“I’m Sorry I Can’t Call You By Your Name Anymore”
LEANDER, Texas — Jennifer Townsend begins each fall semester with profound sadness.
The 33-year-old school psychologist apologizes to her students and explains: because of Senate Bill 14 (2023), aiding with gender transition is now classified as unprofessional conduct. She cannot call a student by their preferred name. Only their legal name.
“I’m sorry, and I apologize in every way that I can, that I cannot call them the name that I may have called them for the last 3 years since they started high school, because now they’re a senior,” Townsend said.
Instead, she works out individual systems. She offers students the option to be called by their first legal name or their last name. She ends up calling them by last name, like a coach.
But laws and policies keep getting more invasive, more irrelevant, more absurd.
After 10 years in Texas schools, Townsend said the milestone brings new continuing education requirements. “Still, it also brings more stupid policies and laws, like litterbox-in-classroom bans, putting the Ten Commandments in classrooms, and cell phone bans and restrictions, to name a few, leading to teachers leaving in droves each year.”
“Rather than focusing on things that actually hurt our children, like guns or fentanyl or vapes, they continue to punish educators for trying to be supportive and provide a safe space for kids who otherwise may not have one,” she said.
Townsend always cared for the vulnerable. The instinct began when she and her brother were little. Her earliest memory: her little brother got a splinter in his finger. His cries caused her to cry along. She was two and a half years older. Always the caretaker.
Growing up in a stable household with loving, still-together parents who encouraged her to try new things without holding her back, she became aware this was a privilege. Her friends and partners had dysfunctional homes.
She discovered her path senior year, the summer before college, working at the local church daycare she’d attended since childhood. She was in charge of a 3-year-old boy who was nonverbal and autistic. He struggled with daycare routines. While others napped, she had to keep him quietly occupied.
“Sometime in high school, I had decided that psychology was my desired field, but I had originally planned on doing criminal psychology, forensic psychology, because like every other girl in America, I’m interested in true crime, and I thought that was cool. But after spending a summer working with him, I was like, you know what, I actually think I would rather do something with family and adolescent psychology. Just because I absolutely loved working with him. He was such a joy,” she said.
She earned degrees at Sam Houston State University — undergraduate psychology major with a minor in communications — and Texas State University, with a master’s in school psychology.
Midway through her studies in criminal justice, she discovered she preferred working at a high school.
“I got the chance to work at a high school for a semester and a semester in elementary school. After that, I was pretty well-satisfied that I was not interested in working in elementary school. But high school was my jam through and through,” she said.
Ten years later — first 4 years at Victoria ISD, then 6 years at Leander ISD — she finally feels fulfilled.
Yet she earns $10,000 less than most in her field. Budget issues. Under Governor Greg Abbott, funding has not been allocated appropriately for education.
“The hardest thing is that a lot of times, people making policies do not know what goes on daily in a school setting, day to day. The simple fact is that public schools need funding. For the 10 years working, the cost of living has only gone up, and the funding percentage feels unchanged since leaving high school in 2011, if not longer,” she said.
When not being a safe space for teenagers, Townsend dabbles in crafts. Crocheting a temperature blanket. Diamond art. Paint-by-number. Cross-stitching. Writing short stories.
She is also an avid reader, a fan of “Top 10 Most Banned Authors in the U.S. Currently,” Jodi Picoult, and Riley Sager, among others. (And she has more than a few!)
She sponsors after-school clubs with the Health Occupation Students of America, or HOSA, in their annual competition.
“One thing that I’ve been doing over the last few years is trying to support student groups from general education,” she said.
To this day, she remains the caretaker.
She keeps RuPaul’s words close: “If you don’t love yourself, how in the hell are you going to love somebody else. Can I get an amen?” As in: if you can’t make yourself happy, then how are you going to help other people be happy?
For now, she feels satisfied and fulfilled in her day-to-day life.
“If the world calms down, then my life will be better,” Townsend said. “But my day-to-day life is satisfactory and fulfilling.”