A high school football coach was arrested in San Joaquin County after his cellphone was found in students’ on-campus locker room, allegedly recording the kids while they changed.

Police said that when student athletes at the Tracy High School found the cellphone on Sept. 10, it was still in recording mode. The students stopped the recording, deleted the video and gave handed over the phone to a teacher.

The school’s resource officers and detectives launched a preliminary investigation, authorities said. The General Investigations Unit (GIU) determined that the phone belonged to the school’s 48-year-old head football coach, Jeffrey Pribble.

After a parent of one of the students who found the phone alerted the Tracy Police Department, officers responded to the school and arrested the accused coach on September 11. The Tracy Unified School District has since placed Pribble on leave while the investigation continues.

“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 said in a social media post.

Anyone with information regarding this case is urged to contact Detective Brian Cockey at (209) 831-6602 or via email at Brian.Cockey@TracyPD.com. Alternatively, leads can be directed to Detective Joseph Bourassa by calling (209) 831-6969 or emailing Joseph.Bourassa@TracyPD.com.

“Protecting the safety, privacy, and well-being of our students is a responsibility we take seriously. We are grateful to the students who brought this incident to the attention of adults and to the officers and detectives who acted quickly to investigate.” Millington added.

Confidential tips can be sent directly to the Tracy Police Department by calling the Tip Line at (209) 831-6TIP or by emailing TracyCrimeStoppers@TracyPD.com.

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