Longtime California High School Football Coach Arrested After Hidden Phone Found Recording in Locker Room

A veteran Northern California high school educator and varsity football coach has been taken into police custody following an alarming discovery by students who uncovered a mobile phone secretly recording footage inside a campus locker room facility.

Law enforcement officials confirmed that 48-year-old Jeffrey Pribble, a physical education teacher and the head varsity football coach at Tracy High School, was arrested on Friday. The public high school is situated in Tracy, a community located east of the San Francisco metropolitan area, where the arrest has drawn widespread concern from parents, students, and district leadership.

According to statements released by the Tracy Police Department, the incident originated on a Thursday during school hours. A student and several classmates were inside the campus changing quarters when they noticed that a mobile phone had been covertly positioned to capture video recordings of students while they were changing clothes.

Upon recognizing that the device was actively capturing footage, the group of students took immediate measures to intervene. They halted the ongoing recording, deleted the captured video file from the device, and promptly transported the phone to a campus teacher to ensure administrative awareness of the violation.

The matter escalated to municipal law enforcement later that Thursday evening when a concerned parent reached out to Tracy police patrol officers to report what had transpired on campus. The parental notification triggered an immediate response from law enforcement, mobilizing school resource officers and investigative detectives to launch a comprehensive criminal inquiry into the incident.

Through their investigative efforts on Friday, detectives established that the recovered mobile phone belonged directly to Pribble. With ownership confirmed, law enforcement officers proceeded to place the veteran teacher under arrest that same day, with police officially announcing the arrest over the weekend.

Pribble represents a long-standing and familiar presence within the local public education system. Information from his district-affiliated social media profiles and online school records indicates that he has accumulated approximately 22 years of total professional experience as an educator working within the Tracy Unified School District.

For the past five years, Pribble has served at the helm of the Tracy High School varsity football program as its head coach. In addition to his leadership role on the athletic field, he worked within the school’s physical education department, a position that placed him in routine, daily contact with students and student-athletes utilizing the campus locker room amenities.

In the immediate wake of the coach's arrest, the Tracy Unified School District moved to place Pribble on administrative leave. District officials confirmed that he will remain away from campus duties and student contact while independent criminal and internal school district investigations move forward to review the full scope of the allegations.

The development was communicated directly to families by Tracy High School Principal Jon Waggle, who issued a letter to parents and guardians detailing that a school staff member had been taken into custody by local police. While initial communications did not publicly detail the specific charges in full, the school affirmed that it was working in complete alignment with law enforcement investigators.

In his correspondence with the school community, Waggle acknowledged the serious distress that such news inevitably brings to students, families, and staff members. He stressed that the district remains steadfastly committed to student welfare and noted that all district personnel are held to the highest ethical and professional benchmarks.

Waggle further reiterated that Tracy High School and the broader Tracy Unified School District place paramount importance on maintaining safe campus environments. He emphasized that preserving a secure atmosphere depends heavily on strong partnerships, mutual trust, and active vigilance among students, parents, and faculty members across the district.

Tracy Police Chief Sekou Millington also issued a formal statement addressing the arrest, underscoring that student safety and the fundamental right to personal privacy inside educational institutions remain central priorities for local law enforcement.

Chief Millington noted that every child deserves to feel entirely safe at school, describing classrooms and athletic spaces as environments where young people should be able to focus on learning, personal growth, and simply being kids. He concluded by expressing deep gratitude toward the observant students who immediately brought the device to an adult's attention, as well as the detectives tasked with safeguarding campus security.