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CV NEWS FEED // The Department of Education (DOE) announced Feb. 6 it is launching investigations into the University of Pennsylvania, San Jose State University, and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association over reports of Title IX violations related to allowing males to compete on female sports’ teams.
The investigations are in compliance with President Donald Trump’s Feb. 5 signing of the executive order prohibiting males from competing in women and girls’ sports, the DOE noted in the press release notifying the public of the investigations.
Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor stated in the release that Trump’s executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” “is a promise to women and girls: this administration will not tolerate the mistreatment of female athletes.”
“The previous administration trampled the rights of American women and girls — and ignored the indignities to which they were subjected in bathrooms and locker rooms — to promote a radical transgender ideology,” Trainor remarked. “That regime ended on January 20, 2025.”
Elaborating on the backgrounds for the investigations, the DOE press release states that a number of female volleyball teams had to forfeit games against San Jose State University after the school allowed male athlete Brayden (Blaire) Fleming to compete on its women’s volleyball team.
In November 2024, several San Jose State female students sued the university and the Mountain West Conference, alleging that Fleming was awarded a scholarship over female players, according to the DOE. According to the lawsuit, the school retaliated against the people who stood up for female athletes.
Regarding the University of Pennsylvania, the DOE explained that the university allowed male athlete William (Lia) Thomas to compete on the women’s swimming and diving team and, as one of Thomas’ former teammates Paula Scanlan testified in 2023, athletes were “offered psychological services to attempt to re-educate us to become comfortable with the idea of undressing in front of a male.”
In the release, Scanlan expressed gratitude for the DOE’s investigation.
“As a former University of Pennsylvania swimmer who was forced to compete against and share a locker room with a male athlete, I look forward to them holding accountable the higher education institutions that promoted this,” she said.
The investigation against the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association comes in light of Collegiate Charter School of Lowell Girls’ basketball team forfeiting a game in February 2024 after a male student playing for KIPP Massachusetts injured three female opponent players in the game.
CatholicVote previously reported that when Trump signed the executive order Feb. 5, he stated that his administration “will defend the proud tradition of female athletes.”
“And we will not allow men to beat up, injure, and cheat our women and our girls,” he said. “From now on, women’s sports will be only for women.”
According to FOX News, NCAA President Charlie Baker stated Feb. 5 that the organization’s Board of Governors would review its policy to ensure it is compliant with Trump’s order.
“We strongly believe that clear, consistent and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions,” Baker said. “To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard.”
