San Clemente math teacher pleads guilty to sexually assaulting student
A San Clemente middle school teacher pleaded guilty Monday to sexually assaulting a student on campus and committing lewd acts against two others, the Orange County district attorney’s office said.
Richard John Rack’s jury trial was underway and the prosecution had rested its case when the former teacher pleaded guilty to felony counts of lewd acts on a child age 14 or 15, lewd or lascivious acts with a minor under 14 and oral copulation of a minor under 16.
Rack had been a teacher at Shorecliffs Middle School in San Clemente since 2002. He was a math teacher at the time of the crimes, authorities said.
He was arrested in 2012 after one of his victims, a 13-year-old girl, told the school principal that the teacher made lewd comments to her and another girl and hugged them.
During the investigation, deputies said they learned that Rack had assaulted a 14-year-old girl over a period of more than a year. Most of the assaults took place while the teacher was alone with the girl on campus, according to a statement from the district attorney’s office.
Rack faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in state prison and mandatory lifetime sex offender registration at his sentencing Oct. 18.
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