Former San Jose State University volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser has revealed that she has been forced into finishing her final semester of college from home after speaking out on the transgender controversy that rocked the team.
Slusser, who backed rival teams’ decisions to forfeit games against SJSU, sued the school over former transgender teammate Blaire Fleming.
Slusser along with 10 other current or former Mountain West players and former SJSU associate head coach Melissa Batie-Smoose filed the lawsuit in November, claiming the university and conference officials violated their Title IX rights.
However, Slusser claimed she faced on-campus harassment, online threats and mental health issues in the wake of her stance.
As a consequence of the severe backlash, she and her family took the decision to finish out her college education virtually in her home state of Texas as she no longer felt safe on the college’s California campus.
‘I would just be walking, and I’d have people say things to me, like I had one girl just scream ‘f*** you!’ to me,’ Slusser told Fox News.
Former San Jose State University volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser has fled campus
Slusser sued the school over transgender athlete Blaire Fleming back in November
‘I was in the elevator one time at my apartment and some girls, as they were walking out, were like ‘oh, that’s the girl, you should have slapped her when you had the chance,’ so those types of things happened.
‘I literally just didn’t feel safe. Anytime I left the house, I felt like people were just like staring at me, I felt like I had to watch my back whenever I was on campus.’
‘I had some threats coming in too, so you never know what people will do,’ Slusser added. ‘People threatened to confront me on campus, and just those types of things.’
Slusser first joined Riley Gaines’ lawsuit against the NCAA in September, which claimed that SJSU’s volleyball coaches and college administrators withheld information about Fleming’s birth sex.
In November, she filed her own lawsuit against SJSU’s head coach, the college and the Mountain West Conference.
The lawsuit asked for Fleming to be declared ineligible for the Mountain West Conference tournament, SJSU’s wins to be vacated and the team to be deemed ineligible for the conference tournament.
The lawsuit also alleged that the plaintiffs’ free speech rights were infringed upon because they were discouraged from speaking about their opposition to her participation.
A spokesperson for SJSU refused to comment at the time.
Slusser claimed she faced on-campus harassment, online threats and mental health issues
Slusser allegedly tried to warn the school but was met with anger from head coach Todd Kress
SJSU’s administrators told the volleyball team to remain silent about the issue once it became public knowledge , and said that speaking about it would be considered ‘transphobic,’ the suit alleged.
Some of the team’s players were reportedly upset that they had not been informed of Fleming’s biological gender, only discovering when rumors began to circulate on campus.
Southern Utah, Boise State, Utah State, Nevada and Wyoming all opted to forfeit games against San Jose State throughout the season.
The lawsuit stated that Slusser attempted to warn their coaches that forfeits were looming before the season started.
‘Slusser communicated that (the player’s) participation on the team was not fair to the girls and put them at physical risk. She also reported that other teams within the conference would not play SJSU due to (the player) being on the team. Girls from other teams had told them they wanted to protest against a man playing women’s volleyball,’ the lawsuit wrote.
But Slusser’s warnings were met with fury from head coach Todd Kress, who ‘became angry at Slusser for bringing these concerns forward and told her any protest about Fleming would not go anywhere.’
According to her teammates, Fleming spikes the ball 80 miles per hour, faster than anyone else in the conference during practice.
Several schools forfeited games against SJSU throughout the season due to safety concerns
Slusser claimed that the powerful hit puts other players at high risk of injuries, including concussions, and hands the Spartans an unfair advantage.
At the time the NCAA policy on transgender athlete participation allowed transgender women to compete in women’s sports if they met the parameters set by that sport’s governing body. For volleyball, transgender women were deemed eligible if they suppressed their testosterone under 10 nmol/L.
SJSU had always maintained that all its players meet the criteria.
However, earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring trans participation in women’s sports, forcing the NCAA to change its policy.
