The university said it made the decision to suspend the assistant coach indefinitely after reveiwing the “breaches of student and employee privacy.”
San Jose State University (SJSU) suspended its associate head volleyball coach, Melissa Batie-Smoose, on Saturday after she filed a Title IX complaint against the school earlier in the week.
In a statement reported by OutKick, the university said, “The associate head coach of the San Jose State University women’s volleyball team is not with the team at this time, and we will not provide further information on this matter." OutKick reported that players were informed of Batie-Smoose’s suspension before their match against New Mexico, leaving several team members emotional.
Batie-Smoose had recently raised concerns about what she described as a toxic and dysfunctional atmosphere following the inclusion of Blaire Fleming, a transgender-identifying biological male, on the women’s team. After discussing these issues in an interview, SJSU issued a response to OutKick.
"San José State takes all reports and complaints seriously and is reviewing them. Due to federal and state privacy laws, the University is not able to comment on active reports or complaints,” the university stated. "The University also has concerns about a number of inaccuracies in the article but is not able to comment further on those in light of those privacy laws. In addition, the University has significant concerns about apparent breaches of student and employee privacy and will be addressing those, as appropriate."
The university said it decided to suspend the assistant coach indefinitely after reviewing the “breaches of student and employee privacy.”
The Title IX complaint reportedly included serious allegations, claiming that Fleming conspired with an opposing team’s player to impact the outcome of a match and potentially injure teammate Brook Slusser. According to Quillette, the complaint alleged that Fleming and Colorado State player Malaya Jones met before the October 3 game, where Fleming shared scouting information and promised not to defend shots aimed at Slusser. This occurred shortly after Slusser began publicly voicing her concerns, even using male pronouns to refer to Fleming despite Fleming identifying as female.
Slusser took to X where she commented on the suspension of Batie-Smoose, writing, “My assistant coach spoke truth to protect my team. Then…they fire her. They took away the only safe space we had in the program. Because she knew that it was right to stand up for the 18 women on the team. Not one man.”
The Mountain West Conference acknowledged the allegations and said it is “reviewing the document and has initiated an investigation to gather all the facts,” according to a spokesperson.
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