Three female students and their families have filed a federal lawsuit against the California Interscholastic Federation, the California Department of Education and the Jurupa Unified School District, alleging sex discrimination, sexual harassment, violations of religious liberty and unsafe athletic conditions after a transgender student who was assigned male at birth competed on the Jurupa Valley High School girls’ volleyball team.
The suit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, names current players Alyssa McPherson and Hadeel Hazameh, former player Madison McPherson and their families as plaintiffs. It seeks monetary damages and an order removing the student identified in court documents as AB Hernandez from the girls’ team.
According to the complaint, Hazameh and Alyssa McPherson recently withdrew from the team after informing coaches they were "uncomfortable sharing the volleyball court and locker room with a male student." The plaintiffs also say they were removed from a team group chat after raising their concerns and that school officials pressured them to refrain from expressing objections. "Plaintiffs have been intimidated by an intentionally hostile environment created by Defendants wherein they were bullied by school officials to censor their objections to competing with, and against, a male and to sharing intimate and private spaces with a male," the lawsuit states.
The filing describes religious objections held by the families. The McPhersons are described as practicing Catholics whose faith "informs their understanding of human identity" and leads them to view gender as "a fixed characteristic that cannot be changed." Hazameh and her family are described as practicing Muslims who, the complaint says, believe religious obligations "prevent H.H. from exposing her hair or body to males, including by wearing a hijab," and that gender distinctions should conform with biological sex.
The complaint contends that the presence of Hernandez on the girls’ team has prompted other schools to forfeit matches against Jurupa Valley this season and alleges an "unsafe and unfair athletic environment." The filing says four confirmed opponents have forfeited games amid national attention surrounding Hernandez’s participation.
The case follows months of controversy over Hernandez’s participation in girls’ athletics. Last spring Hernandez, a student at Jurupa Valley High, placed first in the girls’ high jump and triple jump and took second in the long jump at California girls’ state track and field finals, drawing protests from some competitors and their families. In the days before those state finals, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump posted a warning on the social media platform Truth Social urging California officials and Governor Gavin Newsom not to allow a transgender athlete to compete in the championships.
The California Interscholastic Federation amended its postseason recognition policies to award any female athlete who finished behind Hernandez, while still allowing Hernandez to compete and occupy podium positions. That action and Hernandez’s results prompted heightened attention and protests from athletes and supporters who said the outcomes were unfair to female competitors.
In July, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation, challenging policies that permit students who were assigned male at birth to participate on girls’ teams. The DOJ complaint seeks to enforce an executive order issued in February by then-President Trump directing federal agencies to limit the participation of students based on sex assigned at birth. The DOJ litigation is ongoing.
Jurupa Unified School District previously provided a statement saying that school districts must follow state and federal laws and do not write those laws themselves. "School districts do not write laws for the state of California, nor do they have the power to ignore them or change them. However, as primarily state-funded agencies, they are required to follow them," the district said. "JUSD is committed to upholding the law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of, among other characteristics, gender, gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation in any program or activity, ensuring that all pupils feel safe, supported and affirmed for who they are at school."
The plaintiffs allege violations of civil rights statutes and seek relief on several legal theories, including sex discrimination and viewpoint discrimination, and say the district and state education agencies failed to protect their religious liberties and safety. The lawsuit names the CIF and the CDE alongside the local school district and asks the court to enjoin defendants from rostering Hernandez on the girls’ volleyball team and to award unspecified monetary damages.
Debate over transgender athletes in school sports has drawn attention nationwide and remains politically contentious in California, where a bipartisan survey by the Public Policy Institute of California found that a majority of adults and an even larger majority of public school parents support requiring transgender athletes to compete on teams that correspond to the sex they were assigned at birth. The poll reported 65% of adults and 64% of likely voters supported that position, with 71% of public school parents in favor.
The lawsuit adds to a series of legal and political challenges surrounding participation policies in school athletics. The CIF, the CDE and Jurupa Unified School District have been the subject of earlier litigation and federal scrutiny, and advocates on multiple sides of the issue continue to press their positions through courts and public comment.
The court has not set a schedule for hearings in the newly filed case. The parties will now have an opportunity to respond through the federal litigation process as the matter proceeds in the Central District of California.