COLUMBUS, Ohio — A proposed bill in Ohio would require schools to obtain parental permission for student participation if they plan to present sexual education that is not solely abstinence-based.
Ron Hood, R-Ashville, recently filed House Bill 790, also known as the “Parents Right to Know Act,” which would amend existing law to require notice to first be sent to parents if the school plans to teach anything other than abstinence. Parents would then need to opt their children in to such instruction rather than opt out.
Current law already states that schools should “emphasize that abstinence from sexual activity is the only protection that is one hundred percent effective against unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and the sexual transmission of a virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.”
However, under Hood’s proposed revision, text would be added to the law requiring the school district or school to “notify all parents or guardians” if classes are expected to tread outside of abstinence-based education.
“No district or school shall offer that instruction to a student unless that student’s parent or guardian has submitted written permission for that student to receive that instruction,” the bill states.
The Ohio Board of Education would be required to conduct an annual audit of each school district to ensure compliance, and in the audit finding posted to the board’s website, the name of the organization that provided materials for sexual education.
Parents or guardians would also be able to bring a civil lawsuit against the school district if it fails to comply with the notification and permission requirement.
The measure, which has been referred to the Committee for Primary and Secondary Education, currently has seven co-sponsors: Reps. Thomas Brinkman, Bill Dean, Candice Keller, Jena Powell, Craig Riedel, Reggie Stoltzfus and Nino Vitale.
The organization Mission America has also expressed support, writing in an update, “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?”
“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.”
As previously reported, the Bible says much about fornication, urging Christians to flee sexual sin and to glorify God in their body (1 Corinthians 6:18-20), as those who engage in sexual immorality will not inherit the kingdom of God.
“But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints,” Ephesians 5:3 reads, warning in verse 5, “For this ye know: that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”
1 Corinthians 6:13 teaches, “Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”
Colossians 3:5-6 says, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.”
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 exhorts, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor — not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God.”
Verses 7-8 add, “For God hath not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man but God, who hath also given unto us His Holy Spirit.”
Hebrews 13:4 states plainly, “Marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”
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