San Jose State violated Title IX with transgender player, DOE says

The U.S. Department of Education gave San Jose State 10 days to comply with a list of demands after finding the university violated Title IX regarding a transgender volleyball player in 2024.

A federal investigation was launched into San Jose State a year ago after a controversy over a transgender player marred the 2024 volleyball season. Four Mountain West Conference teams – Boise State, Wyoming, Utah State and Nevada-Reno – each chose to forfeit or cancel two conference games against San Jose State. Boise State also lost its conference tournament semifinal game to the Spartans.

Transgender player Blaire Fleming was on San Jose State’s roster for three seasons after transferring from Coastal Carolina, although opponents didn’t protest the player’s participation until 2024.

In a press release Wednesday, the Department of Education warned that San Jose State risks “imminent enforcement action” if it does not voluntarily resolve the violations by taking the following steps, not all of which pertain solely to sports:

1) Issue a public statement that SJSU will adopt biologically based definitions of the words “man” and “woman” and recognize that a human being’s sex – male or female – is immutable.

2) Clarify that SJSU will follow Title IX by segregating sports and intimate facilities based on biological sex.

3) State that SJSU will not delegate its obligation to comply with Title IX to any external association or entity and will not contract with any entity that discriminates on the basis of sex.

4) Return to female athletes all individual athletic records and titles misappropriated by male athletes competing in female categories, and send a personalized letter of apology on behalf of SJSU to each female athlete for allowing her participation in athletics to be tainted by gender discrimination.

5) Send a personalized apology to every woman who played SJSU women’s indoor volleyball from 2022-2024, beach volleyball in 2023, and to any woman on a team who withdrew rather than compete against SJSU while a student was on the roster – expressing sincere regret for placing female athletes in that position.

“SJSU caused significant harm to female athletes by allowing a man 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,” said Kimberly Richey, Department of Education assistant secretary for civil rights.

“Even worse, when female athletes spoke out, SJSU fought back – ignoring allegations of gender discrimination while subjecting an SJSU female athlete to a Title IX complaint for allegedly ‘misinterpreting’ the male athlete competing on a women’s team. This is unacceptable.”

San Jose State responded with a statement acknowledging that the Department of Education had informed the university of its investigation and findings.

“The University is reviewing the Department’s findings and the proposed resolution agreement,” the statement said. “We remain committed to providing a safe, respectful and inclusive educational environment for all students while complying with applicable laws and regulations. »

In a New York Times profile, Fleming said she discovered transgender identity when she was in eighth grade. “It was a lightbulb moment,” she said. “I felt a huge relief and a weight off my shoulders. It made so much sense.”

With the support of his mother and stepfather, Fleming worked with a therapist and a doctor and began a social and medical transition, according to the Times. When she joined the high school girls’ volleyball team, her coaches and teammates knew she was transgender and accepted her.

Fleming’s first two years at San Jose State were uneventful, but in 2024, co-captain Brooke Slusser joined lawsuits against the NCAA, the Mountain West Conference and San Jose State officials after allegations she shared hotel rooms and locker rooms with Fleming without being told she was transgender.

The Department of Education also determined that Fleming and a Colorado State player conspired to punch Slusser in the face, although a Mountain West investigation found “insufficient evidence to corroborate allegations of misconduct.” Slusser was not punched in the face during the match.

President Trump signed an executive order a year ago to ban transgender athletes from competing on women’s and women’s sports teams. The order states that educational institutions and sports associations cannot ignore “fundamental biological truths between the two sexes.” The NCAA responded by banning transgender athletes.

The order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” gives federal agencies, including the Departments of Justice and Education, wide latitude to ensure that entities that receive federal funding comply with Title IX, consistent with the Trump administration’s view of interpreting a person’s sex as the gender they were assigned at birth.

Since then, San Jose State has been in the crosshairs of the federal government. If the university does not voluntarily comply with the actions listed by the government, it could face a lawsuit from the Department of Justice and risk losing its federal funding.

“We will not relent until SJSU is held accountable for these abuses and commits to upholding Title IX to protect future athletes from the same indignities,” Richey said.

San Jose State was found guilty of violating Title IX in an unrelated case in 2021 and paid $1.6 million to more than a dozen female athletes after the Justice Department concluded the university failed to properly handle allegations of student sexual abuse by a former athletic coach.

The federal investigation found that San Jose State failed to take adequate action in response to the athletes’ reports and retaliated against two employees who expressed repeated concerns about Scott Shaw, the former director of sports medicine. Shaw was sentenced to 24 months in prison for illegally touching student-athletes under the guise of medical treatment.

The current findings against San Jose State came two weeks after federal investigators announced that the California Community College Athletic Assn. and four other state colleges and school districts are the target of an investigation into whether their transgender participation policies violate Title IX.

The investigation targets a California Community College sports association. rule that allows transgender and nonbinary students to participate on women’s sports teams if they have completed “at least one calendar year of testosterone suppression.”

Additionally, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights launched 18 Title IX investigations in school districts across the United States, on the heels of the Supreme Court hearing oral arguments on efforts to protect girls’ and women’s sports.