On Jan.  , 8, Ohio Gov.  , Mike DeWine signed into law the” Kids ‘ Bill of Rights”. This regulation requires public school districts to create plans that encourage parental participation in their children’s schooling, especially in matters relating to sexuality and faith.
” If you’re a parent, you want to be informed of what’s going on in your child’s existence”, DeWine told investigators. He continued:” The parents are the best teachers. They’re the primary professors, they’re the best educators”.
In a sense, the act turns Ohio schools into compulsory writers, but to parents instead of government officials. In accordance with House Bill 8, Ohio schools may be required to: Provide parents with the opportunity to evaluate academic materials that contain sexual content, notify parents of a change in their child’s cognitive, emotional, or physical well-being, get parental consent before providing child with medical care, and notify the parents of health services provided by class.
Additionally, the bill 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.”
Second, the law now requires it, whereas Ohio previously permitted schools to write policies authorizing offsite religious instruction during the day of school. For instance, the Westerville City Schools Board of Education recently changed its policy, which allows schools like LifeWise Academy to provide religious instruction. If it navigates potential legal challenges, H. B. 8 will require that all Ohio school districts permit religious instruction during the day of the week.
Media Misinformation
H. B. has been smear by opponents. Despite the fact that the bill does not contain such language, and that the Florida bill was the first to use that phrase, 8 is designated as a” Don’t Say Gay Bill.” Instead, the bill includes safeguards for parents ‘ freedom to control the education of their children. Unlike Florida’s House Bill 1557, Ohio’s H. B. 8 does not contain any restrictions on what can be taught. Instead, it mandates that parents must review the materials used in sexual education and that they must permit parents to exempt their children from that instruction if they so choose.
Opponents also claim notifying parents of children’s needs endangers queer-identifying children. The bill’s opponents, including the American Civil Liberties Union, expressed grave concerns about” the risks to student health and safety posed by the provisions” that require schools to notify parents about 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”. Additionally, it is true that non-abusive households still have parental rights even if their existence is based on the existence of abusive families.
Even some LGBT activists have noted that refusing to let parents know their children’s gender identity as the other sex can have severe consequences because pitting parents against children who struggle with gender dysphoria pits them against their children.
One instance of a story like Sage Blair’s, which is horrifyingly detailed, is. The young woman fled and was detained by male detention facilities after her public school failed to inform her parents about her gender struggle, and she was later caught by traffickers.
Parents Should Be Informed 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. The district school board’s [procedures ] [adopted by the district school board ] must strengthen 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, according to p. 1557, which prohibits sexual instruction for children younger than four years old. 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 decision is ultimately up to the judge in charge of the case’s interpretation.
These bills are opposed by LGBT activists. 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 is concerned that her parents ‘ decisions could have an impact on their children’s future.
Another Kaleidoscope Youth Center worker, Madison Hernandez, claimed that a child has the right to reject the morals and values of his or her parents after claiming 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 young person’s best interest, which means that there are already guidelines 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 H. B. advocates, 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 remarked, the government has a duty to safeguard children from harm and abuse. Despite all of this, her self-reported social work work sounded like a parental bullying exercise against government regulations for raising children. It’s much more difficult to refute the claim that unelected bureaucrats in education departments or social workers are better suited to making these decisions than parents. Society has a vested interest in well-adjusted and well-educated children.
As President Aaron Baer of the Center for Christian Virtue, which significantly helped raise 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”.
The Lutheran Witness executive editor and director of editorial for the Missouri Synod Communications department of The Lutheran Church. Roy S. Askins. Visit witness. lcms. org to learn more.
