Missouri clinic told school to ‘affirm’ fifth-graders as transgender

The Missouri clinic under investigation for “disturbing” whistleblower allegations advised an elementary school to “affirm” several fifth-graders as transgender — even after a teacher assumed the youngsters were likely just copying a friend.

Emails obtained by Parents Defending Education (PDE) showed a staffer at Parkway Schools in St. Louis reaching out for advice in October 2021 to the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

“One of the students in the 5th-grade class is coming out as Trans” — and “now several of [her friends] are also saying they are Trans,” the staffer wrote, asking for guidance and “resources.”

“Is this common?” the unidentified school staffer asked, raising concerns it was due to “other reasons” rather than all of the elementary kids, who are likely 10 or 11, actually being transgender.

In published responses, the clinic never once suggested bringing in the fifth-graders’ parents, a key complaint in earlier allegations raised by Missouri’s attorney general.

It also comes as gender-affirming policies and gender ideology in schools has become a national lightning-rod issue.

The ultimate advice, given by the clinic’s co-director, Dr. Sarah Garwood, and shared with DailyMail.com, was to encourage the youngsters to “explore parts of their identities,” including “sexuality, and gender.”

“The best we can do is affirm, validate and allow for exploration,” the clinic wrote.

“If in a few weeks or months, a student wants to go by their legal name and pronouns that match their sex assigned at birth, no harm was really done in affirming them before,” the email said.

Before that, a clinic staffer acknowledged — but quickly dismissed — the widely held view that students coming out as transgender can become “a ‘contagion’” encouraging copycats.

However, the staffer complained that such “language isn’t affirming,” giving the “personal and professional opinion” that studies raising such concerns were “invalid,” without explaining why.

Still, the clinic staffer accepted that for many people, “it is easy to latch on to a new concept or idea and make it yours” — comparing it to trends with fad diets, workouts and even “mental health diagnoses.”

“In general, I’d recommend as much support and discussion as possible around their gender exploration,” the doctor said.

A counselor at the same school system later wrote to the clinic about kids who were binding their chests — saying that there had been “a few instances where a student passed out when wearing one that was too tight,” according to a report last month by Fox News Digital.

Then, Garwood’s advice was to “decline any requirements for disclosure by students or from school to parents,” according to emails also obtained by PDE.

PDE investigative fellow Alex Nester called that case “both dangerous and unconscionable, and we must stop it before it goes any further.”

The group’s founder and president, Nicki Neily, told DailyMail.com that the latest emails about affirming kids as trans without question was further proof that “children and their families have been let down, both by the school and the hospital.”

“The utter lack of curiosity about the underlying causes of such a trend among ten-year-old children by medical professionals is immoral at best and an abdication of professional responsibility at worst,” Neily said.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey confirmed last week that he is investigating “disturbing allegations” that the transgender center has “been harming hundreds of children each year.”

It was based on whistleblower testimony that staff used “experimental drugs on children, distributing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones without individualized assessment, and even giving children these life-altering drugs without parental consent.”

“The whistleblower also has provided documentary evidence that the Center has been unlawfully billing state taxpayers to fund these actions,” the prosecutor’s office said.

US Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) announced his own investigation into the “sickening” claims — and on Thursday announced a special hotline for other whistleblowers.

He also cited the disturbing claims on Wednesday as he introduced the Protecting Our Kids from Child Abuse Act, freeing people harmed by gender-transition procedures as minors to sue those responsible.

“What the American people are seeing take place at pediatric gender clinics in St. Louis and across the nation is appalling,” Hawley said

“Children who are harmed by these dangerous procedures, which are often irreversible and sterilizing, will now be able to fight back against those who perpetrated their abuse. And federal taxpayers will no longer be forced to foot the bill for abusive treatment.”

Neither the clinic nor Parkway Schools immediately responded to requests for comment.

Washington University previously said it was “alarmed” by the allegations about its clinic and was “taking this matter very seriously” with its own investigation.