Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 8, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay Bill, Jan. 8. HB 8, also known as the “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” into public schools across Ohio, requiring schools to disclose "sexual" content and students' sexual orientation to parents. The bill also mandates schools to allow religious release time during school hours.
Within the public school system, the act encourages parental involvement in notifying parents of their child’s well-being and student health. HB 8 allows parents to review curriculum deemed "sexual.” In this context, “sexual content” is defined as “any oral or written instruction, presentation, image or descriptions of sexual concepts or gender ideology provided in a classroom setting.”
The Athens City School District has anticipated the act as it already has set guidelines for teaching such content.
Chad Springer, associate superintendent of Athens City School District, noted the school's efforts to ensure students are safe, welcomed and educated.
“We’ve been ahead of the curb working with families, allowing access and making Athens City Schools as safe and as accepting as possible,” Springer said. “Having said all that, we’ve had our finger on the pulse of (HB 8 and Senate Bill 104) coming down because it does affect the families that we work with.”
The Athens City School District already has implemented an opt-in system for certain curricula, allowing parents to decide what content they want their child to be exposed to.
“Our curriculum, when it deals with health, sexual health and all of those topics, we provide transparency for all parents to see,” Springer said. “For areas where we go above and beyond the general curriculum, especially in the health area, sexual health and sexual education, we already provide opt-in forms.”
Springer said the bill has the school district deciding its next steps on informing families and staff of the recent law changes and the district's response to it.
“We kind of know what's coming, but we always have to go with additional guidance from our legal representation before we make any final decisions,” Springer said.
Regulating the content taught to children in Ohio public schools is not the only driving force of HB 8. Another facet of the act is notifying parents of changes in their students’s health and well-being.
The bill states, “Each school also must promptly notify parents about substantial changes to a student's services or monitoring related to the student's mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being.”
The act considers “mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being” to include whether a student wishes to identify as a gender that does not align with the sex assigned at birth.
Moving forward, Ohio public schools will need to adjust the content that is taught and report any concerning predicament such as gender identity issues to the parents.
“I honestly have no idea how this is going to be implemented,” Grace Humble, a senior studying social work, said. “I think not fully understanding where the people who support the bill are coming from, it makes it even harder to see how they would move to further implement it in a school.”
