NEWNow you can listen to Pak Gazette articles!
EXCLUSIVE: The former Women’s Volleyball Assistant Trainer of the State of San José, Melissa Batie-Smoose, knew that he wanted to sue as soon as she discovered that she was suspended last season.
He had just submitted a complaint of title IX containing several accusations against the school and transgender player Blaire Fleming. The suspension was hit the first weekend of November 2024, a few days before the presidential elections. He learned a few minutes before heating for a game at home against the state of New Mexico.
“I entered the gym and an administrator withdrew me and they told me that I was not allowed to have contact with my players, or go back on the campus. They wanted the keys, and they gave me paper and said that everything I need to know is there,” Batie-Smoose told Pak Gazette Digital.
CLICK HERE for more sports coverage at Foxnews.com
She states that she had personal items on the campus that was not allowed to recover again, and claimed that she had never explicitly told her which of her actions was being punished, but simply violated Ferpa’s laws (family education and privacy rights).
Last week, he filed a lawsuit against the Board of Trustees of the System of the State University of California (CSU), since SJSU is one of the 23 California -based schools that are part of the system. Batie-Smoose and his lawyer Vernadette Broyles believe that the suspension was “retaliation” to his complaint of title IX about Fleming.
“We are sure that there is an aspect of retaliation of their actions,” Brayles said.
In the complaint of title IX, Batie-Smoose claimed that Fleming conspired with an opposite player to have the co-capital Brooke Slusser on the face during a match of October 3.
The alleged incident occurred while SJSU was under a microscope of national media for a growing controversy that involves Fleming. Multiple opponents had lost games to the Spartans after the co-capital Brooke Slusser joined a lawsuit against the NCAA citing his experience with Fleming.
Slusser alleged that the school retained the knowledge that Fleming was a man, all while the coaches matched her with Fleming in hotel rooms for travel outside the trips to Fleming’s request. Slusser previously told Pak Gazette Digital that coaches only consulted with Fleming about preferred roommates, but none of the players, and that Fleming frequently chose Slusser.
Batie-Smoose corroborated this to Pak Gazette Digital.
“Blaire wanted to bed with Brooke Slusser, and that is the one who Blaire felt comfortable, so Blaire gets what Blaire wants,” Batie-Smoose said.
Within the transgender volleyball crisis of Gavin Newsom
The associated coach Melissa Batie-Smoose with the San José St. Spartans while playing the Air Force in a female volleyball game of the NCAA in Spartan Gym in San José, California, on Thursday, October 31, 2024. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle through Getty Images)
The coach also claimed that SJSU accommodated Fleming with other special exceptions, which were not granted to female athletes.
“Do not appear to practice without excuses, sit in the stands they ate while the practice continued, that kind of thing,” Melissa said about the special exceptions reserved exclusively for Fleming.
Batie-Smoose said that he did not realize that Fleming was a man until he accepted the work in SJSU. The coach moved his whole family from Connecticut to take the job as long as he believed he would only be training players.
She states that she didn’t officially tell him about Fleming until she began asking about it, and chief coach Todd Kress finally told her, a few weeks after her mandate. She claims that they told her that she could not tell other players or parents of players.
“Todd Kress told me as a pass … because he was asking … ‘Oh, by the way, Blaire is a man’,” said Batie-Smoose, and added that she was threatened to be fired if she told other athletes or parents.
“Both Todd Kress and the Administration, Laura Alexandra, were not allowed to talk about that, allow parents to know or anyone who know it.”
Batie-Smoose had no experience in training a transgender athlete, and says that “he never spoke with Blaire,” Batie-Smoose says he preferred to concentrate on training and protecting female athletes.
“I knew from the day I saw Blaire playing, but for me it was an approach to female athletes, so I knew I was here, I had a purpose beyond training, which was to protect female athletes for their privacy, security and well -being, so it was always my approach, but not in Blaire,” he said.
The former SJSU star, Brooke Slusser
Brooke Slusser and Blaire Fleming of the Spartans of the State of San José call a play during the first set against the Falcons of the Air Force in Falcon Court in East Gym on October 19, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
Even so, she fulfilled the instructions not to tell others about Fleming for years after she arrived at the university. She says she began to affect her physically and mentally.
“[I was] You are not allowed to talk to Brooke Slusser about anything or any of the other athletes or recruit, “Batie-Smoose said.
“The stress of that, that I was lying to the parents and all and went against everything that I think, I had to do a lot of prayer and a lot of meditation to know what I had left in this space, and for a long time that I can stay there to protect women, that is my job at this time.”
His time to finally speak in defense of female athletes occurred last November, since the controversy became a topic of conversation of the high profile electoral season. The team had already seen that four conference games annihilated their schedule and police protection had been assigned to the team that national attention becomes more frequent.
Batie-Smoose said the decisive factor to finally file the complaint was the request for multiple players in the team. Then, in the last week of October, Batie-Smoose filed the complaint and brought to light the accusations that Fleming conspired with an opponent for Slusser to damage.
The alleged incident occurred the night before the October 3 game against Colorado State, when Fleming and two other teammates allegedly met with the star star, Malaya Jones, to discuss the plan to increase the ball in Slusser’s head during the game.
Batie-Smoose and other players were supposedly aware of the alleged incident when the other SJSU players who were supposedly there with Fleming were supposedly presented to tell the teammates, Pak Gazette Digital reported after reviewing multiple judicial documents.
The complaint led to the Mountain West conference to investigate the accusations.
Mountain West announced that the investigation had closed without finding “sufficient evidence” and that no discipline was “necessary” in a letter of November 15 obtained by Pak Gazette Digital. That letter and the emails that coordinate the research interviews, obtained by Pak Gazette Digital, repeatedly declared incorrectly that the game took place on October 2.
The November 15 letter announced that the investigation had been closed without also sending sufficient evidence only three days after the first emails were sent to establish interviews with witnesses.
Pak Gazette Digital later informed That the law firm hired to carry out the investigation, Willkie Farr and Gallagher (WFG), is the same firm that represents the west mountain against another lawsuit filed by Slusser that included the same accusations against Fleming of conspiracy so that Slusser damages, as seen in the public records obtained by Pak Gazette Digital.
Batie-Smoose and Broyles say they plan to bring this to the court during the arguments.
“It is a clear conflict of interest and a commitment of its objectivity,” Brayles said. “That is certainly something, which at an appropriate time would attract the attention of the student in fact.”
Broyles added that they are now looking for compensatory damage, restoration and subsequent payment, punitive damage, lawyer fees and precautionary measures that female athletes will not be forced or compete with or against trans athletes.
“These are things in the lawsuit we believe is entitled legitimately right,” Brayles said.
The Batie-Smoose contract with SJSU expired the last day of this last January and was not renewed. Two weeks after that, the police confirmed that their home was shot and shattered with a pellet gun. She believed that the crime was committed against her by someone who did not agree with her decision to speak in SJSU. The police did not determine a reason.
The volleyball coach since then left California and moved to Texas. She is trying to continue her career as a coach, but has found difficulties in obtaining another job. She believes that the reputation she had to assume due to the situation she found in SJSU is the reason.
“I have been a very successful coach and I have trained for a long time and I am not even looking for any coaching work,” he said.
SJSU and CSU refused to respond to Batie-Smoose statements when Pak Gazette Digital contacted it.
Pak Gazette Digital has tried to contact Fleming through social networks.
