A Gettysburg, Pennsylvania High School is making headlines over the school board’s debate on whether or not to re-hire a trans-identified male coach for the school’s female tennis team. Sasha Yates, born David, has reportedly been subject to complaint after he frequented the girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms on several occasions.
Reduxx spoke directly to board member Michelle Smyers, who reviewed the reprimand against Yates for the first time.
The reprimand outlined two separate incidents in September of 2022 involving Yates undressing in the girls’ locker room.
While a previous report by the Epoch Times had made the public aware of two of the occurrences, Smyers revealed that there were in fact three: twice in September of last year, and once again this past April. While using the girls’ locker rooms and restrooms, Yates sparked fear and discomfort from female students in addition to concern from their parents.
Yates had initially been hired by Gettysburg Area School District in 2018 while still identifying as a male, but in 2022, he began using the name Sasha after he declared that he was transgender. Reduxx learned that he had two children who appear to live in the United Kingdom with their mother.
In the fall of 2022, shortly after Yates began “identifying” as female and using women’s facilities, he stripped down to “a bra and panties” in the girls’ locker room where the teen soccer team was changing.
A board member with the district told The Epoch Times in their exclusive that the female students reported that “it was clear from what they saw that Mr. Yates was still fully a man.”
Two members of the school board have daughters playing on the soccer team, one of whom was present when the incident took place.
But a third incident has now been brought to light after Smyers and other board members were finally granted access to the administration’s reprimand against him from last fall. To their shock, not one, but two instances were outlined in September. Smyers said she believes that Yates released the same document to the Gettysburg Times upon knowing that it was finally revealed to the board.
Smyers confirmed that the first incident did involve Yates undressing down to his “bra and panties,” as previously reported.
According to the reprimand issued to Yates, many of the female students said they were uncomfortable with the man’s presence in the facility, as well as with the comments he made to the girls.
“I was too busy picking my jaw up off the floor when I read it,” Smyers said. “Because the second incident outlined where he’d gone into the same locker room and was discussing with the girls in there — talking to them about their menstrual cycles and what type of panties they like to wear.”
Smyers expressed that she was incredulous at the revelations, which went far beyond Yates simply using the changing area.
“Jerry Sandusky was from Pennsylvania, for crying out loud. Didn’t we learn anything from Jerry Sandusky? You know? Adults don’t belong in the locker room while kids are in there dressing,” Smyers remarked, referring to the notorious serial child molester who sexually abused at least eight young boys at Central Mountain High School while working as a football coach.
Smyers also questioned why Yates had been undressing in the first place.
“It’s tennis… why are you changing? You’re a part-time coach, you didn’t come to practice ready to coach?”
On April 12, months after his initial reprimand was issued by the school, Yates still took the liberty of using the girls’ restroom while one 16-year-old student was already inside. He followed the girl into the bathroom and “tried to strike up a conversation” with the minor, but she walked out of the facilities.
The girl texted her softball coach while she was still inside the restroom and expressed her concern for her safety. Her father, Steve Carbaugh, told The Epoch Times that this made his daughter very uncomfortable as it was just her and Yates alone in the bathroom.
Carbaugh said, “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 is not being penalized because of what he calls himself. He needs to be penalized because of his actions and the fact that he can’t follow directions. This is a grown man, going into a bathroom with a juvenile female. That’s a problem. That’s a huge problem.”
Mr. Carbaugh was told that month that Mr. Yates would not return as the tennis coach for the following season, so he decided to let the matter go.
Yates provided Gettysburg Times with the reprimand letter that Smyers reviewed, but denied having the conversation with the teens about menstruation cycles, saying he didn’t recall it. Yates did admit that the other incidents occurred, “but not in the way that has been previously reported.”
He also revealed that after the reprimand was issued, he was given a key to use a single-stall restroom that sports personnel, such as referees, are designated to use, but asserted that federal law allows him to use “any bathroom.”
Despite the complaints from parents and students, Dr. Leigh Dalton, a solicitor for the school, “convinced” members of the board not to fire Yates immediately, and instead insisted the school simply decline to re-hire him for the following season due to concerns about litigation.
But Yates’ name reappeared in July on the hiring list for the coaching post.
Smyers told Reduxx that when she saw the name “Sasha,” she initially thought she was reviewing whether or not they’d be hiring a new female coach. She had only learned about Yates’ identity “as a woman” last fall but had been told after the bathroom incident that “the issue was being taken care of,” and that Yates would not be brought back.
Earlier this month, on August 7, the school board held a vote on whether or not Yates should be rehired. The vote was 3-3, with one person abstaining from voting.
Dalton then allegedly issued a warning “urging the board to rehire Mr. Yates to avoid the risk of litigation.”
The next meeting, which was held August 21, had Yates’ employment on its agenda to be voted on by board members once again. The agenda noted Yates’ coaching salary as $2,682. The day of the second board meeting, America First Legal revealed they were representing Smyers due to concerns that Yates may take legal action against her or the district in the event they voted against re-hiring him.
Reduxx attended the most recent board meeting and witnessed over 25 members of the public provide input on whether they felt Yates should be again retained as girl’s tennis coach.
Several of the speakers held clear contempt for Smyers, accusing her of “transphobia” and alleging that she has made “hateful and biased comments against the LGBTQ community.” These individuals, in some cases, received loud applause and a standing ovation from those present at the meeting.
Many speakers cited suicide rates in transgender adolescents in their defense of retaining Yates’ employment with the school.
One father read a letter on behalf of his son, who was not present. The former tennis player for the high school stated: “Sasha is a woman. Over the past four years I have watched her realize this, and have watched as she has transitioned into her true self,” going on to urge those motioning not to rehire Yates to “fix their hearts.”
That young man’s mother, Dr. Sonya Deltredici, spoke after her husband and identified herself as a leader of an “LGBT health curriculum” at York Hospital. She said, “It does not hurt our children to be in the presence of trans people… What hurts our children is discrimination against trans people.”
Another man in defense of Yates, who shared that he teaches critical race theory, said: “If any of my grandchildren play tennis… I’m frankly not worried about this if they come under coach Yates’ teaching and care because I trust God to take care of them.”
Only three of the speakers addressed Yates’ use of the girls’ private spaces.
Eddy Fleming, father and concerned citizen, echoed the woman’s statement, saying: “I’m really gravely concerned because there’s been a lot of very well-educated and very impassioned people tonight conflating this issue and making this a trans issue … what this is about is that there was an adult coach who went into the students’ bathroom, went into the students locker room and changed there … that’s really what this is about, and we have to protect our students…”
Smyers believes that the administration is “hiding behind Title XII” which prevents discrimination on the basis of a protected characteristic, but shared that she doesn’t believe it should grant anyone special privileges.
She reiterated that she would find these actions inappropriate regardless of what staff member it was.
Smyers said she believes a lot of parents and other community members are afraid to speak out against Yates because they could face the same accusations of “transphobia” and “hate” that she’s faced.
She told Reduxx that the claims labeling her a bigot are “absurd and patently false,” but feels the backlash towards her has served as a warning for others.
“They’ll get the reaction that I’ve gotten, and people don’t want that. They don’t want to be labelled. They don’t want other people to think that they’re transphobic or anti-gay… they’re afraid of that. They forget that those words don’t mean anything. They’re just words. But, you know, it’s a psychological warfare,” Smyers said.
“I’m not that person, I’ve never been that person. I think they call me [transphobic and hateful] because I’m the chapter chair of Moms for Liberty.”
Smyers explained that she has faced abuse from trans activists in the past, and recalled a Moms for Liberty event she attended earlier this summer in Philadelphia where she was subject to misogynistic remarks about her body being yelled at her through a bullhorn.
She told Reduxx that she also “took a lot of crap” from the public in the past because she “went after some of inappropriate books in [the] school.” Smyers said she had condemned the book “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” not because the author is gay but because the book discussed flavored condoms used between two juvenile boys engaging in anal sex.
Smyers asserted she has no intentions of voting to retain Yates, and said she doesn’t trust him. While she explained that she was not speaking for her fellow board members, she does believe there may be at least two others who will vote against Yates’ employment.
The August 21 board meeting moved to postpone the decision to reinstate Yates. The next meeting is scheduled for September 5. In the interim, the girls’ tennis team does not currently have an official coach, but had their first match on August 22, their first day of the school year.
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