Santa Rosa school employee arrested on suspicion of sending sexually explicit messages to teen

A Santa Rosa woman who worked part time at a local elementary school was arrested Wednesday afternoon on suspicion of sending sexually explicit messages to a 14-year-old boy.

Sandra Lee Champie, 54, was booked into Sonoma County Jail on charges of contact with a minor to commit a criminal offense and lewd and lascivious acts with a child, said Lt. Dan Marincik of the Santa Rosa Police Department. The arrest came after Champie had been messaging the boy, who is not a student at the school where the woman works, for several months.

On Sept. 27, the boy’s mother told Santa Rosa police officers that she suspected that an adult female had been sending inappropriate messages to her son through a social media platform. Detectives from the domestic violence and sexual assault unit found that the boy had been exchanging sexually explicit messages with an adult woman who had been using a fake profile for several months to pose as an underage girl.

Marincik said the victim’s parents suspected that the individual was Champie. Champie and the victim knew each other prior to this incident, Marincik said, although he declined to specify how they knew each other to protect the identity of the victim. Before this incident, Champie had been texting the boy frequently. Marincik said that while the texts were not sexual in nature, the frequency and number of messages concerned the boy’s parents.

“I think any time that you have an adult sending numerous texts to a juvenile, that can sometimes raise a red flag,” Marincik said.

Investigators corroborated the family’s suspicions and identified Champie as the suspect who had created the fake profile to message the victim.

Officers stopped Champie in her car at 2:38 p.m. Wednesday near Vallejo Street and Farmers Lane, Marincik said. After she was interviewed by a detective, she was booked into the county jail.

Champie is employed part time at Madrone Elementary School as a noontime supervisor for 1 hour and 45 minutes weekly, meaning that she supervises students during their lunch period, said Rincon Valley Union School District Superintendent Tracy Smith. Smith said Champie worked for the district for seven years, and was placed on administrative leave Thursday.

The victim is not a student at Madrone Elementary School, and Marincik said detectives don’t believe that Champie had any inappropriate contact with students at the school. He added that there is no information to suggest that any inappropriate physical contact occurred between Champie and the victim.

Champie was released from custody Wednesday evening.