School district secretly promoted medicalized gender transitions for 8th graders: parent group

As mainstream medical associations tiptoe away from so-called gender-affirming care for minors, in light of potentially crippling malpractice judgments, loss of federal funding and President Trump raising detransitioners' profiles, a suburban New York City school district is allegedly encouraging gender-confused tweens to start medical transitions.

Westchester County's Ardsley Union Free School District defended an eighth-grade health lesson that promoted chest binders and testosterone for girls who are uncomfortable with their sex, with no parental notification or opportunity for parents to opt out their kids, according to emails a "concerned taxpayer" shared with parental rights group Defending Education.

While girls would likely need a medical professional to obtain testosterone, they can often obtain chest binders, which flatten breasts to create an androgynous or nonbinary look but carry serious risks of injury, through nonmedical personnel such as social workers. 

Oregon-based transgender charity Point of Pride gives away binders and lists retailers that sell them, while Georgia-based Binders for Confident Kids told the New York Post three years ago it was struggling to keep up with demand for free binders.

A district's failure to notify and allow opt-outs would likely violate last year's Supreme Court precedent Mahmoud, which blocked secret LGBTQ lessons in suburban D.C.'s Montgomery County Public Schools as a likely unconstitutional burden on the rights of parents to direct their children's "religious upbringing." MCPS just paid the plaintiffs $1.5 million to settle.

That Maryland district initially argued the LGBTQ "storybooks," which exposed children as young as 3 to sex workers, kink, drag, gender transitions and same-sex child romance, did not require notice and opt-out because they were used in the English language arts curriculum, not the human sexuality curriculum, where state law mandates disclosure to parents.

Its public rationale switched to logistical hurdles after Muslim, Christian and Jewish parents sued MCPS, but its internal communications didn't mention any difficulty in notifying parents ahead of lessons, just talking points on overcoming parental opposition.

Echoing officials in suburban Boston's Lexington Public Schools, who said they didn't have to notify parents about LGBTQ lessons that promote "mere tolerance," the AUFSD teacher who taught the lesson allegedly told the tipster the purpose was not "promoting" gender identity but raising awareness, building tolerance and making school "safe for all students."

Director of Athletics and Physical Education Matthew Pringle allegedly confirmed the district has no policy "requiring advance notification" for individual lessons, directing the tipster to Board Policy 8330, last updated seven months before the SCOTUS ruling.

Like LPS's policy, now the subject of a legal challenge, Board Policy 8330 requires objectors to identify "particular instructional materials" whose use the district has not disclosed in the first place. Parents may not compel AUFSD to "assign an alternate curriculum" to their children, who will only be excused "in very limited circumstances outlined in law and regulation."

Defending Education did not respond to requests from Just the News on Tuesday to see the emails between the concerned taxpayer and district officials, which are paraphrased and quoted from on its incident page but not posted for viewing.

AUFSD Superintendent Matthew Block, Board of Education District Clerk Donna Accurso and Pringle did not respond to queries on how the district's alleged practices comport with the Mahmoud precedent, especially since the lesson allegedly promotes potentially harmful medical interventions that minors can often receive without parental consent.

Testosterone makes girls confident, popular?

The New York district's alleged promotion of medical gender transitions for children in the midst of puberty comes at a perilous time for the youth gender transition industry.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons recently abandoned support for surgical interventions on gender-confused minors in any cases and expressed skepticism for hormonal interventions, while the American Medical Association now says it "generally" opposes surgery for minors but still claims hormones are evidence-based, which is hotly contested.

Florida is pressuring the sole accreditor for mainstream medical schools to explain how puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery for gender-confused youth became so entrenched in medical schools and teaching hospitals in the absence of rigorous evidence, following the about-face by ASPS and AMA.

Gender transition surgeons led by Oregon Health and Science University's Blair Peters, known for publicly admitting the lack of evidence for genital operations on "pubertally suppressed adolescents," banded together to rebuke ASPS in an open letter for allegedly excluding its own Gender Surgery Task Force from development of its new "position statement."

A new paper in the peer-reviewed Archives of Sexual Behavior found "limitations in scientific and methodological rigor, applicability, and transparency in managing competing interests" in the World Professional Association for Transgender Health's widely cited "standards of care," which were watered down under pressure by the Biden administration.

Defending Education said a concerned taxpayer shared photos of the "I Am Leo" article used in the AUFSD health lesson. The same article was used in middle school health classes in New York's Watertown School District a year ago and South Carolina's Charleston County School District in 2022, prompting the Republican governor's involvement.

The first-person narrative, which goes beyond promoting tolerance for gender-confused youth, was first published in the winter issue of Scholastic’s Choices, a magazine focused on "teen health as well as social and mental well-being in Grades 7–12."

Sixteen-year-old female Leo Lipson described her discomfort with expectations of girls, initial identification as nonbinary and then decision to present as a boy, including wearing a chest binder and getting her parents to approve blockers and then hormones, which Leo said improved her confidence and social life.

Defending Education emphasized the activist nature of the article, which explained "How to Be an Ally" by using preferred names and pronouns, claimed gender confusion does not desist and promoted the LGBTQ youth nonprofit Trevor Project, which runs a social network that allegedly gives adults access to youth.

AUFSD Superintendent Block directed the taxpayer to a district policy on "progression for addressing concerns" that lays out whom to contact, in order, based on "concern area," according to Defending Ed. The superintendent is the fourth contact for instruction, and Block ignored the taxpayer when she clarified she wasn't a parent of a student.

The eighth-grade health teacher, the first in the contact list, pointed the taxpayer to the state Department of Education's guidance document for health education standards, claiming the "I Am Leo" lesson raised awareness about sexual orientations and gender identities as required for "intermediate level functional knowledge," according to Defending Ed.

The lesson also affirmed AUFSD's inclusion values and its health department's themes of tolerance and empathy without "promoting a specific gender or sexual orientation," just reviewing "terminology/language" and reading a story to understand "a young person’s experience with their own gender identity," the teacher allegedly said.

Students learn that "it’s okay not to always agree/share the same values/beliefs with others," but the teacher hopes it "helps students to be more tolerant" and makes school "safe for all students," according to Defending Ed.

Pringle, the athletic director, then reiterated to the taxpayer that parents and guardians – no mention of taxpayers without children in the district – raise concerns with the teacher and principal, which are "reviewed with consideration for student needs and family perspective," Defending Ed said.