Kelly Jenkins, a teaching assistant in one of the learning centers at Wellesley Middle School, has found a safe haven in Wellesley’s public school system that she could not find in Tennessee’s once word got out that she had transitioned from identifying as a man to a woman.
Jenkins, who has been teaching in the Wellesley school system for a couple of years now, shares her story with WGBH in an interview published today. Jenkins has been quite open about her “gender journey,” as one news article put it, including via a local access program she hosts dubbed “Kelly’s Quest.”
In an email to me, Jenkins says “Serendipity is how I wound up at Wellesley. I was volunteering at a camp for transgender youth in New Hampshire and I happened to mention that I had just moved here from Tennessee and I was looking for a job in a school system. An employee at WMS was also volunteering at the camp and suggested I apply at WMS.”
Wellesley Public School Superintendent David Lussier is quoted in the WGBH report as saying Jenkins has established a reputation as a good educator and been a huge help in guiding the school system on diversity issues.
