Ed Dept. Finds San José State Violated Title IX With Male Athlete in Women’s Volleyball

by Jeff Johnston | January 29, 2026 | Culture

In a win for women’s athletics, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) found that San José State University discriminated against women by allowing a male to participate in women’s volleyball and use female-only facilities.

The OCR announced it is giving SJSU a Proposed Resolution Agreement “to voluntarily resolve its Title IX violations.” Among other requests, the agreement asks the school to publicly acknowledge there are two unchangeable sexes and apologize to female athletes.

Blaire Fleming, a male athlete who identifies as “transgender,” played on SJSU’s women’s volleyball team from 2022-2024, redshirting during his last year.

Trent Kerston, head coach at that time, recruited Fleming and gave him an athletic scholarship and spot on the team – both of which should have gone to a woman – but hid Fleming’s natal sex from his teammates.

Teammates and women from opposing teams suspected that Fleming was male, due to the strength of his hits and height of his jumps. But the team only found out the truth in April 2024, when Reduxx, a feminist news and opinion outlet, published an article titled “EXCLUSIVE: Biological Male Quietly Joined Women’s NCAA Division I Volleyball At San Jose State University.”

In its announcement, the OCR stated that San José State violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, a federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education programs receiving federal financial assistance.

The OCR found that SJSU “actively recruited and allowed a male to compete on the women’s indoor and beach volleyball teams and reportedly instructed members of the coaching staff not to tell the female players that the athlete was a male.”

The office noted the resulting loss of privacy for Fleming’s teammates:

As a result, female athletes on the team shared women’s locker rooms and hotel rooms with the male student while being unaware that he is a member of the opposite sex.

OCR added:

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.
On multiple occasions, the male athlete spiked the ball so forcefully that it knocked females on the opposing team to the ground. During one season, seven all-women’s teams from other universities forfeited their competitions, accepting a loss rather than competing against a male.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon explained the damage on X:

San José State University caused significant harm to female athletes by allowing a male to compete on the women’s volleyball team – and when female athletes spoke out, SJSU retaliated.

The OCR’s Resolution Agreement requires SJSU to:

  • Issue a public statement to the SJSU community that SJSU will adopt biology-based definitions of the words “male” and “female” and acknowledge that the sex of a human – male or female – is unchangeable.
  • Specify that SJSU will follow Title IX by separating sports and intimate facilities based on biological sex.
  • State that SJSU will not delegate its obligation to comply with Title IX to any external association or entity and will not contract with any entity that discriminates on the basis of sex.
  • Restore to individual female athletes all individual athletic records and titles misappropriated by male athletes competing in women’s categories, and issue a personalized letter of apology on behalf of SJSU to each female athlete for allowing her participation in athletics to be marred by sex discrimination.
  • Send a personalized apology to every woman who played in SJSU’s women’s indoor volleyball (2022–2024), 2023 beach volleyball, and to any woman on a team that forfeited rather than compete against SJSU while a male student was on the roster – expressing sincere regret for placing female athletes in that position. 

SJSU, the Mountain West Conference and the NCAA are also facing lawsuits from Fleming’s teammates, women from opposing teams and a former assistant coach who faced retaliation from the school for filing a Title IX complaint.

But the university remains between a rock and a hard place. While the federal government cracks down on males in women’s sports and private spaces, the California attorney general is suing to stop those efforts.

In addition, California law prohibits “discrimination on the basis of … gender, gender identity, [and] gender expression.” So SJSU may run afoul of state law for acceding to the U.S. Department of Education demands.

The Daily Citizen will continue to keep you informed about this and other battles to protect girls and women’s sports, privacy and safety.

Related articles and resources:

Athletes Rally at Supreme Court to Keep Boys Out of Girls Sports

Department of Justice Launches Title IX Task Force to Protect Women’s Sports  

Four Women’s Volleyball Teams Forfeit — Won’t Play Team with a Man

NCAA and San Jose State ‘Transgender’ Volley Player Usurp Women’s Rights

NCAA Ban on Men in Women’s Sports ‘Toothless,’ Say Advocates, Gaines

Riley Gaines and 15 Other Female Athletes Sue NCAA Over ‘Transgender Policy’

San Jose Coach Suspended for Filing Discrimination Complaint Against Transgender Player

SJSU Hired Same Law Firm to Simultaneously Defend and Investigate Male Athlete on Women’s Team

Top 5 Moments From Supreme Court Arguments Over Girls Sports

Photo from Getty Images.