This Is the Way: California Girls Volleyball Team With 'Trans' Player Sees 8th Team Refuse to Play Them

As we learned from the movie "War Games," sometimes the winning move is not to play at all.

Jurupa Unified School District's girls' volleyball team is having some serious issues, and I don't just mean in terms of mental illness. It appears no one wants to play them thanks to one of their players being male.

As reported by Fox News, the JUSD has recently confirmed that Patriot High School forfeited its upcoming match set to take place on Friday. While this marks the first forfeit to take place within the JUSD's own district, it's actually the eighth to take place in total:

Jurupa Valley saw three forfeits in one weekend at the Freeway Games tournament on Sept. 13, with Aquinas High School, Yucaipa High School and San Dimas High School refusing to play Jurupa Valley.
Prior to that, Riverside Poly High School, Rim of The World High School, Orange Vista High School and AB Miller High School all forfeited to Jurupa Valley.

It gets worse from there.

Fox News reported that the student who identifies as transgender, AB Hernandez, has had lawsuits filed against the JUSD, as well as the California Interscholastic Federation, and the California Department of Education, by his own teammates. According to two of these girls, Alyssa McPherson and Hadeel Hazameh, they will no longer be playing on the team so long as Hernandez is a part of it. The third is McPherson's older sister, who graduated last year.

According to the lawsuit, the girls claim they've been bullied by school officials to keep quiet about their objections to playing alongside Hernandez, as well as being forced to share "intimate and private spaces" with him.

Both the McPhersons and Hazameh are religious, Catholic and Muslim, respectively, and both refuse to expose their bodies to a male based on the definitions of male and female as informed by their religion.

The JUSD has responded, saying that the "school districts do not write laws for the state of California, nor do they have the power to ignore them or change them," but as state-funded agencies, they are required to follow them.

"As these issues play out in our courts and the media, any advocacy on these matters should be directed at state and federal officials elected to make laws and policies that affect public education," said the statement.

'It Is Cheating': Piers Morgan Calls Out Transgender Athlete to His Face

Fox News reached out to Gov. Gavin Newsom's office, and they replied, taking no responsibility, to absolutely no one's surprise:

"CIF is an independent nonprofit that governs high school sports. The California Department of Education is a separate constitutional office. Neither is under the Governor’s authority," the statement read.
"CIF and the CDE have stated they follow existing state law — a law that was passed in 2013 and signed by Governor Jerry Brown (not Newsom) and in line with 21 other states. For the law to change, the legislature would need to send the Governor a bill. They have not."

Earlier in September, Hernandez himself weighed in on the controversy, claiming that he's a "normal kid going to school."

"I think people just see one thing and they're like 'Oh, that's what you are,’" Hernandez said. "They don't take the time to get to know me. So, it's just a little frustrating."

He also expressed frustration at the schools forfeiting to avoid playing him and his team.

"A team sport, I can't take that," Hernandez said. "It's a team effort. My team needs to be willing to fight with me, and that's what it takes to win a team title."

Newsom's office is correct about one thing: it's going to take real legislation to stop this insanity of men playing in women's sports from happening. Other states are taking this step, but even if legislation did get to Newsom's desk, what's politically expedient to do in that moment would determine if he'd sign it or not. Since he's likely thinking of running in 2028, he may do it to make himself seem more moderate, but this is California we're talking about. Anything like that getting to his desk is unlikely.

As it stands, the unfortunate solution that has to be taken is not to play this team at all. It's not just necessary to avoid playing a team with an unfair advantage, but it sends a solid message, and it's one that can't be ignored. What's the purpose of a sports team if there are no opponents? It's effectively just a group of people running drills and practicing for nothing. No victories, no stats, no accolades, and no championships.

For girls who love their sport, want to succeed in it, and possibly have their skill and talent help them go somewhere like college or even to the pros, having a male on the team is an immediate non-starter.

President Trump is fighting to dismantle the Department of Education and ensure America's kids get the education they deserve.

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