The Department of Education (ED) on Wednesday announced that San José State University (SJSU) is in violation of Title IX for allowing transgender-identifying males into female sports and spaces.
The department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) initiated an investigation into the California school in February 2025 over allegations the university allowed a male to compete on the female indoor volleyball team and allegedly retaliated against female students and an assistant coach who opposed the school’s “gender identity” policies, ED said.
“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. Even worse, when female athletes spoke out, SJSU retaliated—ignoring sex-discrimination claims while subjecting one female SJSU athlete to a Title IX complaint for allegedly ‘misgendering’ the male athlete competing on a women’s team. This is unacceptable,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said in a statement.
“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,” she added.
In its investigation, OCR found that the school actively recruited and allowed a male to compete on the women’s indoor and beach volleyball teams beginning in 2022, according to ED. SJSU allegedly told coaching staff not to tell female players that the athlete was a man.
“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,” ED alleged. “During one season, seven all-women’s teams from other universities forfeited their competitions, accepting a loss rather than competing against a male.”
OCR also concluded that the school violated Title IX by not quickly and fairly investigating complaints filed by female athletes about the male athlete on their team, and by “taking action that discouraged women from participating in the Title IX process,” ED said. Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in education programs and activities as a condition of receiving federal funding.
“In addition, days after a SJSU female volleyball player joined a Title IX lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), she discovered that the male student had conspired to have a member of the opposing team spike her in the face during an upcoming match,” ED said in its release. “SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected this female athlete to a Title IX complaint for reportedly ‘misgendering’ the male athlete when discussing this incident in online videos and interviews.”
OCR issued a proposed Resolution Agreement to SJSU to voluntarily resolve the Title IX violations.
A spokesperson for SJSU told Breitbart News it received notification of the OCR’s findings and is in the process of reviewing ED’s investigation and resolution agreement.
“We remain committed to providing a safe, respectful, and inclusive educational environment for all students while complying with applicable laws and regulations,” the spokesperson said via email.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
Read the full article here
