A former substitute teacher at the McQueen School in the Northwest Arctic village of Kivalina has been charged with several child exploitation crimes.
According to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s office, 21-year-old Jayson Knox was arrested on Wednesday. He is suspected of soliciting explicit pictures from children in Kivalina. He’s also charged with sending obscene photos to a minor and attempting to meet some of the children for sex.
According to the charging documents, Knox corresponded with 10 girls in the village — the youngest is 11 years old. Using Snapchat and Facebook Messenger, he solicited photographs from several of them, while also sending sexually explicit messages and photos. Investigators said Knox admitted to kissing and groping one of the girls behind the school, and asked to meet several others at an abandoned warehouse in the village.
Knox said in interviews that he believed most of the girls were under the legal age of consent, which in the state of Alaska is 16 years old. He stated he thought one of the girls may have been 16. He said he had begun corresponding with the alleged victims shortly after he began working for the school in 2018.
If convicted, Knox faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years to life in prison.
