Brooke Slusser Says San Jose State Failed Its Female Athletes, Then Doubled Down In Court

San Jose State could have taken the easy (and morally correct) route. Acknowledge the mistake. Apologize. Promise to do better.

Instead, the university is going to court to fight the federal government after the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) found the school violated Title IX in its handling of the women’s volleyball situation involving trans-identifying male Blaire Fleming. Brooke Slusser, one of the captains of the 2024 women's team, says that choice tells people everything they need to know about SJSU. 

In an interview with OutKick, Slusser said that while many people focus on Fleming, this story is about institutional failure. She says the people in authority at the school created a daily environment that was punitive toward anyone who dared speak up about the safety and privacy concerns for the women on that team. 

"There’s so much that happened… it wasn’t just the fact that I was living and finding out," Slusser said. "My staff at school, compliance, everyone just deciding to make my day-to-day life a living hell because of my views."

The argument Slusser is making isn't just about allowing a male on the women's team, though that's an obvious issue. But her main complaint stems from how power works inside a program when the people in charge decide there is only one acceptable opinion.

Slusser’s Claims About Safety, Privacy, And Retaliation

Slusser also pushed back on the common response online that "nothing bad happened" to her, so she should be quiet about it. She pointed to what she describes as daily safety issues in practice, and the way she says concerns were ignored.

"It was kind of the whole reason why I had to leave San Jose before my senior year was up and go back home to literally heal from everything I endured," she said, before describing practices where players had to get out of the way to avoid Fleming's powerful spikes. She said she and a few other girls frequently commented that some days it felt like they were playing dodgeball rather than volleyball. 

"Try and tell me again that we weren’t dealing with anything being in danger every single day."

Brooke Slusser argues SJSU prioritized one male athlete (Blaire Fleming) over women’s privacy and safety, and the school’s lawsuit against a federal Title IX finding has revived the controversy.

(Getty Images)

Slusser recently spoke with Fox News Digital's Jackson Thompson and discussed having to share a room with Fleming without knowing Fleming was a male. But it goes even deeper than that. The reason Slusser says that she ended up in that situation was because head coach Todd Kress asked Fleming, a male, who he wanted to room with and never consulted Slusser. 

"One of the things that makes my blood boil the most… our head coach asked Blaire who he was comfortable with rooming on away trips. And he chose me," Slusser said. "So you’re telling me you’re gonna let a man choose who he wants to stay in a room with, sleep with, all of these things, but not ask the woman."

Informed consent matters. During the #MeToo era, this was one of the biggest talking points. Suddenly, though, some of the same people rightfully arguing for informed consent for women are silent when there's a trans-identified male involved. 

And a system that prioritizes the feelings of a few over the boundaries of the many is going to produce resentment, distrust, and eventually lawsuits.

Lawsuits And Viral Social Media Clips Reignite Controversy 

Slusser is not alone in framing it that way. Kim Jones, co-founder of ICONS, the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, is backing litigation in this space and says San Jose State’s decision to sue the federal government is part of why the story surfaced again this week.

"With San Jose State filing their lawsuit… that’s kind of re-bumped up the story to the attention of the public," Jones told OutKick.

Jones said she doesn’t think SJSU’s lawsuit changes the underlying claims in the suit ICONS is funding, but she does think it exposes the school’s position.

"It gives us a glimpse into why they took the position that they did… allowing men or supporting men in women’s sports," Jones said. She argued the school withheld information players needed in order to make decisions about privacy and consent in women's private spaces. 

San Jose State is going to court to fight the federal government after the Department of Education found the school violated Title IX in its handling of the women’s volleyball situation involving trans-identifying male Blaire Fleming. 

(Photo by Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)

Jones took issue with people on social media attacking Slusser and trotting out the "nothing bad happened" line. 

"She was lied to. She was put in a position under deception that she wouldn’t have put herself in had she been given the full information," Jones said. "That’s deceit. That’s fraud."

Ultimately, Slusser wants San Jose State to admit wrongdoing, starting with the bare minimum: an apology to the women who were wronged. 

"Just a bare minimum apology would be just where we start," Slusser said. 

But that's not all Slusser wants to see. She also said people involved in how the situation was handled should be removed from their positions. 

"You need to get rid of the people that handled everything with us."

Long-term, she says she wants the rules clarified and enforced in a way that prevents a repeat.

"I want the rules strictly changed to where… there is no possible way that men are allowed in women’s sports, and that’s it," she concluded. 

Although Slusser has previously told her story publicly about sharing private spaces with Fleming, without knowing Fleming's sex, it picked up steam this week thanks to multiple viral social media posts. 

"I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I was friends with him beforehand," Slusser said. "I think a lot of people have an issue with that just because it’s like, ‘oh, I can’t believe you would out someone you were so close to.’"

She said she tried to handle things directly and civilly, including telling Fleming what she was going to do before it became a national story. She also said the internet’s favorite insult, right-wing grifter, doesn’t match reality.

"I still have a day job, I hate to break it to y’all," she joked. "There’s very minimal money that’s being thrown around to be doing interviews."

Slusser is still working on her college degree, which was delayed after everything she went through at SJSU, and wants to become a professional nutritionist. 

For Slusser, the social media noise is the end of the story, not the beginning. The beginning, she says, is that the adults running the operation had a duty to protect players, especially in private settings and on the road, and instead made decisions that prioritized one male player over all the women on the team. 

San Jose State’s choice to fight it out in court rather than admit fault only adds fuel to the perception Slusser and Jones both laid out. The institution is not backing down. 

But neither are the athletes and advocates pushing back.