The California high school volleyball team with a transgender player has faced multiple forfeits following a lawsuit by teammates, leading to ongoing legal and ethical debates in the state’s education and sports sectors. Aquinas, Yucaipa and San Dima high schools forfeited volleyball games against Jurupa Valley at the Freeway Games tournament in Riverside County last weekend.
The forfeits are the first to come after a lawsuit was filed by three current and former players against the school district and state agencies. The forfeits came against Jurupa Valley High School, based in Riverside County, last Saturday at the Freeway Games tournament, according to Maribel Munoz, the mother of two student-athletes who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Munoz told Fox News Digital that Aquinas High School, Yucaipa High School and San Dima High School were the teams that forfeited.
The high school sports archive website MaxPreps shows that Jurupa Valley was awarded a win by forfeit on Sept. 13 against Yucaipa High School, at the tournament. The Press Enterprise newspaper in Southern California reported that Aquinas, Yucaipa and San Dima all forfeited to Jurupa Valley last weekend.
Fox News Digital has reached out to those schools and Jurupa Valley for comment. Prior to last weekend, four teams had been confirmed to have forfeited to Jurupa Valley this season – Riverside Poly High School, Rim of The World High School, Orange Vista High School and AB Miller High School.
Then, on Sept. 9, Munoz’s daughters, Madison and Alyssa McPherson, alongside teammate Hadeel Hazameh, filed their lawsuit with the firm Advocates for Faith & Freedom against the Jurupa Unified School District (JUSD), the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) and the California Department of Education (CDE) over their experience sharing a team and locker room with the trans athlete. Alyssa McPherson and Hazameh previously told Fox News Digital they were stepping away from the team as long as the trans athlete is participating.