Suit over Burbank teacher's affair with pupil may be transferred

Parties involved in a lawsuit stemming from a sexual liaison between a former Burbank Unified middle school teacher and a student met behind closed doors Friday to discuss moving the case from state to federal court.

In March 2010, then-Jordan Middle School teacher Amy Beck turned herself in to police and confessed to having had a sexual relationship with a male student. The student, who was 14 at the time, has not been identified. 

Beck, the mother of three young children, pleaded no contest to two charges of unlawful sex with a minor. She served a two-year prison sentence before being released on March 20, state prison officials confirmed Friday to the Burbank Leader.

In January, the victim’s family sued Beck and the Burbank Unified School District, alleging that the teacher groomed the teenager for two years before initiating a sexual relationship that lasted from March to September 2009.  She made repeated and unsolicited sexual advances, telling him she wanted to “teach him about sex,” according to the lawsuit.

--Megan O'Neil, Times Community News

Photo: Amy Beck. Credit: Times Community News