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Former Mead High School teacher pleads guilty to sexual misconduct with student

Former Mead High School teacher Wesley Perez appears in Spokane County Superior Court on Thursday, May 24, 2018, on charges he sexually abused a female student. He later pleaded guily to one count of first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor. A civil lawsuit now accuses the Mead School District of failing to protect the girl. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)
By Chad Sokol chadso@spokesman.com(509) 459-5047
Former Mead High School teacher Wesley Perez appears in Spokane County Superior Court on Thursday, May 24, 2018, on charges he sexually abused a female student. He later pleaded guily to one count of first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor. A civil lawsuit now accuses the Mead School District of failing to protect the girl. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)

Wesley Perez, a former Mead High School teacher who had a sexual relationship with one of his students, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of sexual misconduct with a minor.

Prosecutors dropped a second charge of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes in exchange for Perez’s plea. Judge Maryann Moreno presided over Monday’s hearing in Spokane County Superior Court.

Perez, 38, is scheduled to be sentenced June 28.

He was placed on paid administrative leave in April 2018 after school officials received an anonymous letter detailing a relationship with a 17-year-old female student in his Spanish class.

Detectives found that Perez and the student met at a leadership camp in early 2017 and began a sexual relationship about a month afterward. They met outside of school and in his classroom; on some occasions, he wrote notes to excuse the student’s tardiness to her next class.

He later told the student to lie about the situation, claiming he had been nothing more than a “confidant and father figure,” according to court records.