Tipsheet

'Atrocious': PA School District Rehires 'Trans' Coach Who Undressed Around Young Girls

Madeline Leesman
Madeline Leesman  |  September 07, 2023 3:30 PM

This week, a school district in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania voted to rehire a tennis coach who believes he is a “trans woman” and previously undressed in front of young girls in the locker room.

According to Penn Live, the Gettysburg Area School District voted 6-to-2 to rehire David “Sasha” Yates, the coach in question. The board was previously deadlocked and experienced weeks of delays on coming to a final decision.

In an email to Penn Live after the decision, Yates claimed that he felt “delighted” to return to his position as a tennis coach for the local high school. Yates reportedly began “transitioning” to live as a woman in 2021.

“I have been very moved by the outpouring of support that I have received,” Yates said, adding “I am very much looking forward to continuing to support and guide both teams as they represent Gettysburg Area High School in the coming seasons.”

Penn Live’s report claims that the situation arose from conservatives in the community taking issue with the fact that Yates thinks he is a woman (via Penn Live):

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The lack of clarity as to why Yates’ contract was being impeded - despite what students described as a stellar coaching record - led to an outpouring of concern that Yates was indeed being singled out because of her gender. The issue was exacerbated by board member Michelle Smyers giving interviews to conservative media outlets criticizing Yates, and working with a right-wing law firm that said it was combatting the “insidious transgender movement” by assisting Smyers.

However, Townhall previously reported that there was more to the story. At a recent school board meeting, a parent named Steve Carbaugh shared that his daughter ran into Yates in one of 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.

In addition, reports claimed that in the fall of 2022, Yates entered the girls’ locker room while the soccer team was changing (via The Epoch Times):

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.

“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 stated. “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.

Paula Scanlan, a teammate of Will “Lia” Thomas at the University of Pennsylvania who was forced to share a locker room with him, called the decision to rehire Yates “shameful.”

Meg Brock, a Republican committee member in Pennsylvania, called the decision “atrocious” and added that schools aren’t protecting girls if there’s no policy in place explicitly preventing “confused men who think they are women” from women’s spaces.