El Dorado High School senior Jay Byrd felt overwhelmed as the cacophony of student chatter, crowded hallways and piercing bright fluorescent lights of her school overcame her senses.
The 17-year-old Socorro Independent School District student, who says she has post-traumatic stress disorder, said she was used to going to her school’s counselor any time she experienced sensory issues or felt overstimulated in class.
That was until last month, when Jay’s school counselor told her a new law that took effect Sept. 1 prevented her from providing mental health services without first getting a signed permission slip from her parents.
“She immediately told me, ‘I’ll get in trouble if you talk to me about your emotions and what you’re feeling,’” Jay said. “I was on the verge of tears, and I was already really stressed. She told me it was because of the new bill.”
Senate Bill 12, which was approved by Texas lawmakers during the summer legislative session, requires schools to obtain written consent from parents before providing students with “mental, emotional, or physical health” services. It also requires schools to notify parents anytime there are changes to these services.
This is on top of the forms some parents already sign to allow school nurses to give their child medication or specialized treatment.
SB 12, known by its supporters as a “Parents Bill of Rights,” establishes a series of sweeping policy changes aimed at strengthening parents’ control over their child’s education, while some opponents, including students, say it limits their rights. Critics of the bill say portions of SB 12 mirror Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and target LGBTQ students, teachers and their allies.
Some of the policy changes under the bill include requiring schools to give parents easier access to their curriculum online, requiring parents to give written permission for students to join clubs — regardless of their purpose — barring schools from offering activities and programs related to gender identity or sexual orientation, and banning diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in schools.
Enrique Herrera, Socorro ISD’s assistant superintendent of schools, said the district has had to play catch-up to develop and give parents access to the forms needed to comply with the bill, since the school year had already started a month earlier.
“As the law came out and things were being rolled out, there was a lot of confusion around adjustments on forms or creation of new forms,” Herrera said. “The directive that the district gave our employees – and through legal advice – is that we continue to take care of students. We do need parental consent, so whenever that situation arises, we immediately call the parent.”
The district made the forms available in early September and published information on its website about some of the new laws that took effect after the 89th Texas Legislature.
If parents do not sign the forms required under SB 12, their child may only receive care in emergencies.
Protest to go by name of choice
SB 12 also prohibits school employees from “assisting” transgender students with social transition, prompting some El Paso school districts to bar employees from using students’ chosen names or nicknames – even if they did not identify as transgender.
Public school employees who violate this policy may be reported to the Commissioner of Education.
Herrera said SISD instructed employees to refer to students by the name on their birth certificate, and updated its enrollment database to remove students’ names of choice.
This led Jay and her two classmates to stage a walkout Sept. 12 protesting SB 12 after she was listed by her birth name — which she asked not to disclose — in the district’s attendance system even though her mother had signed a waiver allowing the school to use a chosen name.
“We spend so much time here, so we want to feel comfortable, but now it kind of feels like we can’t really do that,” Jay said about the policy.
“It affected a lot of us who chose to go by different names,” said Azul “Pierce” Larson, who goes by her stepfather’s last name.
Alanna Jimenez, who goes by her birth name, said she joined the protest when she found out how it impacted her classmates.
“Just seeing my friends go through that, it doesn’t feel good,” Alanna said.
The three students, who spearheaded the protest, said teachers did not stop students from participating in the walkout.
On the day of the protest, roughly a dozen students walked out of their classes to the sidewalk surrounding their school, escorted by campus staff. After marching and chanting, asking others to use their voice to speak against SB 12, the protesting students returned to class without any repercussions.
Pierce’s stepfather, Aaron Larson, who is in the process of adopting her, said he supported the protest and does not understand why lawmakers would want to prevent students from using their chosen names in school.
“What’s so bad about them being called something they want to be called? I mean, it’s not hurting them; they’re still doing good in school. Even at graduation, they won’t let her use a different last name,” Larson said.
“I’m pretty irritated. What’s the problem with her wanting to use my last name?” he added.
While Socorro ISD previously allowed parents to submit a form to change a student’s name in the district’s system, Herrera said now it can only be changed if they complete a legal name change.
“In discussions with our legal team and the interpretation of Senate Bill 12, the name that’s either on a court-ordered document or birth certificate is the only name that is allowed to be used,” Herrera said.
The Ysleta Independent School District allows students to go by nicknames or a chosen name as long as it is not considered “assisting with social transitioning,” communications director Tracy Garcia-Ramirez said. SB 12 defines that as “a person’s transition from the person’s biological sex at birth to the opposite biological sex through the adoption of a different name, different pronouns, or other expressions of gender that deny or encourage a denial of the person’s biological sex at birth.”
The El Paso Independent School District did not respond to questions related to students’ use of chosen names or nicknames but in a statement said it is “committed to complying with all state and federal laws.”.
Pierce said she got the idea to hold a walkout to spread awareness about SB 12 after El Dorado High School students took part in a similar protest in 2023, advocating for gun legislation in the U.S.
“A lot of people had different ideas about what the bill actually meant, and they didn’t think that it affected them in any way,” Pierce said. “But it does a lot. It’s not a gay bill, it’s not a band-aid bill, it’s a bill where they plan to expand parental rights, and that affects all of us in one way or another.”
Anti-LGBTQ policies spark lawsuit
As El Paso school districts began preparing for SB 12 to take effect last month, many stopped hosting clubs based on sexual orientation or gender identity, including the Gender and Sexualities Alliance, a national network of student-led clubs meant to give LGBTQ students and their allies a safe space.
On Aug. 29, just days before SB 12 went into effect, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the Transgender Law Center and the Baker McKenzie international law firm filed a lawsuit against Mike Mortath, the Commissioner of Education, claiming that key aspects of the bill are unconstitutional.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the GSA Network, Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT) — a nonprofit advocating for students’ presence in education policymaking — a teacher, a student and her parent.
The four policies in the bill being challenged include:
- The banning of student organizations based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
- Prohibiting school policies, procedures, training, activities or programs from referring to race, color, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation.
- Barring school employees from “assisting” any student’s social transition, including by providing any information about this topic
- Banning instruction, guidance, activities or programming regarding sexual orientation or gender identity to students
Despite the ongoing lawsuit, school districts may need to adhere to the policies under SB 12 unless a judge grants an injunction blocking the enforcement of the law while the court case is ongoing.
The founder of the El Paso GSA Board, Aurelio “Lio” Valdez Jr., said he’s concerned these provisions could erase LGBTQ history and representation in the classroom, put educators at risk of losing their jobs, and leave some students feeling isolated.
“GSA empowers students to protect each other’s safety, their mental health and civil rights, and this ban is a direct attack on that,” Valdez said.
Valdez said he is also worried the provision will undo the work he’s done to implement bias and inclusivity training meant to help El Paso ISD teachers and staff understand the issues LGBTQ youth face.
“When you ban training that would address a lot of the discriminatory and oppressive issues that LGBTQ youth are affected by, that only exacerbates a lot of the situations of discrimination in school,” he added. “This is basically going to reverse the progress and have a detrimental effect on our youth.”
The students from El Dorado High School said they also worry about how the bill will affect their LGBTQ peers, who look to GSA clubs for community and often fear they will be targeted for speaking out about the issues that affect them.
“We have a mutual friend who is transgender, and I guess they found a safe space with a lot of the teachers at our school, because they would help them feel validated and acknowledge them by the name that they went by, and they would use their pronouns. But now, I guess that’s just not available to them anymore,” Pierce said.
“Teachers are kind of like our second parents, in a way. Just having that stripped away from you is kind of tough,” Alanna added.
Permission needed for care
Portions of the new law requiring parental consent to provide students with medical care created widespread confusion among Texas school nurses and counselors as it took effect Sept 1.
The Texas Education Agency published updated guidelines Sept. 11 clarifying that SB 12 does not prevent nurses from administering basic health-related services, such as offering bandages or checking a student’s temperature.
El Paso ISD said it has already begun distributing parental rights forms,
“We work to ensure that parents and guardians are appropriately informed about district practices, campus operations, and activities, and have already begun the process of appropriately distributing the parental rights forms,” EPISD said in a statement.
El Paso Teachers Association President Norma De La Rosa said EPISD counselors were advised in early September that they needed signed permission slips from parents to provide mental health services to students, but has not seen any distributed.
“They were asking how that permission was supposed to be communicated to counselors, whether the district was going to provide an official form, or if the parent could call in or send an email,” De La Rosa said. “I was told that legal was working through the bill and through the language to determine how to properly implement it. … Right now, I don’t know where it’s at, or if it’s already been finalized.”
Garcia-Ramirez said Ysleta ISD will finalize and send notices and consent forms to parents once the state Commissioner of Education Office publishes the proposed rules related to SB 12, which are expected this month.
Socorro ISD gave students forms to take home and sent notifications of the policy changes in September.
Going forward, school districts will be required to send consent forms before the start of the school year.
Herrera noted that Socorro ISD nurses will still treat students in emergencies, including conducting legally required assessments on students who threaten to harm themselves or others, without the needed consent forms.
“Anything that’s immediate or life threatening, we don’t look for the consent form. But if it’s something that has to be sustained and ongoing, then obviously the consent form would be something that we would be making sure that we have,” Herrera said.
Jay said she was eventually able to talk to her counselor after her parents signed the needed forms.
Though Jay finally got the help she needed, she and her classmates worry about students with parents who won’t allow their children to speak to a school counselor about their mental health.
“The whole purpose of having a counselor is to talk about things and not have that restriction on your emotional needs. Especially as a teenager, you have so much going on, and having someone less to support you emotionally must be real hard,” Alanna said.
“I think I’m very fortunate to be able to talk to my counselor about my personal problems again, but plenty of other kids still don’t have that privilege, at least not anymore. While parents do deserve to know what’s going on with their child, kids deserve a safe space,” Jay added.
The post ‘She told me she’d get in trouble’: Texas law limits students’ mental health support, name choice appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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