The FBI has arrested Sean Gardner, a 38-year-old former coach at Chow’s Gymnastics & Dance Institute in West Des Moines, Iowa, on a federal charge of producing child pornography. Gardner appeared in court last week after investigators said they recovered hundreds of illicit images and videos of underage girls from his electronic devices. According to a nine-page affidavit, Gardner secretly filmed girls—some as young as six—changing clothes at Jump’In Gymnastics in Purvis, Mississippi, where he worked before joining Chow’s in 2018. Agents said the trove included roughly 400 photos and 50 videos taken with a hidden camera, and they believe Gardner ‘primarily targeted children’ at gyms in Mississippi, Iowa and Louisiana. Complaints about Gardner’s conduct surfaced in March 2022, when a gymnast told the U.S. Center for SafeSport he had inappropriately touched her during training in Iowa. SafeSport imposed a provisional suspension four months later, yet the case remained unresolved while Gardner obtained a job as a surgical technologist at MercyOne West Des Moines Medical Center in 2024. Gardner faces a potential 30-year prison term if convicted. Federal and local investigators are seeking additional information from former athletes and families, and critics say the protracted timeline illustrates longstanding gaps in coordination between SafeSport and law-enforcement agencies.