An associate head coach and 11 women volleyball players from several teams in the Midwest have filed a Title IX lawsuit over the decision to include a trans woman on San Jose State University women's volleyball team. 

You may have heard about this story which has been building up to this point for weeks. In October, a series of rival teams forfeited their games against SJSU to protest the inclusion of the trans athlete.

San Jose State has a transgender athlete on its roster, and three Mountain West Conference opponents and one nonconference foe have chosen to take losses rather than take the court against the Spartans.

Utah State on Wednesday joined fellow MWC schools Boise State and Wyoming in canceling matches even though the Aggies aren’t scheduled to visit San Jose State until Oct. 23. Wyoming was scheduled to play host to the Spartans on Saturday, but that match has already been called a forfeit. Southern Utah, a member of the Western Athletic Conference, also forfeited a match to San Jose State.

This led to associate head coach Melissa Batie-Smoose being fired after she spoke against inclusion of the trans athlete and later filed a Title IX complaint against the school.

Batie-Smoose previously told OutKick that she was told not to speak to the media after she was terminated, accusing the school of trying to "silence people that are speaking up for their First Amendment rights and for what's right."

She added she wanted to "make sure I'm standing strong that only women should be in women's sports."

She is now a plaintiff along with players from four other schools.

The plaintiffs include San Jose State co-captain Brooke Slusser, assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose and two former Spartans players, as well as players from four other conference schools. They allege that the school and conference violated the U.S. Constitution and Title IX by allowing a transgender athlete to play for a women’s sports team and by suppressing free speech rights of those that spoke out in protest.

San Jose State University, its head volleyball coach Todd Kress, and two school administrators, as well as the trustees board for the California State University system, are also named as defendants.

The specific goal of the lawsuit is to prevent the trans athlete from competing in an upcoming tournament. Here's a bit of the legal complaint.

In April 2024 SJSU officials convened a meeting with the women’s volleyball players and coaches to address a recent news article about Fleming being male. 

During this meeting, SJSU officials, including Head Coach Kress and Senior Director of Media Relations Michelle McDonald Smith, told the SJSU Team members that: 

a. they should not speak about Fleming’s sex or gender identity with anyone outside the team; 

b. if the women spoke publicly about Fleming being male things would go badly for the team members; 

c. any information about Fleming’s sex was Fleming’s information alone – it was “this was Blaire’s story to tell” and “Blaire’s story alone,” – the women on the team could not share it; 

d. the female players could not share what they thought about playing with a male, and that they could not speak with others outside the team about any safety or privacy concerns that related to Fleming being male and playing on the SJSU team; 

e. criticism of Fleming or his participation on the SJSU Team would indicate bigotry and harm their reputation and could subject them to discipline or loss of their scholarship and could be considered a violation of school policies or state law...

The repeated instructions by SJSU administrators not to speak about Blaire Fleming were intended to cause, and did cause, SJSU Team members to fear that they could lose their scholarships or be removed from the team if they spoke outside of a team meeting about Fleming’s sex or being transgender or if they expressed any public disagreement outside a team meeting concerning having Fleming on the team.

The SJSU Team members were told by SJSU administrators that such comments would indicate that they are “transphobic” and could be considered a violation of Title IX, school policies, or state law. 

In short, the team members were threatened to remain silent. But coaches and players could see that Fleming, the trans athlete, was not like the female players.

During practices in August 2024 immediately before the 2024 season Slusser and Batie-Smoose saw that Fleming was hitting the ball with more force than in 2023 and far harder than any woman they had ever played or coached with or against.

Where Fleming stood out was spiking the volleyball and blocking on the front row due to Fleming’s leaping ability and hitting power, which far exceeded that of any player in the conference and was the most explosive of any player that SJSU’s Associate Head Coach has observed in collegiate women’s volleyball...

Fleming’s spikes were estimated to be traveling upwards of 80 miles per hour, which is faster than a woman hits a volleyball.

The team captain went to the head coach and complained that Fleming's spikes were putting female teammates in danger of injury. The coach reportedly said it was routine for female players to practice with male players.

Slusser responded to her coach, “You can’t lie to me. At Alabama each of the practice players was warned by the coach that if they hit harder than 70% against the girls they would not ever come back to practice. No college women’s team lets their male practice players hit like Blaire is hitting in our practices.” 

Slusser told Kress that Fleming’s participation in practices, and the fact that the coaches were not asking Fleming to pull back on use of his physical power, was putting everyone on the team at risk of serious injury. Slusser again Kress to take steps to protect the women players on the team. However, Kress brushed Slusser off and would not talk further about it. 

You can see what that looks like here as one of Fleming's spiked balls hits a female opponent in the face, knocking her to the ground.

Another female volleyball player was a victim of a vicious spike from San Jose State’s male player, Blaire Fleming…@NCAA, this has to stop!
pic.twitter.com/MTPhLitjTx

— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) October 18, 2024

We'll have to wait and see if the courts respond to this request for intervention and whether this lawsuit eventually leads the NCAA to change their approach to approving trans athletes on women's teams.