SJSU volleyball coach suspended for voicing opinion about biased practices
Image of coach Melissa Batie-Smoose. Image by SJSUSpartans.com
San Jose State University, as part of NCAA, allows certain athletes who are biologically male to compete on female sports teams. Recently, SJSU women's volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose filed a Title IX complaint against the college alleging “favoritism” toward a transgender player—and was suddenly, indefinitely put on suspension. Outkick reports below.
Less than two hours prior to their match against New Mexico on Saturday, the school informed the [women's volleyball] players that associate head coach Melissa Batie-Smoose was put on leave and would not be with the team, indefinitely.
Batie-Smoose filed a Title IX complaint against the school alleging favoritism towards transgender player Blaire Fleming and, by doing so, violated the rights of the women on the team.
The assistant coach also gave a lengthy interview with the news outlet Quillette, which the school seems to have deemed as violating policy and led to her suspension.
Brooke Slusser, co-captain of the volleyball team, spoke to OutKick about the situation and expressed that she and her teammates were floored by the decision.
"We aren’t happy, and we don't feel safe anymore," Slusser said.
"Melissa was that person that we felt like as long as she was there, we had someone that would stand up for us. And now there's no one there that will." …
Slusser recounted how the entire situation played out, which started with each player on the team receiving a text asking them to meet prior to warmups for Saturday's game.
"None of the coaching staff was at the meeting, it was just the players," she recalled. "Some man from the university … sat our team down and said that [Coach Batie-Smoose] has been put on leave, will not be back and players were not supposed to reach out to her or speak to her at all.
"As of right now, tensions are very high for my team with how angry we are now that Melissa's gone. Emotions are through the roof right now."
Slusser said the meeting was brief, and the players had only a few minutes to gather themselves before they were scheduled to take the court for their pregame routine. …
Slusser expressed that she felt Batie-Smoose's support of Slusser and the other women on the team who expressed concern about Blaire Fleming, a transgender biological male, made the school anxious to try and get rid of her. … "I think her speaking publicly finally gave them a legal reason to get rid of her."
[Editor's note: San Jose State University has claimed that the Outkick article above has "a number of inaccuracies." They have not specified them.]
Read the whole thing here.
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