The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
Ohio Senators have added a public school mandatory religious release time policy bill to a piece of legislation that would force educators to out a students’ sexuality to their parents.
The amendment to require Ohio public school districts to put a policy in place to release students for religious instruction was added to House Bill 8 during Tuesday’s Senate Education Committee Meeting. The two Democrats on the committee, Catherine Ingram and Vernon Sykes, voted against the amendment.
“A school district shall, rather than may, have a policy governing religious release time instruction,” said state Sen. Sandra O’Brien, R-Ashtabula.
Ohio law currently permits school district boards of education to make a policy to let students go to a course in religious instruction, but this would change the wording in the Ohio Revised Code from “may” to “shall” — meaning this would be a mandate for Ohio school districts.