Irvine Teacher Accused of Sex With Girl, 16

An English teacher on sabbatical leave from Woodbridge High School was charged Monday with having sex with a 16-year-old female former student, authorities said.

Daniel Schmenk, 51, who has taught sophomore English at Woodbridge for 13 years, was arrested Friday and freed on bail the next day. The Orange County district attorney’s office filed seven counts of felony unlawful sexual intercourse against Schmenk on Monday, police said.

“There’s potentially other victims,” said Police Lt. Tom Hume, who declined to comment further on the case because of the ongoing investigation.

Schmenk, who is married to another English teacher at Woodbridge, could not be reached for comment.

On Monday, the news of Schmenk’s arrest shocked students, teachers and neighbors who know him. They described him as an enthusiastic teacher whose passion for Shakespearean prose inspired them and whose love for practical jokes lightened their days.

Joslynne Blasdel, a performing arts teacher at Woodbridge who knows both Schmenk and his wife, Linda Schmenk, said Monday she was very surprised to find out about the charges, which had not been announced at school.

“He’s a good teacher from what I know,” Blasdel said.

Blasdel and students said Schmenk had taken a leave to begin a master’s degree program. In August, Schmenk told his next-door neighbor that he was going to Mississippi to begin research.

The neighbor, Doug Steiner, 45, said Schmenk has two college-age daughters from a previous marriage and had chosen to do his research in Mississippi to be near one daughter who attends school in Tennessee. Steiner, who has known the Schmenks for several years, said they are reserved.

“I would go up and try to talk to him, but he always had other things to do,” Steiner said. “He would have papers to grade or something like that. . . . He kept pretty much to himself.”

Steiner and students reached Monday said Schmenk planted a rose garden in honor of Shakespeare. Sometimes, Schmenk would bring home-grown roses to school to show his students.

Steiner last saw Schmenk on Thursday, when he came back from Mississippi to spend the weekend with his wife. Schmenk was arrested the next day, police said.

School board members and Woodbridge High School Principal Greg Cops declined to comment on the case, including Schmenk’s employment status, saying it was a “personnel issue.”

Mike Regele, an Irvine Unified School District board member, said Monday: “These are very sensitive matters. . . . I would prefer to not comment.”