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A girls’ high school volleyball team with a transgender player in California saw more games forfeited off its schedule last weekend. The forfeits are the first to come after a lawsuit was filed by three current and former players against the school district and state agencies.
The forfeits came against Jurupa Valley High School in Riverside County last Saturday at the Freeway Games tournament, according to Maribel Munoz, the mother of two student-athletes who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Munonz told Fox News Digital that Aquinas High School, Yucaipa High School and San Dima High School were the teams that forfeited.
The high school sports archive website MaxPreps shows that Jurupa Valley was awarded a win by forfeit on Sept. 13 against Yucaipa High School, at the tournament.
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The Press Enterprise newspaper in Southern California reported that Aquinas, Yucaipa and San Dima all forfeited to Jurupa Valley last weekend.
Fox News Digital has reached out to those schools and Jurupa Valley for comment.
Prior to last weekend, four teams had been confirmed to have forfeited to Jurupa Vally this season – Riverside Poly High School, Rim of The World High School, Orange Vista High School and AB Miller High School.
Then, on Sept. 9, Munoz’s daughters, Madison and Alyssa McPherson, alongside teammate Hadeel Hazameh, filed their lawsuit with the firm Advocates for Faith & Freedom against the Jurupa Unified School District (JUSD), the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) and the California Department of Education (CDE) over their experience sharing a team and locker room with the trans athlete. Alyssa McPherson and Hazameh previously told Fox News Digital they were stepping away from the team as long as the trans athlete is participating.
“Plaintiffs have been intimidated by an intentionally hostile environment created by Defendants wherein they were bullied by school officials to censor their objections to competing with, and against, a male and to sharing intimate and private spaces with a male,” the lawsuit reads.
INSIDE GAVIN NEWSOM’S TRANSGENDER VOLLEYBALL CRISIS
The McPherson family, who identify as practicing Catholics, claimed to “believe that God created human beings as male and female and that gender is a fixed characteristic that cannot be changed. Their faith informs their understanding of human identity and shapes their views regarding the importance of recognizing and honoring the distinctives of male and female as created by God,” per court documents.
Meanwhile, Hazameh and her family identify as practicing Muslims “whose religious obligations prevent H.H. from exposing her hair or body to males, including by wearing a hijab. Guided by Islamic teachings, they believe that men and women have distinct biological differences, roles, and responsibilities, which should be respected and upheld,” per court documents.
“Their faith emphasizes modesty, dignity, and the honoring of gender distinctions which must conform with one’ biological sex in both practice and identity.”
The JUSD has directly encouraged critics to take up the issue with government officials and lawmakers, in a statement previously provided to Fox News Digital, but the school district has not commented on the lawsuit.
“School districts do not write laws for the state of California, nor do they have the power to ignore them or change them. However, as primarily state-funded agencies, they are required to follow them. As these issues play out in our courts and the media, any advocacy on these matters should be directed at state and federal officials elected to make laws and policies that affect public education,” the statement read.
A CDE spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “The California Department of Education cannot comment on this matter, as we cannot comment on pending litigation.”
Girls’ volleyball players Hadeel Hazameh, Alyssa McPherson and Madison McPherson (Courtesy of Advocates for Faith & Freedom)
The CIF has not responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for response to the lawsuit.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office provided a statement to Fox News Digital in response to the complaints by athletes and parents, suggesting the responsibility falls on the CIF, CDE and state legislature, but not on him.
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“CIF is an independent nonprofit that governs high school sports. The California Department of Education is a separate constitutional office. Neither is under the Governor’s authority,” the statement read. “CIF and the CDE have stated they follow existing state law — a law that was passed in 2013 and signed by Governor Jerry Brown (not Newsom) and in line with 21 other states. For the law to change, the legislature would need to send the Governor a bill. They have not.”
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