Federal officials should consider pausing or withdrawing government approval of the drugs used in gender-transitioning procedures such as those administered to Nashville Covenant School shooter Audrey Hale, according to a Tennessee congressman.
“I think it certainly warrants some sort of investigation and or hearing into the matter. These are powerful drugs; they have side effects that can clearly be dangerous, if not deadly. And so I think it does call into question whether or not these drugs should be on the market and certainly consideration of the question of should there be further guidance and warnings and stipulations given as to when they are administered or prescribed,” Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) told The Epoch Times on May 5.
Ogles’ congressional district includes The Covenant School, a private Christian facility for pre-schoolers through sixth graders, where on March 27 Hale, a former student there, shot her way into the building and killed six people, including three 9-year-old children and three adults.
Ogles said the final decision about the status of the drugs should be left “to the doctors and the experts, but this is an important question and, again, I think we have to ask these questions on behalf of the families, on behalf of the Nashville community, and of course, the nation.”
The dead included Hallie Scruggs, the daughter of one of the pastors of Covenant Presbyterian Church of which the school is a ministry, and Katherine Koonce, the Head of School for the educational facility. Hale fired more than 150 rounds from a rifle and a pistol she used in the attack before two members of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) killed her.
Hale was undergoing drug treatments used in the controversial medical procedures involved in transforming the physical gender attributes of a male or female individual to those of their opposite sex. The procedures are typically used for an individual diagnosed with Gender Dysphoria, a mental condition in which the person is born as one gender but identifies with the opposite gender.
Ogles also told The Epoch Times he thinks it’s past time for authorities to make public Hale’s Manifesto—her journal and other writings used prior to her attack and resulting death—that have been in the possession of the MNPD. The documents have been analyzed by the FBI’s experts in analyzing the psychological profiles of individuals like Hale who have become mass killers.
Public demand for release of the Manifesto has been growing since the officials declined to do so in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. The Tennessee Firearms Association and a former local sheriff filed a request with a state court seeking an order for the documents’ release.
Make the Manifesto Public Now
“After the shooting, the Nashville police had been great at communicating, but now we’re at this point where it is time for them to release the Manifesto. Part of that is they owe it to the families, the community, and, quite frankly, they owe it to the nation,” Ogles continued.“The manifesto is going to show that that woman was deeply troubled. It’s going to bring into question whether or not she should have been transitioning, and it’s going to bring into question the culpability of the doctors and the clinicians involved in feeding her physchosis,” he said.
“So it is imperative, from a trust and an accountability issue that Metro Nashville release the Manifesto and they do it immediately,” Ogles stated.
Police officials said on May 3 that, while they had been preparing for a public release of the Manifesto, the filing of litigation on the issue prompted them to withhold it on the advice of counsel.
Asked if he sees a congressional role in the investigation of the shooting, Ogles told The Epoch Times that he is “committed to making sure that, first and foremost, the family and the community have their questions answered and I will take—as a member of Congress—whatever steps are necessary to facilitate that.
“If that means that we have to have a hearing, or a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request or subpoenas, we are going to do whatever we can within our power to make sure that the nation has the answers and, once and for all, peel back the truth about how mentally disturbed this individual was.
“Ogles has called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to open a Hate Crime investigation of Hale’s murderous actions. In a March 30 statement, he declared that, “In the wake of the Covenant School shooting, there has been a movement by radical Leftists to victimize and legitimize the actions of the shooter because she identified as transgender. Make no mistake—she was a domestic terrorist who sought to kill and destroy. This type of targeted, brutal assault on Christians is nothing less than a hate crime.”
“Additionally, we urge you to forcefully condemn anti-Christian bias to send an unambiguous message to all Americans that discrimination against any community is un-American and will not be tolerated.”
A spokesman for Ogles told The Epoch Times that DOJ has not responded to the letter.
