Students Find Recording Phone in School Locker Room

Students Found the Phone While Changing

Students at a California high school discovered a cellphone recording inside a campus locker room and turned the device over to school staff, leading police to arrest a teacher the following day.

The discovery happened Sept. 10 at Tracy High School in San Joaquin County. Tracy police said a student and several classmates found the phone recording while they were changing, stopped the recording, deleted the video and gave the phone to a teacher.

The students are minors, and their identities have not been released. Their decision to report the device became the central step that brought the incident to the attention of adults and law enforcement.

A Parent Contacted Police

A concerned parent contacted Tracy Police Department patrol officers that evening, according to the department’s public statement.

School resource officers and detectives from the General Investigations Unit continued working the case on Sept. 11. Police said investigators determined that the phone belonged to Jeffrey Pribble, 48, a teacher at Tracy High School.

Local reporting identified Pribble as the school’s head varsity football coach. KCRA reported that he had worked with the football program for years before becoming head coach in 2021.

Police arrested Pribble at the high school on Sept. 11. The Tracy Unified School District placed him on leave while the criminal and administrative investigations continued.

The Legal Case Was Still Developing

KCRA described the arrest offense as a misdemeanor related to the alleged use of a concealed camera to record people in a private setting without their knowledge.

However, later reporting said the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office had not yet filed formal criminal charges as of the latest available update. An arrest is not a conviction, and the allegations have not been adjudicated in court.

The Tracy Police Department said the investigation remains active and asked anyone with additional information to contact detectives.

CBS Sacramento reported that the school district was cooperating with police. The school principal also told families that the district was concerned about the well-being of students and staff and expected employees to meet professional and ethical standards.

School officials did not announce a separate finding of wrongdoing in the public reports reviewed for this article. The district action placing Pribble on leave remains an administrative step while police continue gathering information and prosecutors decide whether the evidence supports formal charges.

Police Praised the Students for Reporting It

Tracy Police Chief Sekou Millington said students should be able to feel safe at school and thanked the students who brought the incident to adults.

The police department has not publicly released the deleted recording, and the reporting reviewed for this article does not establish what, if anything, investigators were able to recover from the phone after the students stopped it.

That is an important boundary in the case. What police have confirmed is that the phone was recording students in the locker room, investigators said it belonged to Pribble, and he was arrested as the inquiry continued.

The Investigation Remains Open

The familiar setting is what made the discovery especially serious for the school community. A locker room is a place where students have an expectation of privacy, and the case began because students noticed a device operating where they did not expect one to be.

Authorities have not announced a final charging decision. The district’s leave decision is also separate from any criminal proceeding. Further updates will depend on the police investigation and any later decision by county prosecutors.

For now, the case remains an active investigation that started with students recognizing a phone that was recording and choosing to hand it to an adult.

References: Tracy Police Department - High School Teacher Arrested for Recording Students in On-Campus Locker Room | CBS Sacramento - Tracy High teacher arrested after students find phone recording in campus locker room | KCRA - Tracy high school coach arrested on misdemeanor charge after phone found recording in locker room

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