GETTYSBURG, Pa.—The board of the Gettysburg Area School District in Pennsylvania had planned to vote on whether to renew the contract of transgender tennis coach David “Sasha” Yates on Monday night, but instead voted to remove the decision from the agenda.
It is unclear if the board will put Mr. Yates back on the agenda in the future.
The board heard comments from the public in front of more than 150 people, including LGBT activists, tennis team members, parents, and a Moms for Liberty group. Of the nearly 30 people who spoke, only four asked the board not to reinstate Mr. Yates.
Most offered passionate pleas to rehire Mr. Yates, with several indications that it is a life-or-death issue. The risk of suicide in transgender youth was mentioned numerous times.
Employment Background
Hired as David Yates in 2018, Mr. Yates, who earns $2,682 per year coaching boys and girls high school tennis, started dressing as a woman and had changed to Sasha Yates by 2022.Controversy over Mr. Yates’ part-time employment as the high school tennis coach came after several incidents came to light, including using the girls bathroom where a 16-year old female student was made to feel uncomfortable, and also disrobing in front of the girls soccer team in the student locker room.
It is unclear why the tennis coach was changing with the soccer team. Several school board members had daughters changing in the locker room in the fall of 2022 when Mr. Yates disrobed there.
Mr. Yates was reprimanded for the locker room incidents.
Wearing a purple mini dress, denim jacket, and cowboy boots on Monday night, Mr. Yates frequently flicked the hair from his long blonde wig out of his face while sitting in the front row of the board meeting, surrounded by supporters.
Several speakers threatened that the board was likely to face lawsuits if they did not rehire Mr. Yates.
“Please be aware that sex as a protected class explicitly includes sex assigned at birth and gender identity,” Janelle Wertzberger, a member of the Gettysburg Human Relations Commission, told the board. “Not renewing Coach Yates’ contract will open the district up to expensive lawsuits, which will ultimately be borne by the taxpayers. But beyond considering this decision from a financial or legal perspective, it is morally abhorrent and negligent to suggest that any gender identity is anything less than acceptable. Our LGBT+ students are hyper aware of the messages their community sends them. … Please bear in mind the increased risk of suicide, and how much higher that risk is to LGBT+ students.”
Locker Room
The board spoke about the issue in executive session and had decided not to rehire the coach, but this year Mr. Yates’ name appeared on a list of coaches that, as a matter of routine, needed board approval.
“Ms. Smyers has a duty to be informed of school district affairs. Ms. Smyers needs the information she has requested to make an informed decision concerning Yates’ employment,” Mr. Zimolong’s Aug. 16 letter to school solicitor Leigh E. Dalton said. He then cited Pennsylvania case law saying Ms. Smyers is not restricted to information furnished at a public meeting, but has the right to study, investigate, discuss, and argue problems and issues prior to the public meeting at which she may vote.
“But we understand the School District has refused to provide this critical information to Ms. Smyers. Neither you nor any other representative of the school district gets to decide what information is available to Ms. Smyers,“ Mr. Zimolong wrote. ”Ms. Smyers is not an ordinary citizen that must request that information through the Right to Know process. By not providing Ms. Smyers with the necessary information for her to fulfil [sic] her official duties she is effectively removed from office.”
Mr. Zimolong demanded that the school produce the documents, and the board now has seen the employment records.
Professional Boundaries
Mr. Yates shared a September 2022 reprimand letter Monday with some members of the media.The letter of reprimand also shows allegations were made that Mr. Yates had asked students “about menstrual cycles and preferred underwear styles,” but that Mr. Yates did not recall the conversation.
Mr. Yates told PennLive that he believed the concerns raised in the 2022 letter had been dealt with and resolved.
The contents of this letter were not mentioned during the public meeting.
Public comment at the meeting Monday went on for about an hour.
Relevant Policy
Gettysburg Area School District policy 824 gives direction on school employees maintaining professional adult/student boundaries. The policy prohibits exchanging communications of a personal nature with a student; making personal comments about a student’s body; and making sexual remarks.Examples of prohibited conduct that violates professional boundaries include, but are not limited to: Disclosing personal, sexual, family, employment concerns or other private matters to one or more students; singling out a particular student or students for personal attention or friendship beyond the ordinary professional adult-student relationship; being alone with a student behind closed doors without a legitimate educational reason, and telling a student personal secrets or sharing personal secrets with a student.
For adults who are not guidance or counseling staff, psychologists, social workers, or other adults with designated responsibilities to counsel students, encouraging students to confide their personal or family problems and/or relationships is considered a violation of professional boundaries.
Scared to Speak
Each time someone spoke in favor of Mr. Yates on Monday, a portion of the crowd applauded and often gave noisy standing ovations to speakers. While the speakers were mostly for Mr. Yates, observing who was applauding after speakers showed the crowd was more evenly split. Later, some told The Epoch Times they were scared to speak in opposition of Mr. Yates.“The bathrooms. That’s what this is about,” Alexandra Escalera told the board. “I don’t know this coach. I don’t know much about this. But, the bathrooms. And the children … everybody matters. The bathroom’s the problem. Nobody’s arguing her qualifications. It’s the bathrooms.”
Her comments were applauded.
“I’m really greatly concerned because there’s been a lot of very well educated and very compassionate people speaking tonight, conflating the issue and making this a trans issue,” Eddie Fleming told the school board.
“It’s not about any of that,“ he said. ”What this is about is, there was an adult coach who went into the student’s locker room and changed there. That’s really what this is about. And we have to protect our students by first protecting our students, not protecting our coaches who are supposed to protect them. This board wants to protect all students. Trans. Gay. Straight. This is about students’ rights, and the right to have a safe bathroom, a safe locker room. It doesn’t matter what pronouns you go under. He, she, ze, they. It’s not the pronoun that is the problem. It’s when you have an adult that goes into a private space with minors and makes them unsafe.”
The board voted on some unrelated issues and ended the meeting with no indication of what will happen next.
Until a permanent coach is named, other school staffers are sharing coaching duties.
