More than a year after a trans player on the girls’ volleyball team at San Jose State University (SJSU) became a lightning rod in the 2024 presidential campaign, the Trump administration has found the school violated Title IX requirements by allowing her to play.

Now, the Trump administration wants the university to write personalized apologies to every female athlete who had to play sports alongside the trans athlete.

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A federal investigation was launched into the university immediately following Trump’s executive order, Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, issued a year ago last February. The school made headlines in the heat of the 2024 election campaign when the girls’ volleyball team co-captain, Brooke Slusser, joined a lawsuit led by anti-trans activist and swimmer Riley Gaines and outed the trans player on her team.

Soon after, video surfaced showing the player, Blaire Fleming, spiking a ball in a match, allegedly injuring an opposing player. The clip went viral on right-wing media and was fodder for Trump in his vilification of the trans community in the campaign.

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At a Fox News town hall in October 2024, Trump was asked about the video, which shows the ball hitting a player from San Diego State University in the shoulder, briefly knocking her down.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump lied. “But other people, even in volleyball, they’ve been permanently, I mean, they’ve been really hurt badly. Women playing men.”

Asked by an audience member what he’d do about trans athletes in women’s sports, Trump replied, “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”  

“Not a big deal,” he said.

By the end of the season, four different teams had forfeited matches against San Jose State. In November 2024, Slusser rallied two former teammates and four athletes from other universities to sue their coach, the school, and Mountain West Conference officials, alleging their Title IX and First Amendment rights were violated by the presence of a trans woman on the SJSU team.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Education warned San Jose State that it risks “imminent enforcement action” if it doesn’t voluntarily resolve the violations, which took place under Biden-era rules that interpreted Title IX to include protections prohibiting discrimination against transgender student-athletes.

In addition to demands that the school adopt the federal government’s “biology-based definitions” of the words “male” and “female”, acknowledge that sex is unchangeable, and “restore all individual athletic records and titles misappropriated by male athletes competing in women’s categories,” the administration wants San Jose State to apologize.

The school must “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.”

The school is ordered, as well, to “send a personalized apology to every woman who played in SJSU’s women’s indoor volleyball from 2022 to 2024, beach volleyball in 2023, 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.”

“We will not relent until SJSU is held to account for these abuses and commits to upholding Title IX to protect future athletes from the same indignities,” Kimberly Richey, Education Department assistant secretary for civil rights, said.

San Jose State acknowledged receipt of the DOE’s letter in a statement. They have 10 days to comply.

“The University is in the process of reviewing the Department’s findings and proposed resolution agreement,” the school said. “We remain committed to providing a safe, respectful, and inclusive educational environment for all students while complying with applicable laws and regulations.”

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