- calendar_today August 18, 2025
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A girls’ high school volleyball team in California was just scratched from two more games after opposing teams forfeited, further escalating a controversy already swirling over one of their players, who is transgender.
Maribel Munoz, a mother of one of Jurupa Valley High School’s girls’ volleyball team players, confirmed the news to Fox News Digital after coach Liana Manu sent an email to parents informing them of the cancellations. The two forfeited matches were originally scheduled to be against Rim of the World High School on Aug. 25 and Orange Vista High School on Aug. 29.
Jurupa Valley Unified School District (JUSD) released a statement Tuesday evening in response to the forfeits, clarifying that the district did not cancel the games. “We understand and acknowledge the disappointment of our Jurupa Valley High School athletes who are ready and prepared to play. Decisions to cancel matches were made by teams in other districts,” the statement said.
The district said it is bound by state law that prohibits discrimination against students based on gender identity. California’s Education Code 221.5 (f) requires that schools allow students to try out for and participate on athletic teams that are consistent with their gender identity. District officials said that has been the policy for many years and reiterated that their position has been supported by both California Attorney General Rob Bonta and California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond.
“We are proud of our JVHS Jaguars and their willingness to play any team and represent their school and our district with pride,” the district added. “We are working on rescheduling games to ensure our athletes do not miss valuable playing opportunities.”
She added that her daughter did not even realize the recent forfeits were in response to her.
Hernandez has also been at the center of similar controversies this past spring. During track and field season, she won two state titles in California for the long jump and triple jump. Those wins, and the subsequent backlash that Hernandez and other transgender girls have received from their opponents, drew attention from former President Donald Trump.
In a post ahead of the state finals, Trump urged California to “not allow a transgender biological male to compete in the Female Competition” on Truth Social, though he did not name Hernandez specifically.
The U.S. Department of Justice in July filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) over its policies that allow transgender students to play in girls’ sports, despite Trump in February signing an executive order that would have prevented such participation.
For Hernandez, her final season of high school volleyball should be about games, wins, and losses, and the like. Instead, it is being defined by forfeits, division in the community, and a national political debate.
“It makes me feel sad, it makes me feel angry, frustrated, just so many emotions,” Munoz, a Jurupa Valley parent whose daughter has played with Hernandez for the past three years, told Fox News Digital.
Parents have also been clashing in local school board meetings. At a recent Riverside Unified School District board meeting, parents from both sides of the debate spoke, with some saying they supported the Riverside Poly athletes for refusing to play and others speaking in defense of transgender students and their right to play.
During the meeting, Nereyda Hernandez spoke out against Riverside board member Amanda Vickers for speaking to Fox News Digital about the Aug. 15 forfeit. “You actually entertained and welcomed harassment to my child,” she said, addressing Vickers. “You are a board member. You have an oath to protect, to support all children, not just the ones that fit your ideas, your beliefs.”
She also argued that many parents who have been protesting the participation of transgender girls in girls’ sports are not doing so out of fairness but because of an “organized effort to sow fear to divide and pit parent against parent.”




