Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star who has reported extensively on The Star’s obtaining of more than 80 documents related to the case of Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the Covenant School killer, said Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) has refused to respond to any of his press inquiries surrounding its involvement in the case of Hale, who reportedly had been receiving treatment from the hospital since 2001.
The Star confirmed last Wednesday it obtained dozens of pages written by Hale and documents pertaining to the case from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.
Pappert, who has published nearly 30 articles on the documents related to the case within a week, said VUMC has refused to respond to any inquires from The Star after it was revealed that Hale was prescribed at least four medications from VUMC and was treated by mental health professionals associated with VUMC since April 2001.
“Vanderbilt so far – multiple PR professionals, communications professionals, different departments of Vanderbilt University Medical Center – has not replied to a single comment request from The Tennessee Star, which is almost to the point of absurdity. I’ve almost never had anything like this in my professional life where you’re writing articles that are national news and one of the subjects is not even replying, ‘Sorry. We’re not commenting at this time.’ So it is very peculiar,” Pappert explained on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Pappert went on to speculate that despite VUMC having a “cutting edge transgender program,” the hospital may be reluctant to answer press inquiries due to its possible failure to offer such treatments to Hale, who, in one of her journal entries reviewed by The Star, declared her “need” for a “trans doctor” just 19 days before she orchestrated the horrific attack on the Covenant School on March 27, 2023.
“Now, we do know that Vanderbilt has a popular and very, from what I’ve gathered, cutting edge transgender program. They have, I think, four different physicians who are part of it – one of whom is a surgeon that does top and bottom surgeries for people like Audrey Hale who want to transition gender. They have a buddy program for individuals who are transgender to be paired up with another transgender person as they go through treatment together. They have talk therapy. They have LGBT health in general for individuals who may need it. But it seems as though from what we know, none of that may have been offered to Audrey Hale, or at least Vanderbilt doesn’t want to let us know,” Pappert said.
Pappert also speculated about VUMC’s seeming reluctance to cooperate with the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) amid the investigation as the hospital did not immediately respond to a subpoena for all records relating to Hale to be turned over.
“I think there was a lag between the subpoena that, I think, is somewhat voluntary and that was sent by MNPD to Vanderbilt and then apparently they didn’t get what they needed through the subpoena. They felt they had to go and take the additional step of getting a search warrant. So it could be that Vanderbilt has been a little bit unwilling to talk about this case with anybody including the police,” Pappert said.
When it comes to the medical professionals at VUMC who may have failed to provide Hale with the appropriate or requested treatment, Pappert noted that those professionals may be subject to “consequences.”
“Now, I want to preface this by saying that I’m a conservative – I don’t believe in transgenderism as it is currently understood in the DSM-5 but from my understanding, not only with those doctors if she said, ‘I am gender dysphoric, I’m suffering from this and I want to transition,’ if she told them that and they didn’t act on it, my guess is that they could have suffered professional consequences. This is, you know, if your patient comes to you and says, ‘Hey, I have a tumor that I need cut off,’ in their minds it’s a serious medical issue,” Pappert explained.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
