By allowing a transgender athlete to compete in girls sports, the Jurupa Unified School District is violating students’ rights, alleges a lawsuit that accuses the athlete of sexually harassing girls and having an unfair competitive advantage.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of a former student and two girls who attend Jurupa Valley High School, seeks to bar the Jurupa Valley district from forcing female student athletes to compete with and share locker room space with the trans athlete identified as A.H.

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While A.H. is not named in the lawsuit, Jurupa Valley High senior AB Hernandez is a trans athlete who has competed on the girls’ volleyball and track-and-field teams since 2022-23.

“Girls’ sports are for girls. No policy can erase the biological differences between males and females, and forcing young women to compete against boys is both unfair and unsafe,” Julianne Fleischer, senior counsel for the plaintiffs’ legal team, the Murrieta-based conservative law firm Advocates for Faith & Freedom, said in a news release.

Fleischer added: “This case is about restoring dignity to women’s sports and ensuring that the God-given distinctions between male and female are respected, not erased.”

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A school district spokesperson could not immediately be reached Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 9, for comment.

In a Tuesday night email, Hernandez’s mother, Nereyda Hernandez, noted that she’s not named in the suit, but said it contains “defamation, false claims, fabricated evidence, harassment and perjury.”

The girls who are suing are being influenced by adults, she alleged, and “being manipulated to provide false information.”

Besides the district, the California Interscholastic Federation and state Department of Education are listed as defendants. 

Filed Tuesday in federal district court, the lawsuit, which alleges violations of constitutional rights and federal law, seeks unspecified damages and to block the defendants from enforcing state law and policies allowing trans athletes in girls sports.

The plaintiffs are Madison McPherson, a former Jurupa Valley High student; two senior Jurupa Valley female student athletes identified as A.M. and H.H. — one is Madison McPherson’s younger sister — and their mothers, Maribel Munoz and Hanan Hazameh.

While the lawsuit only identifies the minors by their initials, Fox News recently profiled Jurupa Valley volleyball players Alyssa McPherson and Hadeel Hazameh, who told the right-leaning cable news network they would not play on the same team with Hernandez because their safety and privacy were threatened.

Photos shared with the news media by the plaintiffs’ attorneys identify Hadeel Hazameh and Alyssa McPherson as plaintiffs along with Madison McPherson.

The lawsuit argues that the girls were forced to compete with A.H., whose superior athletic ability stemming from her birth gender helped her finish ahead of Madison McPherson, her sister and Hazameh in track and field events.

Hernandez placed first in the girls high jump and triple jump events at the CIF State Championships in May and also finished second in the girls long jump.

A.H.’s “inherent biological advantages stemming from male physiology” also give her an edge over her teammates in volleyball, the lawsuit alleges. At least six high schools have forfeited or canceled girls’ volleyball matches with Jurupa Valley’s because of A.H.’s presence, according to the lawsuit.

A.H.’s strength also threatens athletes’ safety, the lawsuit argues.

“A.H. has the strength to hit balls at a force greater than most female athletes yet lacks the skill to consistently control his strikes,” lawyers wrote. “On multiple occasions, A.H. struck opposing players’ heads with the ball” and laughed afterward, the lawsuit alleges.

The plaintiffs, who have religious reasons for not wanting to share locker rooms with the opposite gender, “experienced repeated discomfort when A.H. entered and lingered in the girls’ locker room, often remaining inside after changing and making eye contact with female athletes” while they changed, the lawsuit alleged.

The lawsuit accuses A.H. of engaging “in unwelcomed and offensive contact, including slapping and/or placing his hands on female players’ buttocks, including Plaintiffs, during practices, games, and huddles.”

“ … In addition to experiencing physical discomfort in the locker room and during team activities, Plaintiffs have been subjected to repeated and unwelcome sexual comments and remarks in the athletic environment, creating an offensive atmosphere.”

The lawsuit also accuses Jurupa Valley High coaches and administrators of repeatedly ignoring the plaintiffs’ concerns about A.H. playing girls sports.

At one point, the lawsuit alleges, Jurupa Valley Principal Nancy Reyna told Madison McPherson she could be suspended for her comments about A.H. or transgender athletes and that she should “‘keep quiet’ because she ‘had too much to lose’ given her opportunities to play collegiate volleyball.”

Hernandez’s presence in girls sports is part of a nationwide culture war battle over whether trans athletes should compete with females.

Defenders of transgender athletes say school sports can be a vital support system and positive activity for young people struggling over their gender identity.

Last month, the Riverside Unified School District, without saying why, announced the forfeiture of a varsity girls volleyball between Jurupa Valley High and its Poly High School. Critics, including some Poly students, said the district’s social media post about the forfeit opened the door to LGBTQ+ bullying of Hernandez.

Nereyda Hernandez defended her child at a Riverside school board meeting in August.

“This has nothing to do with fairness in sports and everything to do with erasing transgender children,” she said.

The lawsuit isn’t the first involving an Inland Empire school district and trans student athletes.

Last year, Advocates for Faith & Freedom sued Riverside Unified on behalf of  two high school girls who said they were forced to remove or conceal T-shirts opposing trans athletes in girls’ sports.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.