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Days after an 11-year-old boy was shot in the chest by an Indianola police officer, family and community members are calling for answers and for the officer’s termination.

Community members identified the boy as Aderrien Murry. He was shot early Saturday morning when officers responded to a domestic call at his home, according to a statement from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the shooting.

As of Tuesday, Murry is in the intensive care unit at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, the family’s attorney Carlos Moore said. He was placed on a ventilator because he has a collapsed lung, and he has other injuries including fractured ribs and a lacerated liver. 

Information about why the unarmed Murry was shot has not been released, said Moore, who is representing the boy’s family and joined them and community members at a Monday press conference outside of Indianola City Hall. 

“This cannot keep happening. This is not OK,” said Nakala Murry, the boy’s mother, during the press conference. “If a non-police officer was to shoot someone, you know it’s not okay. When the police do it, they have protocol. He was trained. He knows what to do.”

Nakala Murry said her son is strong, but Aderrien does not understand what happened to him. 

“His words were: ‘Why did he shoot me? What did I do?’ and he started crying,” she said. 

She remembers holding her son, applying pressure to his wound and seeing blood run from his mouth — an image she sees every time she closes her eyes. 

Nakala Murry said police were called to the house because the father of her other child came over and was acting irate. When he acted this way, she knew something could potentially happen and wanted “to stop it right there.” She snuck her phone to her son and asked him to call her mother and the police. 

Investigators did not name the Indianola police officer, but Moore said his investigation uncovered that the officer is Greg Capers, who was named the department’s “best officer.” 

“If he’s your best, Indianola, you need a clean house from top to bottom,” Moore said. 

After the conference, the group attended the Board of Aldermen meeting. On Monday evening, the board voted to place Capers on paid administrative leave pending further investigation, Moore said. 

He said there is always a possibility for the board to call a special meeting to take further action with Capers. 

Murry’s family and supporters are calling for Capers and Police Chief Ronald Sampson to be fired and body camera footage to be released within 48 hours. Moore is also asking the Sunflower County district attorney to prosecute the officer for attempted murder. 

If the city does not act, Moore said Murry’s family and supporters plan to hold a sit-in at Indianola City Hall starting Thursday morning. 

Moore directly addressed Mayor Ken Featherstone, telling him to take the shooting seriously, and Sampson, telling him to give the family and community answers and questioning why he didn’t take past misconduct from Capers seriously. 

Moore said the officer has not been disciplined for tasing another client of his, Kelvin Franklin, while the man was in handcuffs in December 2022. 

On Tuesday, Sampson declined to comment, but he said he and the mayor are likely to make a statement once MBI completes its investigation. Featherstone did not respond to a request for comment. 

“What are you waiting on? Someone to actually die?” Moore said during the press conference. “An 11-year-old almost died. By the grace of God, he is alive. The people of Indianola are not going to wait until somebody dies.”

The post ‘This is not OK’: Mother of 11-year-old shot by Indianola police pleads for answers appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is moving forward in finding a solution for flood control in Jackson and will hold two public meetings in the city on Wednesday to present new details and listen to residents.

The Corps put out an update last week indicating that a new environmental impact study is in the works. In the new study, the federal agency will compare several flood control options, including the highly-debated “One Lake” project.

It’s the latest step in a decades-long effort to shore up flooding from the Pearl River in the capital city.

For years, a local sponsor — the Rankin Hinds Flood & Drainage Control District — has pushed One Lake, a proposal that would widen the river for about nine miles between Jackson and Rankin County and add recreational areas for residents. The proposal’s backers suggest it would reduce flood risk by giving the river more room to flow and by bolstering levees along the edges.

The Corps will also look at other alternatives, however, including buy-outs for the 3,000 structures in the flood plain, as well as elevation and other flood-proofing measures. The agency’s release said that the Corps may also consider hybrids of the alternatives and One Lake.

The agency is expecting a draft of the study to be released for public comment in September. After a 45-day public review period, the Corps will incorporate feedback into a final study. Once the final study is finished, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works will take at least 30 days to make a decision on the project proposal.

The two public meetings will be on Wednesday, May 24, at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m., both at the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum at 1150 Lakeland Drive in Jackson.

Last fall, the Army Corps pledged $221 million to the project, contingent on its approval. The flood district’s attorney, Keith Turner, said at the time that One Lake is estimated to cost $340 million.

Ever since the district first announced the plan in 2011, criticisms from Republicans and Democrats, officials in Mississippi and Louisiana — where the Pearl River flows into Lake Borgne and then into the Gulf of Mexico — and environmental experts and advocates nationwide have plagued the project. Opponents argue One Lake would threaten endangered species, valuable wetlands, and interrupt water flow to communities downstream.

The Corps’ upcoming study will look at any adverse environmental impacts and weigh it against the flood control benefits provided by the project. One Lake, the agency noted, would convert 2,069 acres of terrestrial habitat into aquatic habitat, and also impact about 1,861 acres of wetlands and “other waters of the U.S.”

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Chris McDaniel is challenging incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann to a series of debates ahead of the Aug. 8 GOP primary.

“Mississippi voters deserve the chance to hear directly from the candidates running to represent them in Jackson,” McDaniel, a four-term state senator, said. “… I hope Delbert Hosemann will join me and provide Mississippi voters with transparency on where his values and priorities are.”

Hosemann campaign spokeswoman Leah Rupp Smith in a statement responded: “We have already been to candidate forums, one with all lieutenant governor candidates, and others are planned in the future.”

Conventional campaign wisdom is for an incumbent frontrunner, particularly one with a wide-margin lead in fundraising and-or name recognition to shy away from debates that could give a little-known insurgent a toe hold. But McDaniel is well known to voters from unsuccessful but notable runs for U.S. Senate and he could make hay if Hosemann refuses to debate. Voters tend to expect debates in top-ticket races such as for lieutenant governor and governor.

Last cycle, Hosemann and his Democratic opponent, then-state Rep. Jay Hughes, had a televised debate in Hosemann’s successful first run for lieutenant governor.

READ MORE: Hosemann, Hughes agree a lot during debate; neither will work to legislatively change flag

News in the GOP primary race for lieutenant governor has thus far been dominated by Hosemann’s claims that McDaniel’s campaign and a PAC he created violated campaign finance laws with improper reporting and large donations from an out-of-state dark money group, most of which McDaniel has reported he returned.

READ MORE: Chris McDaniel’s reports deny accurate public accounting of campaign money

McDaniel in a letter to Hosemann asked him to participate in debates — “a staple of American elections and key to the Democratic process.” He posted the letter on social media and said, “Enough of Delbert ‘the Democrat’ and his nonsense political games. It’s time to talk about the issues impacting Mississippi voters everyday.”

McDaniel is proposing holding televised debates in Jackson, Tupelo, Gulfport-Biloxi, the Pine Belt, DeSoto, and also having one at the Neshoba County Fair.

The post McDaniel challenges Hosemann to debates in lieutenant governor race appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Hospital Association shrinks again as several hospitals dropped out of the state trade organization this week.

Ochsner Health System and North Mississippi Medical Center recently left the association. Merit Health also severed ties, according to multiple media reports.

The exodus began in late April, when the state’s largest public hospital, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, left the MHA. Memorial Hospital System in Gulfport, Singing River on the coast, George Health System and Forrest General Hospital followed soon after.

Almost none of the hospital’s letters announcing their departure cited a reason beyond doubts with the organization’s “leadership.” All of the hospitals’ leaders have declined to publicly expand on their decisions. 

The separations, however, come on the heels of a major donation from the MHA’s political action committee.

The PAC contributed $250,000, its largest donation in history, to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley’s campaign just days before UMMC dropped out of the organization, MHA executive director Tim Moore previously confirmed to Mississippi Today. 

Presley is an outspoken proponent of Medicaid expansion. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, the incumbent candidate, has adamantly opposed the measure, though a recent poll shows most Mississippians support it.

Research shows Medicaid expansion would bring millions into Mississippi’s struggling hospitals. Moore previously told Mississippi Today that’s why the hospitals’ departures have bewildered him. 

He said the donation to Presley’s campaign was made after the MHA board recommended the move. Though the PAC operates separately from the MHA, it’s also headed up by Moore, who serves on the MHA board. 

Ochsner’s termination letter to the MHA, attributed to Chief Operating Officer and President Mike Hulefeld, reiterated previous hospitals’ concerns about the organization’s leadership. 

“There is tremendous value in having a hospital association that serves as a strategic and thoughtful advocate on issues of importance to Mississippi’s hospitals and the patients we serve,” Hulefeld said in the letter, dated May 19. “Unfortunately, MHA’s current leadership and approach is preventing the association from accomplishing this goal.”

All of the hospitals that Ochsner operates in Mississippi will no longer be part of the MHA, the letter confirmed.

North Mississippi Medical Center declined to provide their termination letter to Mississippi Today, but a spokesperson confirmed that four of their facilities — in Tupelo, Eupora, Iuka and Pontotoc — would be leaving the organization.

Merit Health, which operates nine hospitals across Mississippi, confirmed to Magnolia Tribune that they, too, would be ending their relationship with the MHA. Spokespeople for the hospital system could not be reached by time of publication.

The state trade organization lobbies on behalf of Mississippi’s hospitals. As they continue to lose members, Moore said it would impact their finances and ability to successfully advocate. 

The MHA is largely funded through member dues, and Moore in a previous interview said the departures would have to be accounted for when calculating funding for the next fiscal year, which starts in July.

The post The exodus continues: Three major health systems leave state hospital association appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Should she be successful, Mississippi would join neighboring states such as Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas and Florida in providing an alternative to giving birth in a hospital setting for pregnant women who are low-risk. The birth center would also be a place for women to receive prenatal care from certified nurse midwives as well as postpartum support.

But after nearly a year working to secure funding for her nonprofit Sisters in Birth to open the center, she’s come up short – and she blames what she calls an unfair and unclear federal funding process funneled through the state’s members of Congress. 

Israel applied for federal funds through a lesser-known program called Community Project Funding in which constituents can request their senator or representative recommend their projects for funding to the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations. Only nonprofits are eligible for the funds, and lawmakers must also certify that they and their immediate family members do not have a financial interest in the organization.

She said despite providing ample evidence of the benefits of birth centers and midwife care to mothers and babies, plus a letter of support from State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney, Republican U.S. Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith – whom she refers to as “so-called pro-life” – and Democratic 2nd District U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson did not refer her project for funding. 

However, they did request funding for projects for nonprofits with millions in net assets and hired lobbyists – a point with which Israel, whose organization reported around $5,000 in negative net assets on its most recently available tax form, took issue.

“You should see the waste on the list. I identified 13 large, wealthy organizations, which primarily receive the bulk of this recommended funding for fiscal years 2023 and 2024 – they have total net assets of tens of millions of dollars,” she said. “Several of these organizations aren’t in Mississippi.”

She said small nonprofits in Mississippi desperately need funding but may not be aware of how to get it, much less successfully get on any congress member’s recommended funding list.

“There are thousands of nonprofit organizations in Mississippi; the majority are small and struggling to provide crucial services to Mississippians. These organizations likely have never heard of these federal earmark programs because our congressional members fail to promote it,” she said. “Consequently, only corporations with relationships to legislators or their staff will know to apply.”

Information about Community Project Funding is on each Congress member’s website, along with a page dedicated to information about applying for federal grants. General guidance for applying for Community Project Funding is online.

Neither Wicker nor Hyde-Smith responded to questions for this story. A spokeswoman for Thompson said no favoritism is given to particular applications but declined to answer specific questions.

“Each application stands on its own,” Alexus Hunter, press secretary for Thompson, said. “The federal government considers supporting a variety of federal programs. However, this application wasn’t selected through the (Community Project Funding).”

Wicker’s office requested $1.5 million for a D.C.-based group called Reading is Fundamental Inc. to implement a childhood literacy program in Mississippi. His office also recommended sending $997,000 to a group called Save the Children, also located in D.C., for a project that would provide learning resources to children and families in rural communities in the state.

Wicker is not the only Mississippian to steer funding to Save the Children – the well-regarded humanitarian organization also received TANF money from the Mississippi Department of Human Services in 2017. In 2021, Gov. Tate Reeves awarded the organization $460,000 in pandemic relief funds, and the organization also receives funding from the Mississippi Department of Education for literacy, nutrition and fitness programming in the schools. 

Hyde-Smith’s requested projects for fiscal year 2024 included everything from $7 million for a road project in a wealthy area of Madison County to millions for training programs at universities and community colleges to $4 million for water supply improvements for the city of Byram.

In fiscal year 2023 – the year for which Israel first applied for funds through Thompson’s office – his office requested hundreds of thousands each to cultural projects like the Community Museums of African American History and Culture Project in Belzoni and the Catfish Row Museum in Vicksburg. Also on the list was $2 million for the construction of a new clinic in Greenville.  

Israel believes such a clinic would improve maternal and infant health outcomes by minimizing medical interventions and reducing Mississippi’s first-in-the-nation C-section rates. Midwives’ holistic approach, she said, could also have a positive impact on the state’s high rates of preterm and low birthweight babies.

There are currently about 400 birth centers open and providing care in the U.S., according to the American Association of Birth Centers. Mississippi is one of only eight states that does not have a birth center. 

Jill Alliman, a certified nurse midwife who is on the board of directors of the American Association of Birth Centers, said birth centers are especially equipped to handle pregnant women with social risk factors such as mental health challenges, lower education levels or a history of domestic violence – common challenges in a community like Jackson.

Alliman said the presence of a birth center and the midwife-centered care that comes along with it could be “life changing.” 

“I think that in states like Mississippi that have so many challenges with maternal and infant health, there needs to be a big effort to increase access to the midwifery model of care and to offer options for birth center care because it’s part of the solution,” she said. “We can see that doing what we’ve been doing for so long is not working.”

Mississippi’s maternal mortality rate is worsening, the latest data shows. The rate increased from 33.2 deaths per 100,000 live births in the time span of 2013 to 2016 to 36.0 deaths per live births from 2017 to 2019. 

The worsening rate disproportionately impacts Black women, who had a rate of 65.1 deaths per 100,000 live births – more than four times the ratio for white women. 

“The (maternal and infant health) outcomes are deplorable in Mississippi. Over the last 50 years, those numbers just seem to get worse,” Israel said. “ … Midwives put an intervention in place. She’s looking at the whole person and treating the whole person.”

State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney echoed Israel in a letter of support he wrote for Israel’s birth center, calling it “change that cannot wait” in Mississippi.

“As you know, many women in Mississippi are unable to access prenatal care and adequate labor and delivery options that are safe for both mothers and babies,” he said. “… The use of birthing centers, with affiliations with critical access hospitals, is one of those evidence-based options that has demonstrated success in improving health outcomes for mothers and babies.” 

Officials with the Mississippi State Medical Association declined to respond when asked for the organization’s position on birth centers. 

Israel has shifted her approach: she is now reaching out to private organizations for fundraising. She has also produced a documentary about birth disparities in Mississippi that she is promoting nationwide to raise awareness about the issues facing Mississippi and to let people know they can help by donating money to build a birth center.

She said she’s found an ideal location in the medical district in Jackson and plans to purchase it.

However, In the meantime, women are driving to Memphis and Baton Rouge for birth centers, she said.

“I’m done looking inside the state of Mississippi. I’ve knocked on many doors –  corporations, foundations, city and local governments … There’s no (financial) support in Mississippi, but I know women want this. I’m not driven by these so-called leaders. I’m driven by what women want.”

The post Nonprofit fights for funding to open state’s first birth center appeared first on Mississippi Today.

In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with outgoing WLBT Meteorologist Patrick Ellis. Ellis, who will still be seen by many Mississippi Today readers who live in the Memphis broadcast area, will be going to WMC as their weekday morning forecaster.

He talks about his love of weather, his six years in the Jackson market and what’s ahead for this talented forecaster. He overcame his childhood fear of thunderstorms to pursue a career in meteorology and broadcasting after graduating from Mississippi State University’s highly touted meteorology program.

The post Mississippi Stories: Patrick Ellis appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A judge will not block the Harrison County School District from requiring a trans girl to dress as a boy for her graduation ceremony Saturday. 

The order was given from the bench late Friday night after attempts to settle the matter in conference and a hearing Friday afternoon, according to court records. 

The student, a 17-year-old senior at Harrison Central High School, has been openly transgender for her entire high school career and has “frequently and consistently worn dresses, skirts, and traditionally feminine clothing items and accessories to school and school-sponsored events and activities, without issue or repercussion,” according to the original complaint. 

The ACLU sued the district Thursday after the student, referred to as L.B. in court documents, was told last week that she would not be able to wear a dress to graduation as she had been planning and would not be able to participate in the ceremony if she did wear a dress. Harrison Central High School Principal Kelly Fuller told L.B. in the course of the conversation that it was prompted by Harrison County Superintendent Mitchell King calling the school and asking what transgender students would wear to graduation.

The judge ruled that the case did not meet the standard to grant “extraordinary relief in changing the status quo in a short time period,” as reported by WLOX. The judge said there is limited case law regarding dress codes for transgender people and that similar cases did not exist. 

The lawsuit alleged gender discrimination as a violation of constitutional rights and federal law, specifically Title IX, the First Amendment’s freedom of expression clause, and the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause. The response from the school district argued that L.B. does not have a federally protected right to attend a voluntary graduation ceremony. 

The Harrison Central High School graduation is scheduled for Saturday, May 20, at 6:30 p.m. 

The post Judge denies trans student’s plea to be free to wear dress at graduation appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Enrollment and spending on pre-K remained relatively stagnant in the 2021-22 school year, according to a new national report. 

Newer state data shows that enrollment has increased significantly this school year because of recent investments from the Legislature. 

State-funded pre-K in Mississippi is primarily the Early Learning Collaboratives, which are partnerships among school districts, Head Start agencies, childcare centers and nonprofit groups. 

According to the 2022 State of Preschool Yearbook, published by the National Institute for Early Education Research, 2,807 students were enrolled in state-funded preschool last year, which amounts to 8% of the 4-year-olds in the state. The state has hovered at 8% access since 2020 when the institute previously said Mississippi had high-quality standards but lacked comprehensive access.

According to the Mississippi Department of Education, 6,800 students are being served in 37 collaboratives this year, up from 18 collaboratives last year. 

The increase in the number of collaboratives, and subsequently the number of students being served,  is the result of a $16 million increase in funding over the 2021 and 2022 legislative sessions. The state also allocated $20 million for state-funded pre-K in school districts separate from the Early Learning Collaboratives in the 2022 legislative session, which the education department allocated to 11 school districts in November of last year. 

The report, using the older figures, ranks Mississippi 37th nationally for access to state-funded pre-k. 

“Mississippi leaders should continue to move forward to address this ongoing lack of access and increase teacher pay to ensure that all children have access to the educational opportunities they deserve,” said the report’s lead author, Allison Friedman-Krauss, in a statement.

The report noted that nationally, state-funded preschool programs reported a shortage of qualified teachers. Additional data on pre-K teacher shortages in Mississippi was not available in the report, but the education department reported 66 pre-K teacher vacancies this year in its annual survey. 

When looking at pre-K access more broadly, the institute’s report found 53% of Mississippi 4-year-olds enrolled in some type of publicly funded pre-K, including Head Start and locally administered programs. 

The institute again found Mississippi to be one of the only states in the nation to meet all 10 of its quality standards, which the 2013 Early Learning Collaboratives Act was specifically designed to meet. 

“Mississippi continues to be a national leader in early childhood education because of the quality of our Early Learning Collaborative program,” Mike Kent, interim state superintendent of education, said in a statement. 

The post Report reflects few gains in state pre-K enrollment. Newer state data presents rosier picture. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A legislative committee on Friday released a report about an LGBTQ+ clinic at the University of Mississippi Medical Center that came under fire last year after lawmakers were angered to learn it had provided gender-affirming care to trans youth. 

UMMC leadership ultimately decided the “Trustworthy, Evidence-based, Affirming, Multidisciplinary,” or TEAM, clinic should stop seeing trans kids last fall even though gender-affirming care for minors was legal at the time, according to emails obtained by Mississippi Today. 

It wasn’t until earlier this year that lawmakers passed House Bill 1125, which banned the provision of gender-affirming care to trans minors in Mississippi. 

READ MORE: ‘Facing political pressure, UMMC cut care to trans kids before the Legislature banned doing so, emails show’

The purpose of Friday’s brief published by the Joint Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review, or PEER, was to provide lawmakers with an overview of — and the sources of funding for — gender-affirming care at the TEAM clinic. The report also provides a summary of HB 1125.

It asks basic questions like “why did UMMC open the TEAM clinic,” “how does the TEAM clinic operate” and “what services are provided by the TEAM clinic?” 

The answers paint a picture of a shoestring clinic without its own dedicated physical space that operated on private funds and was staffed by the goodwill of 18 employees who had other primary responsibilities at UMMC. The TEAM clinic, founded in 2015, sought to provide a slate of health services in an inclusive environment for LGBTQ+ Mississippians. That included primary care and more specialized services like mental health and gender-affirming care. 

Despite conservative lawmakers and blogs claiming that state funding was paying “for mutilation of children,” the TEAM Clinic mainly ran on patient revenue and grant funding from three sources: The Women’s Foundation of Mississippi, the LGBTQ Fund of Mississippi and the Manning Family Fund. 

The TEAM clinic did not provide surgery to patients under the age of 18. For adults, surgical referrals to UMMC’s Plastic Surgery Department were provided.

Most of the patient revenue that supported the clinic over a roughly three-year period beginning in fiscal year 2020 came from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi ($55,051) and other commercial insurances. The Mississippi Division of Medicaid paid out $24,122 in claims, according to the report, about 17% of the amount billed by UMMC for services at the TEAM clinic.  

A very small portion of state funding — an estimated $1,215 in fiscal year 2022 — paid for the few hours that providers spent at the TEAM clinic on the first Friday of every month.

The miniscule amount of state funding is similar to what PEER discovered when it also sent inquiries to Mississippi Medicaid to determine how much the agency paid out in claims associated with gender identity disorder or gender dysphoria. 

All told, it took approximately $25,000 a year to support the clinic’s operations, the PEER found.

The clinic saw less than 300 patients in the same three-year period, an estimate that might be “overinflated” due to the way UMMC maintained confidentiality in its patient count, the report found. 

Just 221 people in that same period sought “gender transition services” at the TEAM Clinic, which the report appears to have counted as services ranging from “behavioral health” to prescriptions like puberty blockers and hormone therapy. 

Over the three-year period, PEER estimated that just 53 patients under the age of 18 received gender transition services. 

But the report says that “in FY 2024, the number of minors served in the Clinic should be zero.” 

That number is due to HB 1125 but also to UMMC’s decision, made many months before the bill passed, to stop providing gender-affirming care like hormone therapy and puberty blockers to trans youth at the TEAM clinic. The PEER committee’s report may have been a factor in that decision.

The first inkling UMMC received of lawmakers’ interest in the clinic came on Aug. 31 when UMMC Vice Chancellor and Dean of the School of Medicine Dr. LouAnn Woodward was sent via hand mail a letter from the committee that was then forwarded to the TEAM clinic.

PEER’s letter requested “certain information regarding services provided by and payments provided to UMMC regarding gender transition services,” including how many services were provided to youth and adults and what amount had been subsidized by taxpayers or billed to Mississippi Medicaid. 

Lawmakers had asked about the clinic in the past, but this time, PEER’s letter was followed by what Kristy Simms, UMMC’s point person with elected officials at the state and federal level, described as “dozens of inquiries,” according to emails obtained by Mississippi Today. 

After Simms talked with lawmakers, emails show she proposed UMMC consider shutting down the clinic. She characterized her conversations with lawmakers, including Sam Mims, the chair of the House Public Health and Human Services Committee, as “hostile and slightly threatening.”  

“It’s looking more and more like we have two options,” she wrote on Sept. 12. “Pause or shutter some/all of the work of the Center or be told to do so by the legislature in January.” 

Staring in early October, the TEAM clinic began implementing leadership’s decision to stop providing gender-affirming care to trans kids, a move that impacted services across the hospital — and left parents and patients scrambling. 

“Because it was such a welcoming environment, I couldn’t believe that they had just dropped patients like that,” Raymond Walker, a trans teenager who had sought care at the clinic, told Mississippi Today in April. “I was just completely blindsided.” 

The emails also show UMMC leadership pondering if they should begin “dismantling” the TEAM in response to lawmakers’ inquiries. 

The PEER report ends with a recommendation for a way UMMC could do that. 

“UMMC could consider integrating services provided by the TEAM Clinic back into UMMC’s regular care setting, similar to the way it did with services provided to minors, and offer optional LGBTQ training courses to all staff and students,” the report says. 

Now law, HB 1125 provides that any Mississippian, including doctors, can be held civilly liable for “conduct” that aids and abets the provision of gender-affirming care for trans youth, but advocates and attorneys have noted it’s unclear what that looks like. 

UMMC has yet to answer that, but PEER notes the hospital’s attorneys are working to understand if its providers “will be allowed to refer patients to providers outside of the state, or if that would be considered aiding or abetting as provided in the law.” 

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