Fired women's coach saw male player 'wink' at opponent after endangering female teammate: lawsuit

San Jose State University committed employment and sex discrimination and retaliation by firing women's volleyball associate head coach Melissa Batie-Smoose for exposing a secretly recruited male on the team, according to a new lawsuit by the Child and Parental Rights Campaign on her behalf against the California State University system.

"Punishing coaches for raising concerns about the fairness and integrity of women’s sports not only harms the individual advocate but also undermines the enforcement of Title IX’s mandate and has a chilling effect on those who seek to protect sex equality in collegiate athletics," the suit says.

Batie-Smoose was suspended, then fired "not based on her job performance" – the suit includes her Feb. 28, 2024, reappointment letter – but "in direct retaliation for her opposition to sex discrimination and her advocacy for the fairness and equal access to programs, services, and activities for female athletes."

She has "suffered and continues to suffer lost wages, loss of professional reputation and opportunities, emotional distress, and other damages," and seeks reinstatement, back pay, compensatory and punitive damages.

Batie-Smoose also wants an injunction against CSU to stop future, possible Title VII and Title IX violations and implement policies, training and monitoring to "protect advocacy for the statutory rights of female athletes" and prevent retaliation against employees for raising concerns about sex-based discrimination.

The university declined to comment other than acknowledging the lawsuit.

It's been a long and winding journey for the ex-coach, whose home was shot at days before she spoke at a state Capitol rally in February for legislation pitched as protecting girls, women and parental rights, shortly after her firing. CPRC's Vernadette Broyles told Just the News at the time "the wheels are spinning rapidly in this process" of litigation preparation.

It took a while for Batie-Smoose to get permission to sue from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, CPRC spokesperson Matt Chastain told Just the News on Wednesday. She also had to defend herself against male athlete Blaire Fleming's Title IX complaint, and CPRC "wanted to clear some hurdles in that bogus complaint" first.

The Department of Education's seven-month Title IX investigation of SJSU for letting Fleming play on the women's team, in apparent violation of President Trump's executive order on gender ideology, is ongoing, SJSU told Just the News on Wednesday. (The Office for Civil Rights' investigation tracker has not been updated in the Trump administration.)

The feds' announcement cited alleged favoritism shown Fleming and retaliation against Batie-Smoose and female players who opposed male participation, which are reflected in the lawsuit made public by CPRC on Monday. 

It alleges head coach Todd Kress, "with whom [Batie-Smoose] had coached in 2006, and 2019 through 2022," allowed Fleming to play indoor and beach volleyball when he denied it to female recruit Elle Patterson, and let Fleming retain a scholarship despite missing games due to injury while denying one to Patterson despite her missing fewer games.

"Fleming was routinely permitted to violate team rules without discipline, including skipping practices, failing to wear team uniforms, and leaving the team hotel without permission during away games," while female athletes were "held to stricter standards and disciplined for similar conduct," the suit says.

Observed trans player 'fail to block as required and wink at the opposing player'

Batie-Smoose was already a plaintiff in a Title IX and First Amendment lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference and SJSU with several female players including co-captain Brooke Slusser, who also joined a putative class-action suit against the NCAA's since-rescinded transgender participation policy.

Fleming's outing by gender-critical feminist publication Reduxx, based on Facebook posts by the family, prompted the male athlete, Kress, Senior Director of Media Relations Michelle Smith McDonald and Senior Associate Athletics Director Laura Alexander to confirm to the team that Fleming was "transgender," the suit says.

One of the more explosive allegations, already made in the Mountain West-SJSU lawsuit and referenced by the Trump administration, is that Fleming colluded with an opposing player to injure Slusser during an upcoming game after the co-captain "spoke publicly about Fleming’s sex" with the media last fall. 

Fleming and "other team members" allegedly met with the opponent the night before their game in October — the suit doesn't give a date, but Fox News reported it was Oct. 3 – sharing "the SJSU scouting report" and discussing "throwing the game" and targeting Slusser. 

Batie-Smoose "personally observed Fleming fail to block as required and wink at the opposing player, consistent with the pre-game plan," but Kress imposed no discipline on Fleming or other collaborators, the suit says.

His predecessor, Trent Kersten, had recruited and given a scholarship to Fleming without disclosing the male's sex to the team, and Batie-Smoose wasn't aware either when she joined with Kress in 2023.

The fact that Kersten, as a male, was never punished for recruiting a male for a female team and hiding it from players, so that Fleming shared their locker room and "overnight accommodations," further shows CSU's "discriminatory and retaliatory motive" and that it undermined "the statutory purpose of Title IX," the suit says.

McDonald and Alexander "repeatedly instructed" Batie-Smoose and other staff to hide Fleming's sex and transgender status from the team and anyone else, while female teammates – once the ruse was exposed – were repeatedly warned that "discussing Fleming’s participation could be considered 'transphobic'" and violate Title IX or SJSU policy.

The message was clear that "their scholarships and team status" were at risk, creating "an environment of fear and intimidation" that led females to self-censor, the suit says. 

(Near the bottom, Batie-Smoose puts more of the blame on Alexander than McDonald for allegedly intimidating her and female players into silence, with Alexander first telling Batie-Smoose to leave the team if she objected to a male and McDonald simply confirming it.)

When Slusser and others did speak up, they were "ostracized, threatened with loss of scholarship, and subjected to derogatory comments" by Kress, who "ceased interacting and communicating directly" with Slusser and bad-mouthed her to other players.

SJSU never investigated or took "appropriate action" in response to reports of "serious misconduct, harassment, and discrimination" including Fleming's attempted "game-fixing" and seeking to physically harm a teammate, showing its "indifference to the rights and safety of female athletes."

It suspended Batie-Smoose the month after her "protected activity" under Title VII and Title IX – filing a formal complaint about male participation and female treatment, which "directly affected her employment and the terms and conditions of her job" – claiming she outed Fleming despite the male's sex being "well-published in the media" and confirmed by Fleming.

Her firing was based on her "personnel action file," including her Title IX complaint, and SJSU’s justification that her "contract had expired is a pretext" because nonrenewal was retaliatory, motivated by her protected activity "and constitutes an adverse employment action under both Title VII and Title IX."

Her first employee evaluation included "Needs Improvement" on just professional development, while her final evaluation by Kress gave her the same finding across all subjects despite the criticisms being "minor, subjective" or arising after her protected activity.