“You need to get a personal email set up so we still have a way to communicate.”
“I would take you into my home any time you need.”
“Make sure this email is deleted too when we are done bc otherwise when your mom looks, you will be outed instantly.”
"I kept emailing you but I was worried your mom interfered before you saw my messages."
Those are real emails between an adult and a 10-year-old child. In every imaginable context, they are inappropriate. Yet inside one of America’s most scrutinized public school districts, emails like those are the natural result of policies around gender identity that seek to keep parents in the dark.
“This goes into a secretive relationship between staff and child where deception and interference between the child and parent is obvious," said Alesha Perkins, who has spoken out nationally about several policies and practices inside the Olympia (WA) School District, where all three of her children attended. Hard copies of the above emails were left in her mailbox anonymously by concerned parents. She later received thousands more that were part of a larger public disclosure request – all of which were provided to unDivided for review.
Perkins, who blew the whistle on unauthorized sex-ed lessons, student groups segregated by race, and the appointment of an anti-cop activist to the school board, says the emails are the most egregious example yet of political and social agendas filtering into classrooms.
“This is probably the most disturbing thing that I've seen because it is such a level of coordinated deception that so many people have to play a part in, including young children," Perkins said. "It was just beyond shocking, and it goes beyond school policy of calling children by their preferred pronouns/gender."
At the center of the emails, which span from the summer to the fall of 2022, are exchanges between Centennial Elementary School teacher Jennifer Knight and one of her 5th grade students. For the purposes of this article, we will refer to the student as “Taylor.” Their real name is not being used and has been redacted in documents to protect their identity.
While many of the emails from Jennifer Knight to students and staff reflect a dedicated teacher who cares about the wellbeing of her class, in April of 2022 Knight employed elaborate measures to keep Taylor’s gender identity a secret from her parents.
In an email to more than a dozen staff members on April 28, 2022, Knight informed them that Taylor, a biological girl, would be using he/him/they/them pronouns.
“Crew Knight has a student who has recently changed their name and pronouns in school and this email is to inform you of that change because you work with this child in some capacity,” the email read.
“Crew Knight” is the nickname Knight used for her class.
“Taylor has opened up to me these past few months and has just requested this change. Please understand that this change is his right and is not to be questioned. Please also know that they are not going by this change at home, and we will not be discussing this with his family.”
In the Olympia School District, policies allow for teachers and staff to hide such information from a student’s parents, considering it “classified health information.”
Confidential Health or Educational Information about a student's gender status, legal name, or gender assigned at birth may constitute confidential medical or educational information. Disclosing this information to other students, their parents, or other third parties may violate privacy laws, such as the federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. §1232; 34 C.F.R. Part 99). Therefore, to ensure the safety and well-being of the student, school employees should not disclose a student's transgender or gender nonconforming status to others, including the student's parents and/or other school personnel, unless the school is (1) legally required to do so or (2) the student has authorized such disclosure.
The district’s policies are mostly in line with state policy from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, which states that “in general, school staff should not share a student's transgender or gender-diverse status, legal name, or sex assigned at birth with others, who could include other students, school staff, and non-school staff.” Non-school staff could be interpreted to include parents.
However, Knight took the secrecy a step further, engaging in private emails with Taylor and advising her to delete those emails to avoid detection. It raises a critically important question: Where does a teacher’s care and concern for their students cross the line?
Also concerning, is that Knight’s deception extended to in-person meetings with Taylor’s mother, where she expressed concern about Taylor’s mental health – all the while concealing the child’s challenges with gender dysphoria.
In an email sent to Taylor’s mother on May 9, 2022, Knight asked for an “in-person informal conference.”
“I am concerned about her mental health – her self-esteem and how she feels about herself is low and I think meeting in person and talking together would help Taylor feel supported. I don’t have all the answers, but I was hoping we could chat and see if we can brainstorm some ways to support her.”
Keep in mind, just one month later, on June 18, Knight was not only encouraging Taylor to hide emails from her mom but invited Taylor to her house to stay with her.
"The teacher has gone beyond 'I'd like to help you out with this confusion you are experiencing,' to positioning herself in a sort of savior role," Perkins said.
"What this is doing, beyond setting up an adversarial relationship between the school and parents, which is horrible in the first place, it set up a secretive relationship between other students and their parents. The parents who sent me this, that was one of their concerns, that their child was being asked to keep a secret and be deceptive with them ... these are elementary school students who should feel conflicted about keeping secrets from their parents."
According to Perkins, Taylor's family has since moved her out of the district and Taylor is back to identifying as a girl.
In an email statement to unDivided, the Olympia School District pointed to policies that allow concealment of a student’s gender identity, but stated the district was working with the school board to update those policies.
“Staff are expected at all times to maintain appropriate boundaries with students and follow the Washington Code of Professional Conduct and district policies and procedures related to staff/student communications,” Susan Gifford, Executive Director of Communications and Community Relations, told unDivided in an email. “In instances when there is reason to believe those expectations are not being met, we investigate and take appropriate personnel action. We do not comment on personnel matters nor students' private information.”
However, the district confirmed that Knight is still a teacher there.
Beyond this specific case, Perkins said there is a concerning pattern of gender ideology being pushed on young students. She provided email exchanges between parents and teachers, expressing concerns about certain Pride Month activities and books. She also referenced dozens of Pride Month displays around the school district last month and questioned the impact it could have on young, impressionable minds.
"I hate to use the words agenda or indoctrination, because I think they can sound accusatory, but it gets to a point where there are no other words to describe this," she said.
"We've gone beyond celebrating diversity and celebrating differences in sexual identity and how you choose to express yourself. It does start to feel like a child cannot go to school without this being shoved on them. You do wonder what effect this is having on them."
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