A former substitute teacher in the Wheatland-Chili Central School District is being charged with touching three elementary school children in a way that was not appropriate.
The school district told the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office on March 3, 2023, that Robert Petit may have touched the students. Four times during the school day, students said Petit touched them inappropriately without clothes on.
Two weeks later, the police gave the case to the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office so that it could be shown to a grand jury.
The indictment against Petit, 40, of Chili, was made public on Wednesday. It included 11 counts of sexual abuse and 6 counts of endangering the safety of a child.
The sheriff’s office said in a statement that they were sorry it took more than a year to let people know about the alleged crimes.
The sheriff agrees that the public should not have had to wait over a year for this process to be completed. We set up a way to keep track of things so that we can make an announcement as soon as it is allowed to do so with the help of our public safety partners.
Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley said in a statement that the delay was due to a lack of information.
There are a lot of hard things about cases of child sexual abuse. Investigations and trials of child sexual abuse take a long time because of how the crime works. We make sure that the victims come first by handling all of our cases using the “child first” way. When someone has been sexually abused as a child, we will not force them to speak before they are emotionally and mentally ready. Robert Petit’s next court date is August 15, 2024, at 9:30 a.m., when he will appear before Supreme Court Justice Judith A. Sinclair.
A Wheatland-Chili spokesperson told 13WHAM that Petit worked as a replacement teacher for 11 days during the 2022–23 school year. When the district found out about the claims, he was fired.
The district will help with any further investigations and court cases in this case as much as possible. The health, safety, and well-being of our children are always our first priority.
Petit was taken to the Monroe County Jail on $500,000 bail after being charged.
Should you know anything else about Petit, please call 911.