San Jose State University came under pressure to apologize to female athletes after the Trump administration concluded that the school ran afoul of Title IX by allowing a biological male to play on the women’s volleyball team.
The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights said Wednesday that the university denied opportunities to female athletes by actively recruiting Blaire Fleming, a female-identifying transgender player who competed on the women’s volleyball squad from 2022-25.
Under the department’s proposed resolution agreement, SJSU would need to adopt biologically based definitions of “male” and “female”; separate men’s and women’s sports based on biological sex; apologize to female athletes, and restore any individual records and titles to women displaced by the male athlete.
“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,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey in a statement.
In a statement, the university said that the results of the department’s investigation are under review.
“The Department informed the University of the outcome of its investigation and its findings,” said the SJSU statement. “The University is in the process of reviewing the Department’s findings and proposed resolution agreement.”
The findings stemmed from a transgender-athlete uproar that rocked the university in 2024 over Fleming, a biological male who starred on the women’s volleyball team for three seasons.
San Jose State was accused of hiding Fleming’s biological sex from the team’s own players while having them share locker rooms and even hotel rooms with the athlete.
“In addition to privacy concerns, the presence of this male athlete presented a safety concern for female athletes and provided SJSU’s volleyball team with an unfair physical advantage over opposing teams,” said the department. “On multiple occasions, the male athlete spiked the ball so forcefully that it knocked females on the opposing team to the ground.”
Seven competing women’s volleyball teams forfeited their matches against the Spartans during the 2024-25 season, but some of the most vociferous objections came from within the team itself.
An associate head coach, Melissa Batie-Smoose, was suspended after filing a Title IX complaint against the California State University system over Fleming’s participation. Her contract was not renewed after the season.
Meanwhile, Brooke Slusser, a teammate of Fleming’s, and 10 other conference players filed a Title IX lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference. Slusser also joined a lawsuit filed by female athletes against the NCAA’s transgender-athlete policy.
The NCAA has since done an about-face on transgender athletes. In February 2025, the association announced that student-athletes would be required to compete based on sex at birth after President Trump issued an executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
That rule change would apply to San Jose State, an NCAA Division I program, meaning that it must already keep its women’s and men’s teams separated by sex.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>BIG NEWS: The <a href=”https://twitter.com/usedgov?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw“>@usedgov</a> ruled San Jose State University violated Title IX for retaliating against female athletes who spoke out after being forced to compete & share a locker room with Blaire Fleming, a male pretending to be a woman.<a href=”https://twitter.com/usedgov?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw“>@usedgov</a> found the university “caused… <a href=”https://t.co/NuAV4hnRYY“>pic.twitter.com/NuAV4hnRYY</a></p>— Athletes for America (@A1Policy_AFA) <a href=”https://twitter.com/A1Policy_AFA/status/2016623974583607806?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw“>January 28, 2026</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8”></script>
Those cheering the department’s decision included the conservative group Concerned Women for America, which filed a Title IX complaint with the department in 2024.
“San Jose State University was rightfully found guilty for allowing men to compete against women, violating Title IX,” said CWA CEO and President Penny Nance. “Biological realities give men an advantage against women, making it inherently unfair for men to compete in women’s sports. We are grateful that our civil rights complaint was not ignored and we will not stop fighting for the rights of biological female athletes to have fair competition, safety, and equal opportunities.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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