Dozens of New Mexico public schools host in-house health clinics, shielding activities from parents under the guise of patient privacy and advancing the American Federation of Teachers’ (AFT) goal of teaching the “whole child.”
In videos obtained by Townhall Media, a school health center worker explains how the clinics have the authority to call students out of class and teachers can even refer students for care.
At Highland High School in Albuquerque, a worker told the undercover journalist by telephone that Albuquerque Public Schools “lends” the space to the clinic “to provide services to our students.” APS has 14 school-based health centers, according to the district website.
The journalist’s story was that his niece is a student at the school and is wanting to terminate a pregnancy.
“I could call her out of class,” the worker said in the November 19, 2025, call. An assessment would be done, and the student would potentially be referred to another provider to review “options” for the pregnancy.
“She is welcome to come up here (the clinic) any time, we’ll take her back to a room and just talk to her, and then we'll assess,” the worker said.
A school counselor at Centennial High School in Las Cruces told the journalist, who was posing as the uncle of a student who wanted to transition from girl to boy, that it would be hard to find a provider who would give hormone therapy to a 14-year-old because “their brains are still developing,” and that the drug “messes up their brain development.”
The worker, identified as “Iris” in the video, said it would be difficult to find a doctor to do such things, “but we do have a lot of support within our school base, as far as we are very supportive of them being transgender.”
In the video, Iris said the school health center provides “therapy” for students who believe they are trans, but on the La Clinica de Familia website, which runs the school clinic, nothing related to transgenderism is listed. Another worker, identified as “Melissa,” said the school clinic can refer students for other outpatient services.
These exchanges are examples of the American Federation of Teachers’ campaign to teach the “whole child.” That is, not just reading and math, but social skills, cultural competency, and sexual health. The AFT’s vision is to make the school the hub of a student’s life. The union describes “community schools” this way: “The community school model puts schools at the center of the community. It focuses on academic, health and social support services; youth and community development; and community engagement to improve student learning, strengthen families and build healthier communities.”
NMHealth, a website published by the New Mexico Department of Health, claimed school health centers as a positive for children because they help “keep them in the classroom.”
“The New Mexico Department of Health’s (NMDOH) Office of School & Adolescent Health Office funds 59 of the more than 80 school-based health centers in the state,” according to the department.