Schools in Seattle are currently offering free ‘gender affirming care’ to students as young as 11, a prominent parental rights organization has found – already enraging parents.
The service, laid bare in documents obtained by Parents Defending Education (PDE) this week, is provided by medical provider Country Doctor Community Health Centers – a facility that already offers hormone therapy and sex-change surgeries for adolescents.
PDE announced the arrangement Tuesday, singling out two health centers in particular – both of which are set in Seattle public schools.
Both centers are run by the same nonprofit provider in Country Doctor, which also runs two primary care clinics where such practices are in place elsewhere in the city.
The facility’s self-professed ‘mission’, according to its website, ‘is to promote health in transgender, non-binary and gender diverse communities through ensuring equal access to gender-affirming medications and procedures.’
Schools in Seattle such as this on are currently offering free ‘gender affirming care’ to students as young as 10, a parental rights group has found. The on-site services include hormone therapy for adolescents, as well as referrals for surgeries for prepubescents
To accomplish this, medical provider Country Doctor installed school-based centers at Meany Middle School (pictured) and Nova High School (seen above), allowing students to ‘conveniently’ seek such services on-site and for free
To accomplish this, Country Doctor installed school-based centers at Meany Middle School and Nova High School, allowing students to ‘conveniently’ seek such services on-site and for free.
While puberty blockers are still barred for prepubescents, kids as young as 10 will still have access to cross-sex hormones such as estrogen and testosterone, according to Country Doctor’s website outlining their policies.
DailyMail.com reached out to the facility for further clarification about the policies in place at these school-based wellness centers, but did not immediately receive a response.
According to documents from the the Seattle Public School obtained by PDE, both centers are ‘staffed full time by a clinic administrator, medical providers, and a behavior health specialist.’
A passage further detailed the Country Doctor practice in place at Nova High – the Nova Wellness Center – showing how students not only there but at other schools as well are being allowed access to cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers.
‘The Nova Wellness Center offers no cost comprehensive, trauma-informed, and gender affirming care, conveniently at the school,’ the passage reads, before listing and specifying some of the services it offers including ‘gender reaffirming care.’
‘We bill appropriate services to insurance if you have it,’ it adds, after confirming it is a subsidiary of Country Doctor. ‘There are never any co-pays or co- insurance to worry about.
‘We also offer services and support to students and families without insurance.’
Medical Services available at the center, the document states, include ‘wellness physical’ and ‘gender affirming care.’
It further notes on its website that the Nova Wellness Center offers the service at ‘no cost’ and with a ‘trauma-informed’ approach.
DailyMail.com reached out to the center Tuesday for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
Public schools in Seattle are currently offering free ‘gender affirming care’ to students as young as 10, a prominent parental rights organization has found
A passage penned by Seattle public school district further detailed the Country Doctor practice in place at Nova High (pictured), showing how students not only there but at other schools as well are being allowed access to cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers
That said, a passage on Country Doctor’s website provides some insight as to what exactly its gender affirming policy entails.
It reads: ‘Gender-affirming care is integrated into everyday primary care, so that you can get your hormones in the same place you get your wellness exams, cancer screenings, and treatment for acute and chronic health conditions.’
It goes on to outline the services – offered exclusively to ‘transgender, non-binary and gender diverse patients.’
They include: ‘Gender-affirming medications (estrogen, androgen blockers, testosterone, etc.) and injection teaching as needed’ as well as ‘hormone therapy for adolescents and specialty referrals for younger patients as needed’.
Also included in the treatment are ‘Referrals for gender-affirming surgeries’ such as vaginoplasty and chest reconstruction – and ‘procedures (e.g. speech therapy, electrolysis).
‘Assistance obtaining mental health letters of support for gender-affirming procedures and referrals for internal or external behavioral health counseling,’ it adds’ are also dished out ‘as needed.’
The lone caveat for the controversial treatment, Country Doctor clarified, is that ‘puberty blockers for children who have not yet reached puberty are not provided at this time.’
The statement – which comes as the Seattle Public School District also implemented a policy that states a student’s gender identity may be kept secret from parents – suggests that similar practices may be in place Country Doctor’s sister center at nearby Meany Middle.
DailyMail.com reached out to that center, which is also run by Country Doctor, for comment.
Since the policy was unveiled Tuesday, parents such as Erika Sanzi (pictured) are already expressing their distaste. She labeled the previously unreported policy as ‘a whole new level of awful’ after helping to uncover it Tuesday
Since the policy was unveiled Tuesday, parents are already expressing their distaste.
‘It’s bad enough that medical professionals are prescribing cross-sex hormones and cutting off breasts and genitals of minors,’ said Erika Sanzi, PDE director of outreach, in a statement after her agency uncovered the previously unreported document.
‘It is a whole new level of awful and terrifying for schools to be involved.’
In statements to DailyMail.com Sanzi, a former teacher, added the pandemic has already affected the education of her three school-aged sons, and that policies like these threaten to further hamper their education.
Describing how she had to put ‘scaffolding in place’ to ensure her boys could continue their education, study unsupervised, and not fall too far behind, she revealed other families in her area were not so lucky, she added.
‘It really hurt a lot of families in my state,’ Sanzi said.
‘Families with an eight-year-old child who was getting repeatedly quarantined, couldn’t stay at home alone, and didn’t have a parent who worked from home.’
When schools were open, masking rules inhibited classroom interaction, said Sanzi. Schoolchildren who had been exposed to the pathogen, though were not necessarily sick or contagious, were ‘repeatedly kicked out’ of classrooms.
For many schoolkids who fell behind, there’s a ‘very good chance they’re not going to catch up’, she warned.
Alex Nester, an investigative fellow for PDE, also aired his disapproval.
‘Schools aren’t parents, and they aren’t doctor offices,’ he said in his own statement. ‘The combination of the district’s parental exclusion policies, and its provision of dubious medical interventions to change a child’s sex, creates a really troubling situation for Seattle families.’
That said, it currently remains unclear whether Seattle’s school district – the largest in Washington State – will parents if their child is seeking ‘gender affirming care’ at either of the two school facilities, which are both sanctioned by the SPS.
In separate documents obtained by Sanzi team, however, the district advised staff to ‘not disclose a student’s transgender or gender X status’ unless legally required to do so.’
Taking into account the district’s newly passed law, it appears such a limiter is virtually nonexistent.
The district also states staff should ‘avoid using gender pronouns’ if ‘it is unclear whether the student asserts the same gender identity at home.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to the district for comment and for further information on its student-related health services.
