Mission America

Christian Commentary on the Culture

Should Ohio Mandate School Health Standards? No!

Call now! Say NO to this sneaky bill that would open the door to inaccurate, immoral sexual indoctrination of Ohio children. Phone numbers are below.

 

Senate Bill 121 is moving quickly through the Ohio Senate Education Committee and we need to stop this bill. It seems well-intentioned, but will be a convenient tool opening  the door to radical, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual “comprehensive sex education” (CSE) in Ohio schools.

 

How will that happen? These “standards” are so vague that you can drive a truck through them, and hardly mention anything about “health” at all. The actual lessons, with textbook selection, will be constructed behind closed doors by unelected government officials. 

 

Do we want liberal bureaucrats influenced by the far-left teachers’ unions choosing health material—including sex education—for Ohio students?

 

The current bill is written to include the current “abstinence only” mandate in the Ohio Revised Code, so everything is great, right? Not so fast. First of all, we know that, RIGHT NOW, numerous Ohio schools have already ejected abstinence teaching in favor of obscene CSE teaching. 

 

Ohio Value Voters has put together a massive report exposing the outrageous lessons and flagrant violation of Ohio law. Go HERE for this blockbuster report.

 

In view of this information, Senate Bill 121 should never have been introduced. Because of its revisions to current law, schools will be free to teach children XXX-rated material that most parents cannot believe when they read it. And they claim it’s “medically accurate.” But no --it’s a huge con job.

 

Lessons from Planned Parenthood and its allies will teach 12-year-old boys together with girls to learn the “skill” of using condoms. There’s nothing “medically accurate” about minimizing the physical and emotional risks of such behavior for kids at these ages. 

 

And if your traumatized child can still talk and has follow-up questions, the curricula being used in Cleveland, Cincinnati and elsewhere refer pre-teens to Planned Parenthood, to obscene “Q & A” websites, and to “LGBTQ” groups.

 

Role playing scenarios are part of these lessons, and teach “consent” about sex. Sounds fine, until you read the dialogue your child may be instructed to read: “Is it okay if I take off my shirt?” “That feels good when you touch me there.” This is “consent” in the minds of leftist educators, and those who have been moved by the #MeToo movement might think consent teaching is a good idea—until they read the innocence -assaulting details.

 

And children in the most popular CSE programs are taught that it’s normal for adolescents to engage in anal, oral and vaginal sex and all are equal (this is “inclusive”)  and can be managed safely with latex or pills. And students are pressed to re-consider their gender and consider adopting “fluid” sexual identities.

 

The way the proposed health standards are written, they would allow schools to use any of this. Go HERE to read the vague national standards which will be used to guide the Ohio health education standards. 

 

And in Senate Bill 121, while the current abstinence law is largely retained, there are crucial additions: “Each district and school shall be free to develop its own standards and curriculum for instruction in venereal disease education that emphasizes abstinence, in accordance with section 3313.6011 of the Revised Code.” That section lays out our current Ohio abstinence education law, but the problem is that we already have schools “developing their own standards” and implementing curricula that deviate wildly from an abstinence standard, and no one is holding them accountable for bypassing the current law. 

 

We don’t need more permission to wink at the current law while misinforming and endangering kids. These schools seem to believe that if the word “abstinence” is mentioned in a lesson somewhere, even if the entire program defies an abstinence message and encourages early sexual activity in all directions, they are covered.

 

Why would Ohio schools think this? Because they are not being held accountable for teaching only the requirement of the current law (3313.6011).

 

And we are only talking here about how vague, unaccountable health standards fail in the sexuality education arena. What will be taught in nutrition? Physical education? Substance abuse? 

 

What is really needed are not vague health standards, but adherence to current law with penalties for non-compliance.

 

Say NO to Senate Bill 121. I don’t want teacher’s unions and Planned Parenthood foisting their version of “health” on Ohio students. 

 

How about you?

 

Call your own Ohio state senators and representatives and 

 

Call NOW the members of the Ohio Senate Education Committee. Two hearings have already been held! Don’t delay!

Senate President Larry Obhof  (614) 466-7505

 

Peggy Lehner, Chair  (614) 466-4538

Teresa Fedor  (614) 466-5204

Andrew Brenner  (614) 466-8086

William Coley  (614) 466-8072

Theresa Gavarone  (614) 466-8060

Matt Huffman  (614) 466-7584

Stephen Huffman  (614) 466-6247

Tina Maharath  (614) 466-8064  

Nathan Manning  (614) 644-7613

Vernon Sykes  (614) 466-7041