Trump Administration Investigates Santa Rosa Junior College Over Transgender Athlete Policy

Santa Rosa Junior College athletic director Matt Markovich referred a request for comment to spokeswoman Sarah Pew.

Federal authorities did not specify Thursday why SRJC, or any of the other institutions mentioned, were under investigation.

But in the case of Santa Rosa, the 108-year-old campus came under public scrutiny from anti-transgender groups after its women’s volleyball team last season included a player who was reported to be transgender. The presence of this athlete on the team caused three teammates to file a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Education.

In the complaint, the players — sisters Madison Shaw, a sophomore, and Gracie Shaw, a freshman, and Brielle Galli, all of Windsor — alleged that their teammate posed a physical threat to both her teammates and opposing players. These complaints echoed accusations made in a similar case that affected the San Jose State University women’s volleyball team in 2024.

In a related statement issued Thursday, the Department of Education announced that its Section IX team is also investigating the California Community College Athletic Association, the governing body for intercollegiate sports in the state’s community college system.

According to the department, the association’s transgender participation policy “violates Section IX” and, according to the Undersecretary of Civil Rights, Kimberly Richey, constitutes “a strong criticism of our culture. Women’s sports are for women.”

The Trump administration, she added, “will not tolerate policies that eliminate women’s rights.”

While citing an “overwhelming volume” of complaints received by the department under Title IX, the Department of Education’s statement on Friday mentioned only one specific example: an apparent, though not direct, reference to the situation at SRJC.

The California Community College Athletic Association’s policy, according to the statement, “resulted in discrimination against at least three female athletes on the basis of sex by allowing a male athlete to participate on a member university’s women’s volleyball team and have access to the women’s locker room during the 2024 and 2025 seasons.”

The statement did not mention the name of the institution or the affected athletes. The association did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment.

The Education Department also did not respond Friday to questions from The Press Democrat about the timeline of the investigation, what it will entail, whether representatives of the investigative team will visit the campus for interviews and what consequences SRJC could face.

Title IX applies to any educational institution that receives federal funds or assistance, generally including public schools, school districts, and universities.

During the Biden administration, it was used to safeguard the rights of LGBTQ+ people on college campuses.

In Trump’s second term, the law has been applied very differently. In February, he issued an executive order titled “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports,” and his Department of Education has launched investigations against San Jose State University and other institutions that have allowed transgender athletes to participate in sports competitions. The NCAA quickly changed its policy to limit participation in women’s sports to people whose biological sex at birth was

In a September interview with The Press Democrat, attorney Shiwali Patel, a Title IX expert and affiliate of the Washington, D.C.-based National Women’s Law Center, described the Trump administration’s policy as an “instrumentalization of Title IX.”

While this law was intended to “broadly protect” equal educational opportunities for all students, he said, “they are distorting its purpose and using it to harm transgender students, dehumanize them, and eliminate protections for their civil rights.”

He accused the administration of “emptying” the intent of Title IX “to attack an already vulnerable group of students.”

It wasn’t until 2014, he noted, that the Obama administration drafted regulations to protect this group of people, who make up a very small fraction of athletes participating in school and college sports.

“They took an issue that had been left to the discretion of local schools and private institutions and attempted to impose national uniformity, based on a civil rights law that was silent on the matter.”

Trump has done an about-face on Obama and Biden’s transgender policy, Melnick said, “and now they’re saying this is not discrimination against transgender people, but discrimination against women in sports.”

During the Bear Cubs’ 2025 women’s volleyball season, which ended in November, the team’s players declined to comment on their teammate, although they appeared to show their support.

One parent, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation against the players or coaches, told The Press Democrat last fall that school officials had met with the players since early September, giving them advice on safety precautions related to where to park their cars, how to enter and exit buildings and other personal safety measures.