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EXCLUSIVE: Former San Jose State assistant women’s volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose knew she wanted to sue as soon as she found out she was suspended last season.
She had just filed a Title IX complaint that contained several allegations against the school and transgender player Blaire Fleming. The suspension hit her the first weekend of November 2024, just days before the presidential election. She found out just minutes before warm-ups for a home game against New Mexico State.
“I come walking into the gym and I was removed by an administrator and told I was not allowed to have contact with my players, nor step foot back on campus. They wanted the keys, and handed me paper and said everything you need to know is in there,” Batie-Smoose told Fox News Digital.
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She claims she had personal items on campus that she was not allowed to come back to retrieve, and alleged she was never explicitly told which of her actions she was being punished for, but simply that she violated FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) laws.
Last week, she filed a lawsuit against the Board of Trustees of the California State University (CSU) system, as SJSU is one of 23 California-based schools that are part of the system. Batie-Smoose and her attorney Vernadette Broyles believe the suspension was “retaliatory” to her Title IX complaint over Fleming.
“We feel confident that there is a retaliatory aspect to their actions,” Broyles said.
In the Title IX complaint, Batie-Smoose alleged that Fleming conspired with an opposing player to have co-captain Brooke Slusser spiked in the face during an Oct. 3 match.
The alleged incident occurred while SJSU was under a national media microscope for a growing controversy involving Fleming. Multiple opponents had forfeited games to the Spartans after co-captain Brooke Slusser joined a lawsuit against the NCAA citing her experience with Fleming.
Slusser alleged that the school withheld knowledge that Fleming was male, all while the coaches paired her with Fleming in hotel rooms for away trips at Fleming’s request. Slusser previously told Fox News Digital that coaches only consulted with Fleming about preferred roommates, but none of the female players, and that Fleming frequently chose Slusser.
Batie-Smoose corroborated this to Fox News Digital.
“Blaire wanted to room with Brooke Slusser, and that’s who Blaire felt comfortable, so Blaire gets what Blaire wants,” Batie-Smoose said.
INSIDE GAVIN NEWSOM’S TRANSGENDER VOLLEYBALL CRISIS
Associate head coach Melissa Batie-Smoose with the San Jose St. Spartans as they play Air Force in an NCAA women’s volleyball game at Spartan Gym in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
The coach also alleged SJSU accommodated Fleming with other special exceptions, that were not granted to female athletes.
“Not showing up to practice with no excuses, sitting in the stands eating while practice was going on, those kind of things,” Melissa said of the special exceptions reserved exclusively for Fleming.
Batie-Smoose said she also wasn’t made aware that Fleming was male until after she accepted the job at SJSU. The coach moved her whole family all the way from Connecticut to take the job all while believing she would only be coaching female players.
She claims she wasn’t officially told the truth about Fleming until she started asking around about it, and head coach Todd Kress finally told her, a few weeks into her tenure. She alleges she was then told she couldn’t tell other players or players’ parents about it.
“Todd Kress told me in passing… because I was asking… ‘Oh, by the way, Blaire is a male,’” Batie-Smoose said, adding that she was threatened she would be fired if she told other athletes or parents.
“Both Todd Kress and the administration, Laura Alexandra, was not allowed to talk about that, allow parents to know, or anyone to know.”
Batie-Smoose had no experience coaching a transgender athlete, and says she ‘never talked to Blaire,’ Batie-Smoose says she preferred to focus on coaching and protecting the female athletes.
“I knew it from the day that I saw Blaire play, but for me it was a focus on the female athletes, that’s really why I knew I was here, I had a purpose beyond coaching, which was to protect the female athletes for their privacy, safety and wellbeing, so that was always solely my focus, but not on Blaire,” she said.
EX-SJSU STAR BROOKE SLUSSER MAKES NEW ALLEGATIONS ABOUT PROBE INTO TRANS TEAMMATE’S ALLEGED PLOT TO HARM HER
Brooke Slusser and Blaire Fleming of the San Jose State Spartans call a play during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
Still, she complied with the instructions not to tell others about Fleming for years after she arrived at the university. She says it started to affect her physically and mentally.
“[I was] not allowed to talk to Brooke Slusser about anything or any of the other athletes or recruit,” Batie-Smoose said.
“The stress of that, that I was lying to parents and everyone and it was against everything I believe in, I had to do a lot of prayer and a lot of meditation to know that I had stay in this space, and however long I can stay there to protect the females, that is my job right now.”
Her time to finally speak up in defense of the female athletes came last November as the controversy became a high-profile election season talking point. The team had already seen four conference games wiped off its schedule and police protection had been assigned to the team a national attention become more frequent.
Batie-Smoose said the deciding factor in finally coming forward with the complaint was the request of multiple female players on the team. So in the final week of October, Batie-Smoose submitted the complaint, and brought to light the allegations of Fleming conspiring with an opponent to have Slusser harmed.
The alleged incident occurred the night before the Oct. 3 game against Colorado State, when Fleming and two other teammates allegedly met with Colorado State star Malaya Jones to discuss the plan to spike the ball at Slusser’s head during the game.
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Batie-Smoose and other players were allegedly later made aware of the alleged incident when the other SJSU players who were allegedly there with Fleming allegedly came forward to tell teammates about it, Fox News Digital previously reported after reviewing multiple court documents.
The complaint prompted the Mountain West Conference to investigate the allegations.
The Mountain West announced the investigation had closed without finding “sufficient evidence” and that no discipline was “necessary” in a Nov. 15 letter obtained by Fox News Digital. That letter and the emails coordinating interviews for the investigation, obtained by Fox News Digital, repeatedly incorrectly stated the game took place Oct. 2.
The Nov. 15 letter announcing the investigation had closed without sufficient evidence was also sent just three days after the first emails to set up interviews with witnesses were sent.
Fox News Digital later reported that the law firm hired to conduct the investigation, Willkie Farr & Gallagher (WFG), is the same firm that is representing the Mountain West against another lawsuit filed by Slusser that included the same allegations against Fleming of conspiring to have Slusser harmed, as seen in public records obtained by Fox News Digital.
Batie-Smoose and Broyles say they plan to bring this up to the court during arguments.
“It’s a clear conflict of interest and a compromise of their objectivity,” Broyles said. “That’s certainly something, that at an appropriate time we would bring to the attention of the fact-finder.”
Broyles added they are now seeking compensatory damages, reinstatement and back pay, punitive damages, attorney fees and injunctive relief that female athletes won’t be forced or compete with or against trans athletes.
“These are things in the lawsuit that we think she’s legitimately entitled to,” Broyles said.
Batie-Smoose’s contract with SJSU expired on the last day of this past January and it was not renewed. Two weeks after that, police confirmed that her house was shot and vandalized with a pellet gun. She believed the crime was committed against her by someone who disagreed with her decision to speak up at SJSU. Police did not determine a motive.
The volleyball coach has since left California and moved to Texas. She is trying to continue her coaching career, but has encountered difficulties landing another job. She believes the reputation she had to take up because of the situation she found herself in at SJSU is the reason why.
“I’ve been a very successful coach and I’ve coached for a long time and I’m not even getting any looks for any coaching jobs,” she said.
SJSU and CSU declined to respond to Batie-Smoose’s statements when reached by Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital has attempted to contact Fleming via social media.
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