The Olympia School District has yet to answer critical questions around the conduct of a 5th grade teacher who encouraged a student to hide her gender identity from her parents and carried on secret communications with the child for months. Meanwhile, we now know more about the role the teacher allegedly played in convincing the young student that she should identify as a boy.
In an exclusive report earlier this month, unDivided shared emails between Centennial Elementary School teacher Jennifer Knight and a 10-year-old student. In the emails, Knight tells the girl to set up a private email address so they can communicate, and in one message tells the child to delete their exchange so her mother doesn’t see it.
“I would take you into my home any time you need,” one email read.
"I kept emailing you, but I was worried your mom interfered before you saw my messages,” read another.
In response to inquiries about the emails, an Olympia School District spokesperson pointed to district policy that allows “information about a student's gender status” to be protected as confidential health information – even from parents and guardians.
As to whether Jennifer Knight’s emails took that policy too far, Susan Gifford, the district’s executive director of communications and community relations, was evasive.
“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,” she wrote in an email to unDivided. “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.”
In inquiries after the original story was published, unDivided has repeatedly pressed the district to be more specific about this case, including whether there was an investigation into the actions of Knight, and if so, what corrective action was taken. We have also asked the district to explain why Knight’s picture was removed from online staff databases around the time the story was published, then put back up.
Meanwhile, the Olympia School District mom who tipped us off to the existence of the emails has learned more about how the secretive exchanges between Knight and the student began.
Alesha Perkins said parents close to the family at the center of the story have been more forthcoming with details now that the ordeal is public – including that the child’s family immigrated here and ended up moving back to their home country to escape Knight’s hold on their daughter.
To protect the child’s identity, unDivided has agreed not to use her name, or to say the specific country her family immigrated from.
“After our interview where the story was exposed, I had multiple people reach out to me with firsthand knowledge of the situation. Not only to confirm what was reported, but to give more details about what happened,” Perkins said in an interview this past week on Sundays with Subscribers. “Some of them are staff members who worked with Mrs. Knight during all of this. Some of them are parents that were close with the child and who the mother confided in.”
Perkins said she learned that it was Knight who first suggested the child may not be comfortable as a girl. The conversation began after the student wore a traditional dress for a cultural event. She later complained to Mrs. Knight that it was itchy and uncomfortable.
“Knight would say to the child, ‘well maybe you don’t like to wear dresses. Maybe cultural norms of gender shouldn’t be pushed on you,’ and things like that,” said Perkins. “Over the next several months these conversations and confidential relationship between student and child continued – which, by Mrs. Knight’s own admission, was happening. By April she announced that the child was transgender.”
The timeline and story match up with emails that were part of the initial public records request.
In an email to more than a dozen staff members on April 28, 2022, Knight informed them that the student would be using he/him/they/them pronouns.
“(The student) 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.”
Perkins said parents were kept in the dark until the child confided in them in June 2022.
“In June their child had a breakdown and went to the parents and said, ‘I can’t do this anymore. But I’m worried if I’m not a boy anymore Mrs. Knight will be upset with me or get mad,’” said Perkins, characterizing the conversation as it was told to her.
Perkins said after the child opened up to them, her mother went to confront Knight.
“Knight refused to make eye contact with (the mother), asking the student questions like ’Are you safe? Are you OK?’”
To be clear, there have been no accusations of physical abuse in the home.
Emails show Knight continued to try to contact the child, even after she was out of the school. In one email, she asked to meet in person at a strawberry patch.
Perkins said after the confrontation with Knight, the family removed the child from the school. They ended up leaving the state, and then the country – in part, because their status as immigrants left them confused and fearful about the power the school might have to take their child away.
Perkins said the student is back to identifying as a girl and is no longer struggling with mental health issues. She said parents in the district have a right to know what the school is doing to ensure something like this never happens again.
“The relentless pursuit of this child after the student was removed from the school, is completely unacceptable and bizarre. There was no reason for it, other than a loss of control over this child. It is very concerning for parents that this teacher is still there and that the district seems unwilling to discuss with anyone what they’re going to do about this.”
