Robertsdale Teacher Indicted

Alabama Arrested Teacher basketball coach at Central Baldwin Middle School indicted by grand jury after cops say he sexually abused several students

by Pat Peterson

Published: Tue, February 24, 2009 - 5:32 pm CST Last Updated: Tue, February 24, 2009 - 9:05 pm CST

A Baldwin County grand jury has indicted a teacher and basketball coach at Central Baldwin Middle School in Robertsdale. The grand jury returned the 12-count indictment against Brian Pettibone this week. Pettibone turned himself in to police headquarters Tuesday morning.

The 12-count indictment includes enticement, sexual abuse, attempted sexual abuse and harassment. Investigators say the inappropriate contact with at least four students at the school started with text messaging and phone calls, then became physical.

"He crossed a boundary," says Sgt. Rex Bishop with the Robertsdale Police Dept. "There was actual physical contact that did occur and it did occur on the school grounds during school, after school and at extra-curricular activities centered around basketball games."

"It's a sad day that we often live in and we hear this way too frequently," says Terry Wilhite, spokesman for the Baldwin County Board of Education. "We take this seriously and when something like this happens, we take swift and appropriate action."

Baldwin County District Attorney Judy Newcomb was visibly upset when she spoke to reporters about the case...a case that could have more victims.

"Please, I know so many times these kids think I did something wrong, if you were a victim in this case, you did nothing wrong, the teacher was wrong and you need, if you could, to come forward," says Newcomb.

School officials say Pettibone has been placed on paid administrative leave and will likely be terminated.

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whitetrash500 Says:

Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 4:46 pm

I still don’t understand why everyone just blows this off. Earlier messages I’ve received have just been about statistics and stuff of this happening, and the thing that angers me the most is that it seemed that that person that wrote me that acted as if it were normal or something. This is a huge deal. This was also my Physics teacher 2 years ago as well, and I knew Mr. Pettibone pretty well. I am still wondering why school systems cant get the idea of how serious this is. I think all cell phones should be banned from all schools from the school hours because they do not help the cause having one around anyways. They are just another distraction, and teachers are there for 2 things, which are to teach and to help students, period. They are not there to tell there personal lives with their students, they are not there to gossip, and they surely are not there to talk on the phone(and yes, you may think they don’t but they DO!), only for a huge emergency should it be important.

framkly Says:

Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 11:09 pm

Maybe they won’t have to fire him because of lack of funds. They can just send him to jail. He will get all the inappropriate contact he needs behind bars.