Students Found Phone Recording Them in Locker Room; Police Say It Belonged to Their Coach

The head varsity football coach at Tracy High School in California has been arrested on campus following allegations that his cellphone was used to secretly record student athletes inside the boys locker room.

Police confirmed that 48-year-old Jeffrey Pribble, a physical education teacher and veteran coach with more than two decades of district service, was taken into custody on Friday.

The disturbing incident came to light when alert students changing before or after class noticed a device operating in active recording mode.

The quick-thinking pupils stopped the recording, deleted the file, and handed the phone over to a faculty member, prompting immediate law enforcement involvement.

Tracy Police Chief Sekou Millington praised the students for their swift action, while the Tracy Unified School District placed Pribble on immediate administrative leave.

The arrest has sent shockwaves through the local community, shattering long-standing trust and triggering profound questions regarding student safety and campus monitoring.

Police found the phone on Thursday while student athletes were changing before or after class at the San Joaquin County school.

High School Coach Arrested After Locker Room Phone Found Recording

The Tracy Police Department's General Investigations Unit examined the phone and determined it belonged to Pribble, who teaches physical education and leads the varsity football team.

Officers interviewed him on Friday, then arrested him at Tracy High School. Law enforcement has not publicly detailed the precise charges he may face, or how long the phone was believed to have been in the locker room, but says the investigation is ongoing.

Pribble has worked in the Tracy Unified School District for 22 years, according to his publicly available Facebook page, and has been head coach of the school's varsity football team for five years.

That long tenure is exactly what makes the allegations so jarring for many families in the city east of San Francisco.

One student, who asked not to be identified, told local reporters he saw Pribble 'almost every day' and that the coach had tried to recruit him for the football team. 'Something this big to happen, it's kind of a shock,' the student said.

The Tracy Unified School District confirmed that an employee had been arrested and placed on leave, although the district's communication to parents stopped short of naming Pribble or spelling out the allegation in full.

In an email cited by local media, Principal Jon Waggle told families the district was cooperating fully with police and stressed its 'highest professional and ethical standards' for staff. He also acknowledged that the arrest would cause 'serious concerns' in the school community.

Tracy Community Grapples With Trust After High School Coach Allegations

Parents in Tracy did not bother to hide their anger and unease. 'That's supposed to be their privacy to get dressed for PE or whatever they're doing it for,' parent Ryann Carlson said, pointing out how vulnerable teenagers are when they are undressed, distracted and rushing between classes.

Another parent, Brittney Plummer, put it more bluntly, saying teachers are expected to 'not do inappropriate stuff with the kids', and calling the situation 'scary'.

Meanwhile, Tracy Police Chief Sekou Millington said in a statement posted to social media that 'our children deserve to feel safe at school and in every space where they should be able to learn, grow, and simply be kids'.

He described protecting students' safety, privacy and well-being as a responsibility the department 'takes seriously' and publicly thanked the pupils who spoke up, as well as the officers and detectives who moved quickly once the phone was handed over.

The district, for its part, has tried to reassure families that Tracy High remains a safe campus, even as one of its most visible staff members sits under criminal suspicion.

Waggle noted that the school and other campuses in the district 'are proud of being safe schools' and credited 'cooperation between students, parents and staff members' with keeping them that way.

Police have begun the painstaking work of tracking down everyone who might have been affected. Detective teams are interviewing students, seeking additional witnesses and trying to establish whether there were previous recordings or related incidents.

Officers are urging anyone with information to come forward. The department has asked tipsters to contact Detective Brian Cockey or Detective Joseph Bourassa directly, and is also accepting confidential information via its dedicated tip line at (209) 831-6TIP or by emailing [email protected].

So far, authorities have not explained how the phone was positioned in the locker room, how long it was there before someone noticed or whether technicians have been able to recover the deleted recording.

For now, it is a case built on a deeply unsettling discovery by a group of teenagers who did what adults always tell them to do, they saw something that felt wrong, and they told someone.

The Tracy High coach, who once fronted the school's football programme, now finds himself at the centre of a criminal probe that goes to the heart of parental trust in schools. It is the sort of trust that takes years to build and a single hidden phone to shatter.

Pribble remains on leave while the investigation proceeds. Police have not publicly detailed any criminal charges. For now, the high school football programme must navigate an uncertain future without its longtime leader while the judicial process runs its course.