By LAUREN BISHOP AND JOSHUA ZATARAIN 

Known as an amazing counselor and great human being, students already miss him and he hasn’t left yet.

Jason Knight, Orangewood High School counselor, is known around campus as a kind and comedic counselor that can relate to students and their situations.

Although he loves Redlands, Knight is going to move to Tennessee and work as a behavioral intervention teacher at an elementary school. 

Orangewood High School guidance counselor Jason Knight and senior Lauren Bishop stand at the front entrance. Knight has been Bishop’s counselor at Orangewood and she says of Knight, “He makes me so comfortable because he can actually relate to my situation.” (JOSHUA ZATARAIN/ Ethic News photo)

Knight has been working in the fields of education for “a while now“ or to be more accurate, 30 years. 

As a guidance counselor, Knight’s favorite part of his job is “helping students graduate.” 

On the contrary Knight’ hardest part of being a counselor is “watching students struggle with stuff such as personal issues and that sort; it makes it hard for them to graduate.”

“Mr. Knight is comforting and he actually listens when you open up to him,” says Orangewood junior Xiomara Sanchez.   

Unlike traditional quarter or semester calendars, Orangewood operates in a block system where grades are due every three weeks and counselors have to check transcripts of every student assigned to them every three weeks. Having to check 150 students almost at the same time monthly can be stressful but Knight manages.

Angel Leon describes Knight as “a cool counselor.” 

“He understands the situation I’m going through because of the situations that we share,” says Leon.  

Knight is from San Diego and claims to be “like an Orangewood student, to be completely honest.” 

As a teenager, Knight says, “I didn’t like school. I think that’s part of why I do okay here.”

His advice to his teenage self would be, “Work a little bit harder in high school because it does make a difference.”

Before being a counselor, he worked for a car dealership delivering car parts and then as a teacher.

Outside of his work, Knight enjoys being outdoors and volunteering for the police department.

In his community volunteer role, Knight says that he likes the people he works with but has seen “ugly fires, bad accidents and people who aren’t always happy with you.”  

Knight describes himself as an introverted extrovert who enjoys the outdoors.

He says he’s going to miss waking up to “the view of the hills in my front yard.” 

He likes to travel and his idea of traveling is going camping, hiking and just overall being outdoors. 

He likes visiting national parks with his wife and his goal is to hit all of the national parks in the contiguous United States. 

As an outdoors person, he doesn’t play video games much now, but remembers playing Atari as a kid or going to the pizza place to play video games.

Knight also used to speak a little German but over the years he’s lost it as he never really used it. 

He loves his family and friends and likes “just hanging out and being able to talk to somebody that will listen.” 

He owns a Chiwawa Mix and her name is Trixsy who he says is very friendly.

As to the controversial question on whether pineapple belongs on a pizza, Knight says, “If you ask my wife she would say yes but, if you ask me, I’m not so sure.”

This semester is his last with Redlands Unified School District and as a counselor at Orangewood. After that, he will start his new position as a behavior intervention teacher in Tennessee.

His message is, “Let’s treat each other with kindness, because we all need it.”