Teacher faces sex abuse charges

ROBERTSDALE, Ala. - Texting is a favorite and generally harmless form of communication for many teenagers. But authorities say text messages between four students and a teacher at Central Baldwin Middle School led to the teachers arrest Tuesday morning.

"We have been able to recover some text messages. Those are not kept very long, but we're also in the process of still obtaining further phone records, and those phone records include a lot of contact," said Sgt. Rex Bishop.

Police said 34-year-old Bryan Pettibone surrendered after being indicted on 12 charges including, enticement, second degree sexual abuse, harassment, and attempted sexual abuse.

Authorities believe Pettibone started texting the victims who were all 14-years-old. But, police say the messaging eventually led to other, more serious forms of misconduct.

"The allegations are that he crossed boundaries, that there's actual physical contact that did occur, and this did occur on school grounds," Bishop said. Sgt. Bishop said Pettibone even gave one student a cellphone. "That is what actually started the investigation," he said.

Pettibone was placed on administrative leave in December.

Authorities said all of the cases under investigation right now happened during this school year, or the last school year. But they said there may be other incidents over a longer period of time that have not yet been reported.

"Mr. Pettibone has been teaching at this school since 2004, and there is a possibility that this has occurred with other victims that we're not aware of," Bishop said.

"It's not their fault. If you are accosted inappropriately by a teacher it is the teacher's fault. It is not the child's fault, and we want the parents and children to come forward and let us know of anything they think was inappropriate happened to their child," said D.A. Newcomb.

District Attorney Judy Newcomb said the appeal is not just for possible victims in Robertsdale, but anywhere in Baldwin County. Pettibone is being held on $25,000 bond.