Ohio Law Stops Teachers From Talking About Sex In Secret

On Jan. 8, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law the “Parents’ Bill of Rights.” This law requires public school districts to craft policies that encourage parental involvement in their children’s education, particularly areas related to sexuality and religion.

“If you’re a parent, you want to be informed of what’s going on in your child’s life,” DeWine told reporters. He continued: “The parents are the best teachers. They’re the first teachers; they’re the best teachers.”

In a sense, the bill turns Ohio schools into mandatory reporters, but to parents instead of government officials. Under the new law, House Bill 8, Ohio schools will be required to: Provide parents the opportunity to review instructional materials that include sexual content; notify parents of a change in their child’s mental, emotional or physical well-being; obtain authorization from parents before providing health care to a child; and notify the parents of health services provided by school.

The bill also specifies that a student’s mental health includes “any request by the student to identify as a gender that does not align with the student’s biological sex.”

Secondly, whereas Ohio previously allowed for schools to write policies allowing offsite religious instruction during the school day, the law now mandates it. For example, Westerville City Schools Board of Education recently ended its policy allowing institutions such as LifeWise Academy to offer religious instruction. If it navigates potential legal challenges, H.B. 8 will require all school districts in Ohio to allow religious instruction during the school day.

Media Misinformation

Opponents have attempted to smear H.B. 8 as a “Don’t Say Gay Bill” despite the fact that the bill has no such language (and neither did the Florida bill first tarred with that slogan). Rather, the bill carves out protections for parents’ rights to direct the education of their children. Unlike Florida’s House Bill 1557, Ohio’s H.B. 8 does not contain any provisions limiting what can be taught. Instead, it requires schools to allow parents to review materials used in instruction on sexuality and to allow parents to exempt their children from that teaching, if they so decide.

Opponents also claim notifying parents of children’s needs endangers queer-identifying children. The American Civil Liberties Union testified against the bill, citing grave concerns about “the dangers to student health and safety posed by the provisions” that require schools to inform parents of a child’s desire to change his or her sexual identity.

State Rep. D.J. Swearingen, a bill sponsor, explained the bill contains language that “addresses any concerns people might have when it comes to kids in abusive households.” It also remains true that the existence of abusive households does not negate parental rights for non-abusive ones.

Not only have even some LGBT activists noted pitting parents against children struggling with gender dysphoria hurts kids, refusing to inform parents of their children’s desire to identify as the opposite sex can have devastating consequences.

The story of Sage Blair documented in terrifying detail is just one example. The young woman was trafficked twice after her public school failed to inform her parents of her gender struggle and courts placed her in male detention facilities, where she ran away and was caught by traffickers.

Parents Need to Know About Their Kids

The debate over H.B. 8 is not about “outing” children to their parents, but about who is most invested in the future of America’s children and best-suited to make decisions regarding their long-term health.

Florida’s 2022 H.B. 1557 banning sexual instruction for children younger than fourth grade states that the “procedures [adopted by the district school board] must reinforce the fundamental right of parents to make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of their children by requiring school district personnel to encourage a student to discuss issues relating to his or her well-being with his or her parents.” This is what has the left up in arms: Parent involvement in children’s lives.

Similar parental rights bills are moving through state legislatures. Currently, 18 states have statutes that define and protect parental rights. Around 32 states treat parental rights as “fundamental” and thus protected in the same way as the First Amendment. This leaves much to the interpretation of the judge overseeing the case.

LGBT activists lead opposition to these bills. For example, Savannah Carlstrom Page, director of behavior health and clinical services at Kaleidoscope Youth Center, stated in her testimony: “Despite this bill’s focus on parental ‘rights,’ or perhaps more aptly, parental control, youth are people.” She worries that parents might influence the future of their children.

After claiming a child has the right to refuse the morals and values of his or her parents, another Kaleidoscope Youth Center worker, Madison Hernandez, noted that Ohio and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) “already have best practice structures … to protect the confidentiality [of youth] and engage families when it is in the best interest of the young person, which means … that there are already rules written down about how parents should receive this information.”

But that’s precisely the problem: Who determines what is in the best interests of minors? According to advocates of H.B. 8, who were not keen to “co-parent with the government,” parents have the first and primary responsibility to care for their children, not unelected social workers.

As Hernandez articulated, the government does have a duty to protect children from abuse and harm. That said, much of her self-reported work as a social worker amounted to bullying parents into line with government policies for rearing children. Society has a vested interest in well-adjusted and well-educated children, but it’s much harder to argue that unelected bureaucrats in education departments or social workers are better suited to making these decisions than parents.

As President Aaron Baer from the Center for Christian Virtue, which did significant work in promoting awareness of the H.B. 8, said: “Parents, not government bureaucrats, should be making healthcare and education decisions for their kids. … [And] H.B. 8 puts parents back in control.”

Roy S. Askins is executive editor of The Lutheran Witness and director of editorial for The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod Communications department. Visit witness.lcms.org to learn more.