard sexual predator. You’re no different,” O’Malley said via Jersey Shore Online.