By Dana Kennedy,Editor

Copyright dailymail

At just 11 years old, Phoenix Legg sat across from radio titan Glenn Beck and got him to admit he only chose journalism because he didn’t want a real job.

Dressed in his trademark dark suit, tie and trilby hat, the pint-sized reporter soon hit the road grilling politicians in the run-up to the 2020 election and even earning a congratulatory letter from Vice President Mike Pence, who told him: ‘You are well on your way to a bright future’.

But now Phoenix is making news again for a very different reason – as he finds himself embroiled in a nasty family spat after his father, who claims the now-18-year-old has become way too close to his former science teacher at a Christian high school, who is nearly 30 years his senior.

The school has launched an investigation into the claims, its lawyer confirmed to the Daily Mail.

‘She has destroyed my family and my relationship with my son,’ Matt Legg, who now lives in Seminole, Florida, said of Erin Mounts, 47.

‘We were always super close, but meeting her has changed who he is as a person.’

In fact, Legg, who is between jobs, is now homeless and living in his car because he said Phoenix refuses to stay in the same home as him – and the only way he could get his son out of his former teacher’s house was to leave the family rental himself and tell Phoenix that he had to move back to take care of his dog.

Legg does not believe his son has had a romantic or sexual relationship with Mounts, and Mounts said ‘Heavens no’ when a Daily Mail reporter visited her Seminole home and asked her if the relationship with Phoenix was inappropriate.

But Legg believes she has manipulated his son.

Phoenix first met Mounts at the beginning of his sophomore year in high school when he was 16. He dropped out of the school after that year and enrolled at a local trade school to learn to become an electrician and then enroll in the Navy.

‘He was a great kid, really smart, and he and Matt seemed to have a very good father-son relationship,’ said a political reporter who saw Phoenix and Matt regularly at press events over the years and became friendly with them.

‘I never saw anything bad between the two of them. I’m really surprised at what’s happened.’

Phoenix’s father said he lost interest in being a kid reporter not long after they moved to Florida in 2022 and he enrolled at Northside Christian School in St. Petersburg.

Phoenix’s career first took off when President Trump’s first communications director, Hope Hicks, spotted him at a North Carolina rally Trump held after he won in November 2016.

Hicks arranged for Phoenix to get a White House press pass, which then opened the doors for him to be able to join the press corps around the country.

Mounts, a single mother and science teacher at Northside Christian School, told the Daily Mail she did nothing wrong when she allowed Phoenix to move in with her and her daughter as soon as he turned 18 in June.

She added that she had been in touch with Phoenix’s Arkansas-based grandparents, who approved of the teen moving in with her in June when he became a legal adult.

She said she had written up a rental contract for Legg using ChatGPT, but declined to show it to the Daily Mail.

Carolyn Legg, Phoenix’s grandmother, told Daily Mail she had not seen Phoenix or his father for two years and never met Mounts but had a number of phone calls with her and approved Phoenix’s move into her house when he turned 18.

She also said she did not believe that Phoenix had ever stayed overnight at the Mounts home when he was a minor.

Matt Legg, however, said he has since discovered that his son was sometimes staying overnight at the teacher’s house when he was underage.

Text messages between Phoenix Legg and Mounts, seen by Daily Mail, indicate he was staying over in what one text referred to as his ‘room’ prior to turning 18 – and that he had a key to her home.

‘If you arrive at the house before I do, will you bring in the groceries?’ Mounts texted Phoenix on March 27, four months before he turned 18.

‘I probably won’t be back til later in the evening,’ Phoenix responded.

When told about the text messages. Mounts said he had only stayed overnight as a minor to housesit when she and her daughter were away.

‘When he was a minor, he would do house sitting for us when we traveled. Like the other students that house-sat for me, I gave him a key to the house,’ she said. ‘But he did not have a room here.’

But her claim doesn’t track with messages between Mounts and Phoenix that indicate he was staying there overnight before he was 18, when she was there as well.

‘Do you know where my clothes are? At least my PTech shirt?’ Phoenix texted Mounts, also in March.

‘I’m guessing it’s in the room, but she cleaned up for you,’ Mounts answered.

‘Breakfast sandwiches in deep freeze if you need a snack,’ she texted another day when Phoenix was staying over.

There were other text messages between Mounts’ daughter and Phoenix that indicate he spent some nights at the Mounts’ home when they were there, prior to him turning 18.

The Florida Department of Education guidelines involving ‘ethical considerations’ state that ‘even if a student is legally an adult, a teacher moving in with them soon after they turn 18 raises serious ethical concerns about the potential for exploitation of a former student, given the inherent power imbalance in the student-teacher relationship.’

Mounts said that Phoenix, like many, was hit hard by Hurricane Milton in October. Several people were displaced, and Phoenix and his dad had to stay in a series of Airbnbs.

She claimed that her role was more of a supportive adult filling a temporary gap while the Legg family sorted out housing issues, and Legg and Phoenix worked out what she said may have been typical teenage issues.

But although Mounts made reference to Phoenix’s alleged ‘housing insecurity’ and difficulties with his dad, she did oddly admit that her ex-husband comes to visit their daughter at the Mounts home – and that Phoenix was uncomfortable with him.

Mounts went through a difficult divorce in 2022 and her ex-husband was arrested on charges of domestic violence, according to Pinellas County public records.

Mounts said her only goal was to help a young man on the cusp of adulthood stay on track and provide him with a stable address.

‘His goals were to get his GED, then complete a technical program, and then enlist in the Navy,’ she said. ‘I just wanted to make sure he didn’t lose that opportunity and fall through the cracks.’

Mounts said that she had been transparent about the arrangement with her school, her church and her neighbors.

‘My employer knows, the pastor at his church knows, my neighbors know,’ she said. ‘It’s not a secret of any kind.’

Matt Legg, however, said that he reached out to the principal of Northside Christian School several times about Mounts and also spoke to a local pastor who told the school about his concerns – but never heard back from anyone at Northside.

An attorney for the school did respond to a query from the Daily Mail.

‘While we affirm the good intentions behind Mrs. Mounts’ desire to support a young man facing personal challenges, the school was not aware of the extent of her involvement outside of the classroom, and her actions were not undertaken with administrative approval,’ the school said in a statement.

‘Northside Christian School does not condone staff independently extending direct assistance or support to students outside of established school oversight.

‘We are addressing this matter internally to ensure that all student care moving forward reflects both our biblical values and our responsibility to maintain proper boundaries for the protection of students, staff, and the mission of the school.