Parents in southern California are alarmed be revelations that a popular high school in an affluent neighborhood directs students to a clinic for sex-change procedures.
Newport Harbor High School in Orange County, where homes typically sell for more than $3 million, has scannable QR codes displayed in hallways to connect students to ‘ LGBTQ+ resources.’
It links them to the LGBTQ Center of Orange County, which provides sex-change care and runs sessions for kids as young as 10 who are ‘exploring their identity,’ its website says.
Newport-Mesa Unified School District says the codes help students make major life decisions, but declined to answer questions or give DailyMail.com access to the site.
The revelations come as many Californians question whether the state’s wholesale support for affirming children’s transgender identity is always in their best interests.
Newport Harbor High School in Orange County, where homes typically sell for more than $3 million.
The high school has scannable QR codes displayed in hallways to connect students to ‘ LGBTQ + resources.’
Elon Musk this month said he was moving his SpaceX firm from California over a law that made it easier for students to change sex in class without telling their parents.
Whether teachers should help trans kids access gender-affirming care is a divisive issue between progressives and conservatives, who worry about the risky drugs and surgeries.
The Daily Signal this week published a photo of a QR code for ‘LGBTQ+ resources’ hanging in a hallway of the high School, in the affluent coastal suburbs below Los Angeles.
The tax-funded public school for some 2,300 students is led by principal Sean Boulton and has an enviable 95 percent graduation rate, according to US News & World Report.
The typical price of a home in the zip code is $3.2 million, according to Redfin.
DailyMail.com was unable to access the link, which appears to have been pulled down.
An archived version of the page shows that it connects students to the county’s nearby LGBTQ Center, which features therapists and clinicians who provide gender-affirming care.
The center provides puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ surgeries.
It runs sessions for children, including one for Inbetweeners, ages 10-13, which its website says is for ‘middle school youth who are exploring their identity.’
For those aged 13-18, there is the Rainbow Group, which teaches about ‘sexual self-care, gender identity, and coming out,’ the site says.
The center’s staff have reportedly delivered presentations at the school and in 2022 came close to launching student counseling sessions there — a deal that was shelved due to opposition from parents.
An Orange County mom told the Signal how she pulled her child out of school over its policies and now teaches them at home.
Tesla boss Elon Musk says California schools have taken transgender ideas much too far
The QR codes lead to the LGBTQ Center of Orange County, which provides sex-change care and runs sessions for kids as young as 10
Newport Harbor High School principal Sean Boulton runs classes in an affluent Orange County neighborhood
‘I’m in several chats with a lot of moms, and we have had a lot of people pull their kids from the district after finding out all of this stuff,’ said the mom, who requested anonymity.
But other parents are less worried and believe ‘It could never happen to my kid’ — until it does,’ the mom added.
Annette Franco, a district spokeswoman, says the school did nothing wrong.
‘We do not refer students for gender-affirming care nor do we have gender support plans without parental involvement,’ Franco told DailyMail.com.
‘None of our direct links are connected to gender transition counseling/therapy.’
The resources, she added, were ‘intended to complement the essential role that parents play in their children’s lives.’
But Franco declined to explain why the site had been taken down, and detail the district’s ties with the LGBTQ+ Center.
DailyMail.com spoke to the mom of a son who attended a nearby LA school who suffered under that district’s trans-affirmation policies.
Josie, who did not wish to reveal her family name, said: ‘These QR codes are very problematic for vulnerable teens.’
‘My son was entrapped to believe he was trans in high school,’ she said.
‘He was given a presentation on how you could be born in the wrong body. It made him question if he was really a boy.’
Josie’s son went through years of traumatic gender confusion, with one of his teachers even helping him to run away from home.
‘After years of this belief, he desisted,’ the mom told DailyMail.com.
‘He later wondered if his teacher pushed him into this belief.’
She has since helped to create the group Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans.
Democratic Gov Gavin Newsom signed the law that his office says ‘helps keep children safe’ while also allowing families to ‘have deeply personal conversations’ about children’s gender identities
Under the law, school districts can no longer pass rules for parents to be alerted when their kids change their pronouns in class
Campaigners say some LGBTQ + students live in unwelcoming households and need protection from their own parents.
Last year, she collected the experiences of other moms and dads into a book about the ‘fight to save our kids.’
How schools deal with transgender students has become a hot-button issue in America’s culture wars.
Trans rights groups say supporting trans kids can save lives among a vulnerable group.
This includes letting them use bathrooms and join the sports teams that correspond to their gender identity.
It can even mean keeping their new pronouns secret from old-fashioned moms and dads who reject sex changes and puberty blockers.
But many conservatives warn of a fad and say schools should stick to teaching how to read and write.
Experts increasingly say there is little evidence that the trans progressives have got it right.
Still, such left-leaning states as California still rush to affirm the gender identity of young people.
Democratic Gov Gavin Newsom this month signed a first-in-the nation law, which blocks public school districts from requiring staff to notify parents when their kids change pronouns in class.
California parents told DailyMail.com the law would encourage more districts to implement secret sex change policies, and leave moms and dads unable to trust teachers and even consider switching to private schools.
The new law was ‘the last straw,’ he posted.
Days later, Musk revealed that his estranged transgender daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson, now 20, was ‘ killed’ by the ‘woke mind virus’ after transitioning from male to female.
Musk said he ‘was essentially tricked into signing documents’ to allow a gender procedure by being told that, if he did not, the child ‘might commit suicide.’
