A teacher in the Olympia School District was privately communicating with a 10-year-old student about her gender identity, and even invited the girl to her house and suggested she set up a private email account and delete messages, “…otherwise when your mom looks, you will be outed instantly.”
Alesha Perkins, who has put a spotlight on the policies of the Washington school district obtained thousands of emails and documents as part of a public disclosure request and turned them over to the unDivided podcast.
According to host Brandi Kruse, the emails from the summer to the fall of 2022, is between Jennifer Knight, a teacher at Centennial Elementary School, and one of her 5th-grade students.
In an email to school staff on April 28, Knight said that the student, a biological girl, would now be using he/him/they/them pronouns.
“Crew Knight,” the teacher wrote referring to the class, “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 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.”
The district’s policies allow for teachers and staff to conceal gender identity and other related issues from a student’s parents, similar to the state policy which reads, “…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.”