San Jose State violated Title IX with handling of trans volleyball player

The U.S.Department of Education (ED) announced Wednesday that it has determined San Jose State University violated Title IX due to its handling of a transgender former volleyball player.

The university now has 10 days to comply with a series of agreements or risk “imminent enforcement action.” The ED launched an investigation into the university last February after a highly publicized college volleyball season that saw seven teams forfeit games to SJSU amid the controversy. Former SJSU co-captain Brooke Slusser joined multiple lawsuits against the NCAA, the Mountain West Conference and representatives of the university after alleging she had been made to share changing spaces and bedrooms with trans teammate Blaire Fleming in 2023 without being told that Fleming is a biological male.Former assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose was suspended and later not re-signed to a new contract after filing a Title IX complaint against the school for its handling of Fleming.The ED has now determined SJSU denied women equal educational opportunities and benefits, and that the school retaliated against female athletes who spoke out.“SJSU caused significant harm to female athletes by allowing a male to compete on the women’s volleyball team—creating unfairness in competition, compromising safety, and denying women equal opportunities in athletics, including scholarships and playing time,” ED Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “Even worse, when female athletes spoke out, SJSU retaliated—ignoring sex-discrimination claims while subjecting one female SJSU athlete to a Title IX complaint for allegedly ‘misgendering’ the male athlete competing on a women’s team.

This is unacceptable.We will not relent until SJSU is held to account for these abuses and commits to upholding Title IX to protect future athletes from the same indignities.”Among the department’s findings, it determined that ...