The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has determined that San Jose State University (SJSU) violated Title IX by allowing a transgender athlete to compete on the women's volleyball team. The finding represents the latest development in a controversial case that has sparked national debate about transgender participation in women's sports.
The investigation centered on Blaire Fleming, a 6'1" outside hitter who joined the Spartans in 2022 after transferring from Coastal Carolina. The controversy escalated in 2024 when SJSU co-captain Brooke Slusser went public with concerns about Fleming's participation, alleging she had been rooming with Fleming for nearly a year without being informed that her teammate was transgender.
According to the Department of Education's findings, 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." The investigation also concluded that the university further violated Title IX by failing to properly investigate complaints filed by female athletes and by retaliating against those who spoke out.
The most alarming allegation emerging from the investigation involves a supposed conspiracy where Fleming allegedly arranged with an opposing team player to deliberately spike a ball in Slusser's face during a match after Slusser joined a Title IX lawsuit against the NCAA. Rather than investigating this claim, SJSU instead subjected Slusser to a Title IX complaint for "misgendering" the transgender athlete.
As part of its resolution offer, the Education Department has demanded that SJSU issue a public statement acknowledging that "the sex of a human—male or female—is unchangeable," adopt biology-based definitions of male and female, and restore athletic records and titles to female athletes. The university has also been ordered to send personalized apologies to all women who played on the volleyball team between 2022-2024, as well as to those on teams that forfeited matches against SJSU.
The SJSU case is part of a broader Trump administration initiative targeting transgender athlete participation in sports. The administration had previously reached resolutions with the University of Pennsylvania over transgender swimmer Lia Thomas and Wagner College regarding transgender fencer Redmond Sullivan. Unlike those cases, however, SJSU faces a ten-day deadline to comply with the demands or risk "imminent enforcement action" that could include loss of federal funding.
This development sends a clear signal about the current administration's interpretation of Title IX and its commitment to enforcing what it calls "biological reality" in sports. The resolution requirements represent a significant challenge to SJSU and potentially other institutions with similar policies regarding transgender athlete participation.
