U.S. Dept. of Education Announces Investigation of San Jose State for Allowing Transgender Volleyball Player

This report has been updated to include a response from San Jose State President Cynthia Teniente-Matson.

The U.S. Department of Education today announced investigations of San Jose State University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts high school athletic association “where violations of Title IX have been reported.”

The announcement comes one day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. The President called the order, Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, “a promise to women and girls: This administration will not tolerate the mistreatment of female athletes.”

“The previous administration trampled the rights of American women and girls—and ignored the indignities to which they were subjected in bathrooms and locker rooms—to promote a radical transgender ideology. That regime ended on Jan. 20, 2025,” said Craig Trainor, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in a press release today.

Trainor said his office is reviewing policies at other schools “to evaluate their alignment with Title IX protections for female athletes.”

San Jose State responded by saying it has followed and will continue to follow policies of the California State University system “and applicable law.”

In a statement released today, SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson said, “We recognize that at times, these laws and policies may intersect in complex ways. In navigating these frameworks, our focus remains on upholding our responsibilities while supporting our students.”

In the statement, Teniente-Matson said, “San Jose State University will not address the gender identity of any student as they are protected under federal law, via the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.”

“As with any federal inquiry, we will fully engage with the process, follow established procedures and remain transparent in our compliance with all applicable laws,” she said.

“While we adhere to legal and regulatory requirements, San José State will continue to act within our authority to uphold the values that define us as an institution,” Teniente-Matson said in a statement. “Our focus remains on our values including fostering an environment that cultivates compassion, where every student has the opportunity to thrive. We remain steadfast in our role as a place of learning, respect, and opportunity for all.”

“San José State University is committed to ensuring that all of our students, including our student athletes, are treated fairly, free from discrimination, and afforded the rights and protections granted under federal and state law, including privacy rights.”

The education department – which Trump also said he plans to abolish – on Jan. 31 notified the nation’s K-12 schools and higher education institutions of “a return to enforcing Title IX protections on the basis of biological sex.”

“Yesterday’s executive order ensures that federally funded institutions of higher education prioritize fairness and safety in women’s sports,” the education department said in a Feb. 6 press release.

In its announcement, the education department called San Jose State University’s transgender volleyball player Blaire Fleming a “male athlete.” The department cited Fleming’s “dominant performance on the women’s volleyball team,” and linked to a report of one volleyball match in Outkick, a sports and political commentary website owned by the Fox Corporation that features “news, opinion pieces and podcasts surrounding sports and popular culture, presented from a conservative perspective.”

The department said the Fox outlet reported that Fleming’s play featured “dangerous strikes directed at opponent’s faces, [that] forced competing teams to forfeit games to protect their female athletes.”

In the press release, the education department also linked to a Fox News report of a lawsuit filed against SJSU by players and a former assistant coach. Fox News, according to the press release, reported that the lawsuit alleged that the university awarded Fleming a scholarship over several female players and that it retaliated against the players and the assistant coach “who defended female athletes.”

Last November, a federal court judge in Colorado rejected a lawsuit filed by eight players for four other colleges in San Jose State’s conference, the Mountain West, seeking to bar the San Jose State volleyball player from competition.

They were joined by women’s volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser, along with former Spartan volleyball players Alyssa Sugai and Elle Patterson, San Jose State associate head coach Melissa Batie-Smoose and eight players from four schools that decided to forfeit games against the Spartans as long as Fleming was competing.

Batie-Smoose was suspended indefinitely after she filed a Title IX complaint against San Jose State, alleging that Fleming conspired with an opponent to help the team lose a match and injure teammate Slusser.

The plaintiffs argued that allowing Fleming to participate in the tournament would discriminate against women by denying them equal opportunities.

The defendants named in the lawsuit were San Jose State head volleyball Coach Todd Kress, the Mountain West Conference and its commissioner, two administrators at San Jose State, and the board of trustees of the California State University System.

San Jose State told the court that it followed all N.C.A.A. eligibility guidelines. Lawyers for the defendants pointed to a Supreme Court ruling in 2020 saying that a ban on sex discrimination in the workplace, part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, extended to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Education Department announcement today quoted a former University of Pennsylvania athlete: “I’m deeply grateful to the Department of Education for addressing Title IX violations concerning female athletes with such seriousness. As a former University of Pennsylvania swimmer who was forced to compete against and share a locker room with a male athlete, I look forward to holding accountable the higher education institutions that promoted this,” said Paula Scanlan, a former member of Pennsylvania’s women’s swimming team.

The University of Pennsylvania had awarded Lia Thomas, who is transgender, a roster spot on the swim team. The department reported that Scanlan had testified before Congress that she and her teammates were “offered psychological services to attempt to re-educate us to become comfortable with the idea of undressing in front of a male.”

In Massachusetts, a girls’ high school basketball team forfeited a game after a transgender player on the opposing female team reportedly injured three female players. The department quoted the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association’s handbook as saying that a “student shall not be excluded from participation on a gender-specific sports team that is consistent with the student’s bona fide gender identity.”