EXCLUSIVE — The University of Rochester Medical Center offers continuing education credits to public school districts, covering "motivational interviewing techniques & gender-affirming care."
Staff from East Irondequoit Central School District in New York state were offered the May 10 training from the URMC Transgender Health Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes program, according to emails obtained by Parents Defending Education through a Freedom of Information Act request.
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Courses offered are advertised as being able to fulfill a continuing education requirement. The New York State Education Department, which approves all courses for continuing education credits for the state, did not respond to a request for comment.
The center's ECHO program is a "brand-new virtual learning space for health care providers and therapists across Western NY in providing gender-affirming care to transgender and gender diverse individuals." The sessions are free of charge.
The so-called "gender-affirming care" model is medically controversial, especially for children. It can include "social transition," which involves the use of "preferred pronouns" and names, as well as allowing children to access restrooms and other facilities that do not align with their sex.
The model further includes puberty blockers, pharmaceutical castration, and genital mutilation surgeries.
Beginning on March 22, training sessions have been held every two weeks, and subsequent topics have included "informed consent for gender affirming medical care," "testosterone," and "androgen blockers and estrogen," the emails show.
“Giving continuing education credit for interviewing ‘techniques’ for transgender interventions is an embarrassment to the district and does not serve the student body," PDE Vice President Caroline Moore told the Washington Examiner. "It is endorsing a political agenda that has no place in public schools."
"The aim of these courses is to sharpen the skills of educators to better serve their students and their community," she continued. "Instead, educators should be exposed to training to help their students grasp concepts like critical thinking.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to URMC to gather information on the contents of the presentations, but a spokeswoman for the organization said she could not respond.
Despite that, the research and activism conducted by program leadership, including director Dr. Jamie Mehringer, offers insight into the disposition of the program.
Mehringer co-founded Vermont's first transgender medical intervention clinic for children at the University of Vermont, where he completed his pediatric residency. Some of his research includes the "impact of chest dysphoria and masculinizing reconstructive chest surgery in transmasculine youth."
In a 2021 study, Mehringer "recruited" children and young adults aged 13 to 21 from a pediatric gender clinic to test the theory that giving children double mastectomies would alleviate "discomfort and distress from unwanted breast development." The average age of test subjects was 17.5 years old, and 47% had already had cosmetic breast removal surgery.
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EICSD told the Washington Examiner the training was "optional" and tied to a group called Uplift Irondequoit Coalition, which is a group that primarily focuses on youth drug use.
"These were optional trainings that coalition members could attend; however, we do not have any record of any East Irondequoit staff members attending these sessions," district communications director Danielle Gorevski told the Washington Examiner.