Trump Education Dept to probe SJSU, UPenn for potential Title IX violations after trans athlete scandals

EXCLUSIVE: President Donald Trump’s Department of Education (DOE) launched an investigation into potential Title IX violations that occurred at multiple educational institutions, hours after he signed an executive order to ban trans athletes from women’s sports. 

The Department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) will be investigating San Jose State University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) for separate incidents involving trans athletes competing on a women’s or girls’ sports team. 

“Pursuant to President Trump’s Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports Executive Order yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education today announced investigations into two educational institutions and an athletic association where violations of Title IX have been reported,” read a statement from the DOE provided exclusively to Fox News Digital. 

“President Trump’s Executive Order ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports’ is a promise to women and girls: this administration will not tolerate the mistreatment of female athletes.” 

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President Donald Trump signs the No Men in Women’s Sports Executive Order into law in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 5, 2025. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

The incidents at San Jose State and UPenn became widely-publicized controversies that resulted in multiple lawsuits. 

At UPenn, transgender swimmer Lia Thomas was allowed to compete on the women’s swim team after previously competing on the school’s men’s team. Thomas went on to break multiple women’s records, winning several events at the 2022 Ivy League championships and NCAA championships. 

Former UPenn swimmer Paula Scanlan, who had to share a locker room with Thomas, provided a statement to Fox News Digital thanking the DOE for its forthcoming investigation.

“I’m deeply grateful to the Department of Education for addressing Title IX violations concerning female athletes with such seriousness. As a former University of Pennsylvania swimmer who was forced to compete against and share a locker room with a male athlete, I look forward to them holding accountable the higher education institutions that promoted this,” Scanlan said. 

A lawsuit filed by three other former UPenn women’s swimmers alleges the university administrators and women’s swimming coach Mike Schnur misled the players about whether Thomas would be sharing a locker room with them. The three women also allege the school pushed pro-trans ideology onto them during the process of accepting Thomas on the team, and they were led to feel their concerns over being teammates with a biological male was rooted in a “psychological problem.”

“The UPenn administrators told the women that if anyone was struggling with accepting Thomas’s participation on the UPenn Women’s team, they should seek counseling and support from CAPS and the LBGTQ center,” the lawsuit alleges. 

“The administrators also invited the women to a talk titled, ‘Trans 101.’ Thus, the women were led to understand that UPenn’s position was that if a woman on the team had any problem with a trans-identifying male being on her team that woman had a psychological problem and needed counseling.”

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Former University of Kentucky swimmer and current conservative activist Riley Gaines has also filed a lawsuit against the NCAA for its current gender identity polices over her experience competing alongside Thomas at the 2022 NCAA championships. Several other women impacted by trans inclusion have joined Gaines’ lawsuit. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to UPenn for comment.

At San Jose State, transgender volleyball player Blaire Fleming played three seasons on the women’s team from 2022-24, as one of the Mountain West’s top hitters, leading the team in kills. However, unlike UPenn’s handling of Thomas, SJSU administrators allegedly withheld the truth about Fleming’s birth sex from the other female players on the team, according to a lawsuit filed by 11 Mountain West volleyball players and a former SJSU assistant coach. 

Former Spartans co-captain Brooke Slusser leads that lawsuit and is also a plaintiff in Gaines’ lawsuit against the NCAA. Slusser alleges San Jose State administrators and volleyball coach Todd Kress actively prevented her from knowing Fleming’s birth sex while assigning her to share bedrooms with the trans athlete on most road trips during their first season together in 2023. 

Slusser’s lawsuit against the Mountain West also alleges that Fleming conspired with an opponent on another team to have Slusser spiked in the face during a match on Oct. 3. 

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The controversy involving Fleming prompted five of SJSU’s opponents in 2024 to forfeit a total of eight matches. The final forfeit was the Mountain West Tournament semifinal against Boise State, who had already forfeited twice to the Spartans in the regular season. 

That forfeit sent Fleming, Slusser and SJSU to the conference final, where they lost to Colorado State. The plaintiffs in Slusser’s lawsuit filed an emergency injunction in November prior to the tournament in an attempt to have Fleming removed from competition and all losses by forfeit wiped from their opponents’ records. However, federal Judge Kato Crews, who was appointed by then-President Joe Biden in January 2024, ruled to allow Fleming to play. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to San Jose State for comment.

The situation involving the MIAA occurred in February 2024, when a trans athlete for the KIPP Academy Lynn girl’s basketball team caused injuries to female players for Collegiate Charter School of Lowell. Collegiate Charter had to forfeit the game at halftime for the sake of the well-being of its players. 

The MIAA’s handbook states that a “student shall not be excluded from participation on a gender-specific sports team that is consistent with the student’s bona fide gender identity.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the MIAA and Kipp Academy for comment.

Now, all three of those institutions face an investigation by Trump’s DOE. 

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President Donald Trump’s Department of Education launched an investigation into potential Title IX violations that occurred at multiple educational institutions, hours after he signed an executive order to ban trans athletes from women’s sports. (Getty Images)

Additionally, the OCR will be actively reviewing athletic participation policies at a number of schools to evaluate their alignment with Title IX protections for female athletes, sources told Fox News Digital. 

Last week, the DOE notified K-12 schools and higher education institutions of a return to enforcing Title IX protections on the basis of biological sex. 

The NCAA has already suggested it will capitulate to Trump’s order. 

NCAA President Charlie Baker responded to the executive order in a statement, saying it provided a “clear, national standard,” and the NCAA Board of Governors would review it and take steps to align the organization’s policy in the coming days.

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