Originally a comment by Dave Ricks on Be sure to omit all the important facts.
RILEY GAINES et al v. NCAA et al is an excellent reference. This class action lawsuit is funded by the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS). The ICONS web page about the lawsuit has the latest amended version of the lawsuit as a PDF file (208 pages, filed Sept. 23, 2024).
In this latest version, the list of Plaintiffs (p. 168) adds Brooke Slusser, a volleyball player at San Jose State University (SJSU). In the expanded section on Volleyball (pp. 151-163), she adds details of her experience with Blair Fleming on the SJSU team. Of course there are safety concerns about Fleming hitting harder than women, but I also found these topics that I can group into blockquotes:
651. Brooke was frequently assigned by the SJSU athletic department to room with Fleming on road trips to competitions even though Fleming is male and without Brooke being informed by SJSU that Fleming is male.
658. Brooke did learn however that the reason she had been assigned to room with Fleming so often during road trips in the 2023 season was that SJSU officials asked Fleming who he wanted to room with, and he chose Brooke.
659. At the times she was assigned to room with Fleming during the 2023 season, Brooke had no idea that Fleming was being given the choice of which girl he wanted to room with on team road trips.
672. When the 2024 SJSU women’s volleyball team members returned to campus to begin training for the 2024 season, Brooke learned that none of the nine (9) new recruits on the team for the 2024 season had been told that Fleming is male and participating on the women’s team as a result of the NCAA Transgender Eligibility Policies, even though this was now a well-known fact to the athletic department and virtually everyone at SJSU.
673. Brooke became aware that upon learning that one of their teammates was a trans-identifying male, several of the new recruits became upset, as it was too late for them to transfer, and they felt they had been misled.
690. Due to public attention to Fleming’s transgender status, during the 2024 season SJSU officials have met with all the players on the SJSU women’s volleyball team and again instructed the girls on the SJSU women’s team that they are not to confirm or state to anyone that Fleming is transgender or male, nor are they permitted to criticize Fleming being on the team, or to state their personal feelings or concerns about the matter, including their safety concerns.
691. The SJSU officials said the girls should not worry about any media attention they were getting, because the story “hasn’t hit any media source that matters.”
692. The SJSU officials have also told the girls that to speak about Fleming being transgender would “take away Blaire’s power” and that they “have no right to tell Blaire’s story” or to talk about how Blaire being on the team is impacting them.
698. Due to the NCAA’s Transgender Eligibility Policies which permit Fleming to play on the SJSU women’s volleyball team and which led to SJSU recruiting Fleming, giving Fleming a scholarship, and allowing Fleming to be in positions to violate Brooke’s right to bodily privacy, Brooke has suffered physical and emotional injuries, embarrassment, humiliation, emotional distress, mental anguish and suffering.
Comments
9 responses to “Guest post: The concerns are multiple”
Thank you Ophelia, for making my comment a guest post.
The University of Nevada Reno (UNR) and San Jose State University (SJSU) are scheduled to play this coming Saturday, Oct 26. The UNR schedule shows the game in Reno, but the Mountain West schedule shows the game in San Jose.
I take this to mean that someone moved the game from Reno to San Jose. That seems remarkable. I will keep an eye on what all the parties will say and do next in this affair.
How did she not notice that he is male? That seems odd to me, that she had to be told and couldn’t see with her own eyes.
Thank you Dave for the comment!
A baseball bat to his spine would permanently fix the problem.
No threats thank you. We don’t stoop to their level.
#2 anna
My guess is Brooke simply assumed anyone on the team would be female, and upon meeting her room mate, gave him benefit of the doubt as simply a relatively masculine woman. It may not even have occurred to her that a man would be permitted, and we are capable of providing many excuses for discrepancies with our observations when we think the alternative is impossible.
Yesterday (Friday, Oct. 25), Nevada Sports Net reported: Nevada volleyball cancels match at San Jose State after failing to reach player minimum. The article says that the night before (Thursday, Oct. 24), UNR made this statement in a news release:
The forfeit seems to be resolved now. Thursday, the UNR players were on the road, and rode their bus home to Reno instead of San Jose. Today, my two links in my comment #1 above now show the game scheduled for today as a forfeit of UNR to SJSU. So the UNR players succeeded in their forfeit, the SJSU players stayed home, and UNR (the school) avoided legal trouble over the forfeit.
UPDATE:
Friday, Nov. 1, Jonathan Kay posted a long article at Quillette documenting conflicts within San Jose State University (SJSU). The article has a new information, based on a 33-page sworn declaration filed Oct. 29 by Melissa Batie-Smoose, Associate Head Coach of the SJSU women’s volleyball team at the time.
Next, Saturday, Nov. 2, Dan Zaksheske posted an article at OutKick reporting that SJSU suspended Batie-Smoose (you can ignore any video at the top of the page):
and a second article with further details:
This point struck me in the second article:
SJSU suspending her that way seems awful, although they might make sense for the legal situation. I mainly feel amazed that these knock-on effects keep coming. And I feel a huge relief that a wall of silence has broken, and so many facts are in writing now.
Great god almighty. What is WRONG with everyone???
That’s so hideously sadistic and punitive, and all because she objects to a man on a women’s volleyball team.