BALTIMORE (WBFF) — Baltimore City Public Schools hired outside consultants to train teachers on how to instruct students about gender identity, including payments to a consultant who has said children can be transgender as young as three-years-old, according to a Spotlight on Maryland investigation.
Hundreds of emails obtained through a public information request show how City Schools shaped sex education instruction between 2021 and 2024, with a particular emphasis on gender identity. During the same period, the district continued to post the worst test scores and highest rate of chronic absenteeism in Maryland.
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Records show City Schools tapped two outside organizations – Advocates for Youth (AFY) and Healthy Teen Network (HTN) — to train teachers as a part of its participation in UChoose, a federally funded program aimed at reducing teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Both organizations publicly support allowing minors to access puberty blockers and hormone treatments for gender transitions. For years, they were tasked with training City Schools teachers on sex education curricula that introduce lessons on gender identity beginning in kindergarten.
One of the primary consultants paid by City Schools was Nora Gelperin, director of sexual education and training at AFY. Gelperin co-wrote the organization’s “Rights, Respect, Responsibility” (3Rs) sex education curriculum.
City schools board documents show the district “highly encouraged” teachers to use the 3Rs curriculum in all grades since 2021, when it announced a partnership with AFY on teacher trainings. A Spotlight review of the district’s curricula showed it used the 3Rs through at least 2024 in elementary and middle schools.
Spotlight previously reported that the Maryland State Board of Education paid AFY $4,800 in fiscal year 2021 to tailor the 3Rs curriculum to Maryland’s health education framework. That curriculum includes lessons on gender identity and genitalia for kindergartners and instruction on what it means to be transgender for sixth graders. Teachers are directed to use gender-neutral language such as “a person with a vulva” instead of “girl.”
Emails from October 2024 show City Schools paid Gelperin $3,300 to train teachers on how to implement the 3Rs curriculum. Five days before the training, a City Schools employee acknowledged in an email that only five teachers had signed up.
City Schools’ relationship with Gelperin dates back several years. The district paid her $20,000 in fiscal year 2020 for consulting services, according to a previous Spotlight on Maryland report. Additional emails show a $1,500 teacher training led by Gelperin in January 2022 focused on the 3Rs curriculum.
In January 2023, Gelperin accepted a request from Geoff Meehle, City Schools’ coordinator for health and physical education, to present to the Maryland Family Life Advisory Committee, which provides community feedback on sex education proposals.
Meehle described the presentation as an “overview of tips/effective practices for engaging and education parents and other stakeholders on the importance of our sensitive and sometimes controversial topics in sex ed.”
“I assume gender identity is high on the list? The worry about exposure to sexuality information too soon being harmful?” Gelperin responded.
“Yes, those topics would be great to focus on. My hope is they will learn some tips and tricks from you around how to approach conversations when a parent has a concern and/or is outright angry with the content. Then I’m going to select two members to role play – LOL,” Meehle replied.
In a 2022 interview published on Facebook, Gelperin claimed 3-year-old children can be transgender and socially transition at school.
“Kids that are transgender at the ages of 3, 4, and 5 are able to say they feel like their body is wrong. They feel like something is different with them. How they identify on the inside isn’t matching up with what they see on the outside. And that’s why you’ll see some kids start to socially transition in kindergarten, first and second grade,” she said.
As part of the Maryland 3Rs curriculum, a fourth-grade homework assignment includes a cartoon video produced by AFY titled “Talking Sexual Orientation,” which tells children it is “common to feel confused” about sexuality.
Lessons inclusive of different gender identities, AFT argues, ensure school districts recognize LGBT youth.
“Inclusive programs are those that help youth understand gender identity and sexual orientation with age appropriate and medically accurate information; incorporate positive examples of LGBTQ individuals, romantic relationships and families; emphasize the need for protection during sex for people of all identities; and dispel common myths and stereotypes about behavior and identity,” AFT says on its website.
Blanca Tapahuasco, a mother and former Baltimore City teacher, said she taught in City Schools from 2019 to 2020 but left the district weeks before the pandemic. She later pulled her youngest child from the school system over concerns she described as “gender ideology.”
Tapahuasco said a teacher once scolded a preschooler for saying boys don’t wear dresses. She also said she was instructed to read a book about same-sex couples to 4-year-olds.
“My decision to leave was solely based on how I was put in a position to compromise my beliefs, my personal convictions,” she told Spotlight on Maryland. “My first thought was, ‘Would the parents be OK with me reading this book?’ That wasn’t an option for me to ask them.”
A spokeswoman for City schools emphasized that AFY and HTN do not provide instruction directly to students. Both groups train teachers as sub-grantees under the federally funded UChoose program, she said. City Schools does not have active purchase orders with either organization.
A spokeswoman for the Maryland State Department of Education said the department does not have an active partnership with AFY and does not prescribe specific instructional materials or curricula to local school districts.
The Baltimore City government received roughly $16 million in federal taxpayer dollars for the UChoose program since 2015, with an additional $1.8 million scheduled annually through 2028.
Last year, the Trump administration issued updated guidance for the federal Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program – which funds UChoose – warning that grantees could lose funding if they promote what it describes as “gender ideology.”
The UChoose website refers minors to clinics that provide abortions, puberty blockers and cross-gender hormones, as previously reported by Spotlight on Maryland.
HTN helps manage the UChoose program, which includes other local partners such as Planned Parenthood.
Emails show that from 2022 to 2024, HTN trained City Schools teachers on sex education, including how to use multiple curricula such as 3Rs and Positive Prevention Plus.
Personal development days for health and physical education teachers also included sessions led by outside groups with titles such as “Promoting Equity, Diversity & Inclusion via Carefully Designed Instant Activities” and “Climate Change! Engage, Motivate & Inspire All Students.”
“Your support and advocacy does not go unnoticed!” an HTN employee wrote to Meehle in and April 2023 email.
Jonathan Alexandre, legislative counsel for the Maryland Family Institute, said the partnerships reflect misplaced priorities at a struggling school system.
“A situation like this lets us understand that we’re such a far cry from the reading, writing and arithmetic — the basic building stones of a good institution and a basic school education,” he said.
Tapahuasco said she could not risk the exposure of “gender ideology” to her child at City Schools. She said her decision to remove her child from the system and put him in a private school has been a financial burden on her family.
“It’s preying on children,” she said. “Yes, I’m working three jobs. And I work seven days a week. And I take PTO for appointments and commitments. My responsibility is solely to my children.”
Spotlight on Maryland is a joint venture by The Baltimore Sun, FOX45 News and WJLA in Washington, D.C. Have a news tip? Call 410-467-4670 or email SpotlightOnMaryland@sbgtv.com. Contact Patrick Hauf at pjhauf@sbgtv.com and @PatrickHauf on X.
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