In a school where trust between educators and students is foundational, that trust was quietly violated in one of the few spaces where young people expect complete privacy. At Tracy High School east of San Francisco, a veteran coach of two decades was arrested after students discovered a hidden phone recording them in the locker room — and it was the students themselves, not the institution, who first recognized the wrong and set accountability in motion. The incident raises enduring questions about the safeguards schools owe their students and the courage it takes to speak when something feel
California high school football coach arrested after hidden phone found recording in locker room
Students were subjected to secret video recording in a private locker room space, violating their privacy and safety at school.
Students stopped the recording, deleted the video, and turned the device over to a teacher.
Mark
Why does it matter that the students deleted the video themselves? Couldn't that have destroyed evidence?
Mimi
It's a fair question. They deleted it, yes, but they also reported the phone itself to a teacher. The device was the evidence—the phone, the recordings still on it, the metadata. Police got that. The students' instinct was to stop the harm immediately, which they did.
Luke
We should note: we don't know what else was on that phone or how long it had been recording. The reporting says students found it Thursday and reported it that day, but we don't have confirmation of when Pribble placed it there or how many students might have been recorded.
Mark
The coach had been there five years. Did anyone notice anything before this?
Mimi
Not that we know of. He was established, respected enough to be on the school's website and social media. Twenty-two years in the district. That's the unsettling part—nothing flagged him until students found the phone.
Luke
Right. And we don't have any statement from Pribble himself, any explanation, any prior complaints. The reporting is clean on what happened Thursday and Friday, but silent on the broader picture of who he was or whether there were warning signs.
Mark
What happens to the students now? Do they get counseling, support?
Mimi
The principal's email mentions commitment to student well-being, but it doesn't detail what that looks like. Counseling, follow-up, trauma-informed response—those are reasonable expectations, but they're not confirmed in the reporting.
Luke
Exactly. The district says it's committed to safety and ethics, which is the right language. But the actual support structure for these students—whether they'll have access to counselors, whether parents are being offered resources—that's not in the record yet. It's a gap worth watching.
Le Pouls
- Students changing in a locker room discovered they were being secretly filmed — a violation of the most basic expectation of privacy at school.
- Rather than freeze or stay silent, the students stopped the recording, deleted the footage, and immediately reported the device to staff, becoming the first and most critical line of defense.
- Police traced the hidden phone to Jeffrey Pribble, a 48-year-old head varsity football coach with 22 years in the district — a trusted, publicly visible figure whose arrest sent shockwaves through the school community.
- The district placed Pribble on administrative leave and opened a parallel internal investigation alongside the criminal case, with the principal carefully notifying parents while affirming the school's safety.
- The police chief publicly credited the students' vigilance as essential to the outcome, framing their courage not as exceptional but as exactly what a safe school culture should look like.
In a school where trust between educators and students is foundational, that trust was quietly violated in one of the few spaces where young people expect complete privacy. At Tracy High School east of San Francisco, a veteran coach of two decades was arrested after students discovered a hidden phone recording them in the locker room — and it was the students themselves, not the institution, who first recognized the wrong and set accountability in motion. The incident raises enduring questions about the safeguards schools owe their students and the courage it takes to speak when something feels deeply wrong.
On a Thursday afternoon at Tracy High School, students discovered a cellphone hidden in the boys' locker room, actively recording. They didn't look away. They stopped the recording, deleted the video, and handed the device to a teacher. By that evening, a parent had called police. By Friday, officers had traced the phone to Jeffrey Pribble — the school's 48-year-old varsity football head coach and PE instructor, a man who had spent 22 years in the Tracy Unified School District.
Pribble was arrested Friday and placed on administrative leave as both Tracy police and the district launched separate investigations. The violation was unambiguous: students in a space where privacy is not a privilege but a right had been filmed without their knowledge or consent.
Principal Jon Waggle sent a measured message to parents — acknowledging an employee's arrest without naming Pribble, affirming the district's ethical standards, and assuring families that the school remained safe. Police Chief Sekou Millington went further, crediting the students directly. Their willingness to recognize something wrong and report it, he said, is precisely what keeps schools safe.
Pribble remains in custody. The immediate harm has been stopped, the responsible party removed. What lingers are harder questions — about how this was possible, what oversight failed, and what healing looks like for the students who were there.
On Thursday afternoon at Tracy High School, east of San Francisco, a group of students made a discovery that would set off a criminal investigation and end a coach's career. They found a cellphone hidden in the boys' locker room, actively recording. The students stopped the recording, deleted the video, and handed the phone to a teacher. By that evening, a parent had contacted Tracy police, and by Friday, officers had traced the device to Jeffrey Pribble, the school's 48-year-old varsity football head coach and physical education instructor.
Pribble had been part of the Tracy Unified School District for more than two decades. According to his social media, he had taught for 22 years and held the coaching position for five of those years. He was a known figure at the school—the kind of educator whose name appeared on the website and in the district's public materials. On Friday, he was arrested. The district placed him on administrative leave pending the outcome of both a criminal investigation by Tracy police and a separate internal district inquiry.
The violation was straightforward and severe: students changing clothes in a locker room, a space where they had every right to expect privacy, had been filmed without their knowledge or consent. The students themselves became the first line of defense. Rather than ignore what they found or keep it quiet, they took action—stopping the recording, preserving evidence by deleting the footage, and reporting it to school staff. That decision triggered the machinery of accountability.
School Principal Jon Waggle sent an email to parents acknowledging the arrest of an employee without naming Pribble or detailing the allegations, but making clear the district's commitment to investigating and to maintaining what it called the highest professional and ethical standards. The message struck a careful balance: acknowledging parental concern while emphasizing that the district was cooperating fully with police and that the school remained a safe place.
Tracy Police Chief Sekou Millington framed the incident as a reminder of what students deserve. "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 said. He also made a point of crediting the students themselves—not just the police response, but the fact that young people had recognized something wrong and reported it to adults. That vigilance, he suggested, was part of what keeps schools safe.
The case now moves through two parallel tracks: the criminal system and the district's own disciplinary process. Pribble remains in custody pending further proceedings. For the students involved, the immediate violation has been stopped, the evidence preserved, and the person responsible removed from the school. What remains is the longer work of understanding how this happened, what safeguards failed, and what comes next.
Citations marquantes
Our children deserve to feel safe at school and in every space where they should be able to learn, grow, and simply be kids.— Tracy Police Chief Sekou Millington
The District is committed to holding its employees to the highest professional and ethical standards.— Tracy High Principal Jon Waggle, in email to parents
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