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Women’s volleyball players at Santa Rosa Junior College have recently come forward to file a Title IX complaint about their experience with a biological male transgender teammate.
Two of the female athletes that signed the complaint, Madison Shaw and Gracie Shaw, told Fox News Digital about alleged physical harm caused by the trans teammate.
Madison alleged, last spring, she saw the trans athlete spike a ball in her teammate’s face so hard, that it caused a concussion.
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“It had so much force and so much impact with my teammate’s head that it resulted in a concussion, she was out for two weeks of her sophomore year, and she was upset. And obviously, injuries happen, it’s inevitable, especially in a contact sport, but this one particularly could have been prevented by not having this male athlete on the team,” Madison said.
Madison said the teammate was former player Kiana Walker.
“She was telling me how infuriating (it was) because she didn’t believe this athlete belonged on our team and now that she’s suffering the consequences, it really bothered her. But, a majority of our team, unfortunately, doesn’t see it the way we see it. They support the male athlete being on the team.”
Meanwhile, Gracie alleged she herself was struck in the head by one of the trans athlete’s spikes.
“I myself got hit in the face by this male athlete in practice in August. I was ready, I knew this male athlete was about to hit the ball, and I couldn’t move out of the way and the ball spiked me in the face and it was way harder than any other hit that I’d gotten from the other female athletes on our team,” Gracie said.
“It did hurt pretty bad … it came at my face so fast I didn’t even have time to react.”
The two women, alongside teammate Brielle Galli, filed their Title IX complaint against the school to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights last week. Their complaint alleged the school administrators retaliated against them when they spoke up, internally, in opposition to letting the trans athlete on the team.
“We’ve told our coach, our athletic director and our Title IX coordinator from the get-go that we want to play, we want to be part of this team, but we’re not willing to take the court while a male athlete is on the team,” Madison said.
She added that the school administrators gave her a delayed response as to whether they would honor her request, and declined it. Then, when Madison prepared a speech to tell her teammates that she would stepping away from the team because of the trans athlete, her coach told her she “can’t.”
“Our coach sends me a text saying ‘no, you can not tell the team your reasons for not taking the court, and we really need to respect the male athlete’s privacy,” Madison said.
CALIFORNIA GIRLS’ VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS REFUSE TO PARTICIPATE ALONGSIDE TRANSGENDER TEAMMATE
Gracie added that they tried to then tell the team about their decision not to play at a weightlifting session, but they were stopped from doing that too.
“Our coach, ironically, at 10 o’clock at night before our weight session, canceled the weights,” Gracie said. “And that basically felt that she was trying to silence us.”
Then, the two women tried to set up a Zoom meeting to tell the team, they claim. But the coach allegedly interfered in that meeting too.
“Our coach demanded that she have a link, and she told the team that this was not a mandatory meeting and attendance wasn’t necessary, and that made it to feel like what we were trying to say wasn’t very important and that the team didn’t have to come, and we felt that was very wrong,” Gracie said.
Santa Rosa Junior College provided a statement to Fox News Digital in response to the two women’s claims.
“Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) is committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive environment for all students and employees. The District complies with California Community College Athletic Association (3C2A) regulations, which govern student eligibility and participation in our athletic programs,” the statement read.
“We respect the legal privacy rights of all students and cannot discuss individual circumstances. What we can affirm is that SRJC takes all reports seriously and responds through established procedures.”
California has become a hotbed of national controversies involving trans athletes, specifically volleyball players, dating back to last year. The state’s department of education is already being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for its continued policies that allow biological males to compete in the girls’ and women’s categories in sports.
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At the NCAA Division I level, San Jose State University’s women’s volleyball team faced a controversy involving trans athlete Blaire Fleming last fall, which prompted a federal Title IX investigation into the school after President Donald Trump returned to office earlier this year.
At the high school level, a trans athlete for Jurupa Valley High School girls’ volleyball team has prompted two other players to step away from the team in forfeit, while at least four opponents have forfeited games to the team.
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