www.missionamerica.com 

Ohio Parents’ Right to Know Act Introduced

House Bill 790

Few parents want children directed to obscene sites, as Synero lessons do. Do you believe that teens are better off waiting until they are married to have sex? Or do you believe that teens should be allowed or even encouraged to have sex and taught how to manage it with contraception and condoms?

These are two very different approaches and reflect where America is as a culture, frankly. Well, a new bill has just been introduced at the Ohio Statehouse which reinforces the state’s law that abstinence until marriage is the expected standard for teaching about sexuality and that parents have the right to be informed by schools ahead of time if other approaches to teaching are going to be offered.

It’s called the “Parents’ Right to Know” Act, House Bill 790, and we need you to get involved and encourage your lawmakers to support this bill. The bill is sponsored by Representative Ron Hood, and he is joined as co-sponsors by Representatives Dean, Keller, Powell, Stoltzfus, Becker, Vitale, Brinkman and Riedel.

The bill requires the state board of education to audit what schools are doing each year on the subject of sex education and publish the report in a timely fashion. Schools will be required to inform parents if anything other than truly abstinence-based lessons will be offered to students, and if so, parents must give affirmative permission—in other words, opt- in – before their children can be in such classes. And if schools are in violation, parents are allowed to bring a civil action against the school district.

We see more and more Ohio schools teaching obscene and dangerous material—for instance, the “Healthy Bodies/Healthy Futures” program taught in some schools by the outside group, Syntero. For the safety and welfare of kids, this must stop.

True abstinence education does the following, and this is how it is stated in the Ohio Revised Code. It should (1) Stress that students should abstain from sexual activity until after marriage;(2) Teach the potential physical, psychological, emotional, and social side effects of participating in sexual activity outside of marriage;(3)Teach that conceiving children out of wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child’s parents, and society;(4) Stress that sexually transmitted diseases are serious possible hazards of sexual activity…

(5) Advise students of the laws pertaining to financial responsibility of parents to children born in and out of wedlock; (6) Advise students of the circumstances under which it is criminal to have sexual contact with a person under the age of sixteen (as outlined in Ohio law); and (7) Emphasize adoption as an option for unintended pregnancies.

Please contact your Ohio House representatives and ask them to support House Bill 790. If you are unsure who your state rep is, go to www.ohiohouse.gov .

Categories: Community Activism, Education

Tags: FT