Male Coaches Enter Girls Locker Room at Local High School

At a West Des Moines high school on December 9, 2022, 2 male basketball coaches entered the female’s locker room after the girls had afternoon wrestling practice.

KCCI wrote a story about what happened and how it was handled. Parents are disappointed by the statements. The parents feel like not enough has been done to discipline the coaches after they walked into the girl’s locker room. The parents filed a report with the police and some of the girls wrote statements about what happened. The West Des Moines Community School District addressed the situation and the police and Polk County Attorney’s Office also reviewed the case. The West Des Moines Police said, “It was determined that criminal charges were not warranted and no criminal intent was present. The case on our end is closed with no further action.” 

After this happened, some female wrestlers have been concerned, and even changed their opinion on school sports/activities. Delanie Bushong (a Northwest senior) explained, “Honestly, yes, I feel like it has changed, because this can be happening to anyone where coaches feel like, because they are a coach they have a right to everything or to take what they want with no punishment. Nothing like this has thankfully happened at Northwest, but nothing can change the fact that it did happen somewhere else and my sister happened to be involved and it completely changes your viewpoint for that school specifically and that team.”

Cadence Bushong, a sophomore at the West Des Moine Valley High School said, “Disrespectful, sickening, and alarming.” These are the 3 adjectives she would use to describe the situation. It was also mentioned that almost every girl in that locker room felt uncomfortable and that the girl’s basketball team coaches were super disrespectful when they were told to get out of the female locker room, because some of the girls were showering and naked.

Delanie Bushong later mentioned, “If this was me in the moment, and not my sister, I would definitely be feeling violated and disrespected by the coaches.”

Parents and students from other sports and school districts have all wanted something to happen. Cadence Bushong said, “ [I want] them [to] get consequences… there to be rules or no male in the women’s locker room.”Concerned parents started a GoFundMe for the West Des Moines Valley Girls Wrestling Legal Expenses, https://www.gofundme.com/f/valley-girls-wrestling-legal. They have already raised around 1,000 dollars and they have a goal of 5,000 dollars.