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FIRST ON FOX: The US Department of Education (ED) announced Wednesday that it has determined San Jose State University violated Title IX for its treatment of a transgender volleyball player. The university now has 10 days to comply with the series of agreements or risk “imminent enforcement action.”
The ED launched an investigation into the university last February after a highly publicized college volleyball season in which seven teams lost games to SJSU amid the controversy.
Former SJSU captain Brooke Slusser is facing multiple lawsuits from the NCAA, the Mountain West Conference and university officials after she alleged she was told to share changing rooms and bedrooms with teammate Blaire Fleming in 2023 without being told that Fleming is gay.
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SJSU player Blaire Fleming and teammate Brooke Slusser went to a magic show and performed Thanksgiving together in Las Vegas despite the ongoing accusation that Fleming is transgender. (Thien-An Truong/San Jose State Athletics)
Former assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose was suspended and later not re-signed to a new contract after filing a Title IX complaint against the school over Fleming’s handling.
The ED has now ruled that SJSU denied women equal educational opportunities and benefits, and that the school retaliated against female athletes who spoke out.
“SJSU has done a great disservice to female athletes by allowing a male to compete on the women’s volleyball team – creating an imbalance in competition, jeopardizing safety, and denying women equal opportunities in athletics, including scholarships and playing time,” said ED Assistant Secretary for Human Rights Kimberly Richey in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.
“Worse, when female athletes spoke up, SJSU retaliated—ignoring claims of sexism while filing a single SJSU female athlete in a Title IX complaint for allegedly ‘misbehaving’ with a male athlete competing on a women’s team. This is unacceptable. We will not stop until SJSU takes responsibility and protects Title IX from future similar scandals.”
Among the findings of the department, he found out that the female athlete found out that the trans student allegedly conspired for a member of the opposition team to cover her face while playing. The ED states that “SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later included a female athlete in a Title IX complaint for ‘harassment’ of a male athlete in online videos and chats.”
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Slusser alleged in her November 2024 lawsuit against Mountain West that she and Batie-Smoose were made aware of a meeting between Colorado State women’s volleyball player Malaya Jones on Oct. 2, 2024 where Fleming discussed a plan with Jones to have Slusser shot in the face during a game the next night.
The Mountain West Conference launched an investigation into the allegations, but found that there was insufficient evidence to warrant disciplinary action.
However, Fox News Digital reported in the summer of 2025 that Mountain West contracted with the same law firm to conduct the same investigation that defended the conference in Slusser’s case involving the same allegations against Fleming.
The lawyer appointed to lead the investigation was Timothy Heaphy of Willkie Farr & Gallagher (WFG). Heaphy previously served as chief investigative counsel to the US House of Representatives select committee to investigate the January 6 riots at the Capitol.
Former SJSU volleyball captain Brooke Slusser with her parents Paul and Kim Slusser, and Tim Heaphy and Blaire Fleming. (Getty Images/Kim Slusser Images)
WFG later removed a web page press release announcing that it had successfully defended the Mountain West against a request for a preliminary injunction that would have ruled Fleming ineligible to complete the 2024 season and compete in the Mountain West Tournament.
Slusser later told Fox News Digital that he had a conversation with a colleague who was interviewed as part of a congressional investigation into Fleming’s alleged plan. Fox News Digital does not disclose the identity of its partners.
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“From what I was told, exactly what one of my colleagues had seen happen that night – about talking about the inspection report and leaving the field open – was told to those lawyers. So, that should have been enough evidence. [of the alleged plan by Fleming],” Slusser told Fox News Digital, adding that he wants to see the investigation reopened.
“People are telling you this happened, and it’s not information that was used. You’re sitting there hearing a conversation between Blaire and Blaire. [former Colorado State volleyball player] Malay [Jones]. So, for me, what I know personally without going into this investigation, there is enough evidence, and they have been told enough evidence.”
Fox News Digital cannot independently confirm that Slusser’s colleague confirmed the allegations against Fleming when he spoke to investigators.
Fox News Digital later interviewed SJSU Athletic Director Jeff Konya about Slusser’s claims, playing a video clip of Slusser making those allegations at Mountain West media days on July 15.
“I don’t know if he’s telling the truth or not,” Konya said of Slusser’s claims.
Konya could not confirm or deny that any of the witnesses interviewed agree with the allegations against Fleming.
“I don’t know,” said Konya.
Batie-Smoose filed her lawsuit against the Board of Trustees of the California State University (CSU) system, as SJSU is one of 23 California-based schools that are part of the system. Batie-Smoose and her attorney Vernadette Broyles believe the suspension was “retaliation” for her Title IX complaint against Fleming.
Batie-Smoose said she wasn’t informed that Fleming was male until she got the job at SJSU in February 2023, and says she wasn’t officially told the truth about Fleming until she started asking about it, and coach Todd Kress finally told her, a few weeks into his tenure.
Batie-Smoose says he was then told he could not tell the other players or the players’ parents about it.
“Todd Kress told me in passing … because I was asking … ‘Well, Blaire is male,'” Batie-Smoose said, adding that she was threatened with expulsion if she told other athletes or parents.
“Both Todd Kress and the manager, Laura Alexandra, were not allowed to talk about that, let the parents know, or anyone else know.”
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Meanwhile, the situation left a lasting physical and mental impact on Slusser. She previously told Fox News Digital that the panic and stress of that time in her life caused her to develop an eating disorder, which led to anorexia so severe that she lost her menstrual cycle for nine months.
“I went from about 160 to 128 [lbs] in that one semester. It’s not fair for someone my size to be that weight, and I ended up missing my period for nine months. So it was really tough,” said Slusser, who is 5-foot-11.
After the 2024 season and fall semester ended, Slusser’s parents saw the physical impact the condition had taken on him, and wanted him to return home to Texas.
“As soon as the season ended, he came home for Christmas, and I was like, ‘You’re not coming back,'” his father, Paul Slusser, told Fox News Digital. He told his daughter, “‘You can go get your stuff next summer when your lease is up, stay here.’
When winter break was over, and what was supposed to be her last semester, Brooke tried to complete her coursework online.
His parents said he started online classes, but stopped them soon after. Like Division I scholarship playerdropping out of classes resulted in him losing his scholarship, and his family had to pay a full semester’s tuition out of pocket, as well as his house.
“We had to pay, especially his mortgage and his apartment every semester. So it was a huge financial burden for us when that happened,” said Paul Slusser.
He is no longer a student at SJSU, and will finish his education at another school.
Now, President Donald Trump’s administration is looking to bring results to the situation.
The ED settlement criteria that SJSU must meet to avoid “imminent enforcement action” are as follows:
- It issued a public statement to the SJSU community that SJSU will use biologically based definitions of the terms ‘male’ and ‘female’ and acknowledge that a person’s gender – male or female – is immutable;
- Clarify that SJSU will comply with Title IX by segregating sports and fraternities based on gender;
- States that SJSU will not delegate its responsibility to comply with Title IX to any outside entity or organization and will not contract with any organization that discriminates against sex;
- Restore to individual female athletes all athletic records and titles improperly used by male athletes competing in women’s disciplines, and issue a personal letter of apology on behalf of SJSU to each female athlete for allowing her athletic participation to be marred by sexism; again
- Send a personal apology to every woman who played on SJSU women’s indoor volleyball (2022–2024), 2023 beach volleyball, and any woman on a losing team competing against SJSU while a male student was on the roster—expressing sincere regret for putting female athletes in that position.
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In 2025, ED reached settlements with the University of Pennsylvania for its treatment of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, and Wagner College for its treatment of transgender fencer Redmond Sullivan. However, it was unable to reach agreements with federal agencies in Maine and California, which led to lawsuits against the Department.
SJSU’s response will determine the next chapter in the president’s campaign to “save women’s sports.”
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