A school district in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania is grappling with rehiring a transgender tennis coach who reportedly changed his clothes in the women’s locker room among high school-aged girls.
David “Sasha” Yates, who is transgender, worked as the boys’ and girls’ tennis coach for Gettysburg Area High School since 2018, according to Local 21 News. Yates, who is a male, began transitioning to live as a woman in 2021.
Reportedly, one of the members of the school board initiated the motion to not renew Yates’ position with the school over several incidents involving the coach.
David Yates became a coach for the Gettysburg School District (PA) in 2018. In less than 3 years, he suddenly announced he was Sasha Yates and began undressing in the girls locker room. The school asked him to please use the private restrooms designated for teachers.
— Two Genders One Truth (@2genders1truth) August 23, 2023
However,… pic.twitter.com/JIkCQoMB1f
At a recent school board meeting, a parent of a daughter in the school district, named Steve Carbaugh, said that his daughter ran into Yates in the women’s facilities.
“My daughter was in the bathroom across from the gymnasium in the senior high school, going to the restroom before one of her sporting events. While she exited the bathroom stall, she ran into Mr. David Yates in the female bathroom. Imagine that, a 16-year-old female running into a full grown adult in the restroom of her high school,” Carbaugh reportedly stated.
🚩🚩Some men do not respect the boundaries of women & children
— ICONS (@icons_women) August 22, 2023
“If there was a district-wide rule no adult can use a student restroom, I wouldn’t have a problem with it,” Yates said. “However, when you single out ‘Sasha’ as the only adult who cannot use a student restroom, that… pic.twitter.com/kCEOzfhvpD
According to The Epoch Times, a vote on Aug. 7 to rehire or not rehire Yates was deadlocked 3-3 with one person abstaining. The Times added that Yates has changed his clothing in the women’s room in front of the girls he coached (via The Epoch Times):
In the fall of 2022, the tennis coach entered the girls’ locker room where the girls soccer team was changing. Mr. Yates changed his clothing too, stripping down to bra and panties, a school board member familiar with the situation told The Epoch Times, adding that students reported that it was clear from what they saw that Mr. Yates was still fully a man.
Two school board members have students on the soccer team and at least one of their students was present when this occurred, the board member said.
After Carbaugh reported his daughter’s run-in with Yates in the women’s restroom, school officials reportedly told Carbaugh that Yates would not be rehired for another season of tennis coaching, the Times noted. Carbaugh said that the officials told him they were aware of another incident with Yates in the women’s locker room.
“Now, everybody in this area seems to be crying that it is hate—that nobody wants this guy back because he's transgender and it’s hate. This has absolutely nothing to do with hate on my part. I don't care what the guy wants to call himself,” Carbaugh reportedly said. “What's right is right. What’s wrong is wrong.
“My job as a parent is to protect my child. And he had no business going into that bathroom, and his actions proved that he cannot be trusted. He went into a girls’ locker room and changed while the girls varsity soccer team was in there. They talked to him about it. And he went into a girls’ restroom facility. When is enough enough?” he added.
Earlier this year, Townhall reported how Paula Scanlan, a teammate of Will “Lia” Thomas at the University of Pennsylvania, said that she was forced to share a locker room with him.
“It [the locker room] was uncomfortable. I did notice a few girls – there’s a few bathroom stalls in the bathroom – and I did notice some girls changing in the bathroom stalls for practice, which I’ve never really seen that before,” Scanlan said in an interview with conservative commentator Matt Walsh. “For me personally, the biggest thing was, when you’re changing, there’s all these people talking in the background, all these women’s voices, and then all of a sudden you hear a man’s voice. I’d always kind of jump a little bit [hearing Thomas’ voice].”