Despite concerns about separation of church and state, the Ohio Senate passed a bill that would allow public school students to pray, attend religious clubs and “See You at the Pole” gatherings, distribute religious material, wear religious clothing and turn in work expressing their faith beliefs.
House Bill 164 passed the Senate 32 to 0.
Unlike in the House, where Democrats opposed the bill in November, in the Senate, it passed with no opposition.
That’s because on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon, lawmakers added 18 amendments to the bill to accommodate schools during the coronavirus pandemic.
The changes were crammed through because lawmakers in both chambers have few session days scheduled for the summer. The General Assembly won’t return to a fuller schedule in Columbus until the fall, as the new school year begins.
Ohio Student Religious Liberties Act of 2019
HB 164, which is being sent to the House for concurrence on its amendments, is called the Ohio Student Religious Liberties Act of 2019.
Sponsor Rep. Timothy Ginter, a Salem Republican who is an ordained minister, said the bill won’t create any new rights but will codify freedoms already in the state and U.S. constitutions by allowing kids to engage in religious expression in the same manner and to the same extent that students can engage in secular activities.
“Assignment grades and scores will still be calculated using ordinary academic standards of substance and relevance,” he said in testimony to a Senate committee. “This bill makes clear students will neither be rewarded or penalized based on the religious or non-religious content of their work.”
The idea, he explained to cleveland.com last year, is if a student submits a painting for an art class that depicts a religious figure, they are not to be penalized on the religious content but on their skill as a painter.
At least 10 other states have adopted similar legislation, said Aaron Baer, president of the Christian policy organization Citizens for Community Values.
“No student should be forced to check their faith at the door just because they walk into a public school,” he said. “The Student Religious Liberties Act ensures that all Ohio students – of any faith or no faith – are not penalized or rewarded because of their Christian beliefs.”
Yet Gary Daniels, the ACLU of Ohio’s chief lobbyist, said that the bill is too vague. For instance, it’s not clear enough about whether a teacher can penalize a student who writes in a science paper that the earth is 6,000 years old.
The American Atheists and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State said they were concerned about proselytizing and whether the focus on honoring the rights of predominant religions will hurt the education of religious minorities and nonreligious students.
State Rep. Cecil Thomas, a Cincinnati Democrat, told a story from when he was head of the Human Relations Committee in that city. During the holidays, the Jewish community wanted to display a menorah on a public square and Christians wanted to display a Christmas tree.
“Then there was the request by the KKK to display their cross on the square,” he said. “And we resisted that. However they went to court and they were given the authority to place their symbol of what they required as a religious expression on the square.”
Thomas is nervous a similar situation will happen in Ohio if the bill isn’t air-tight.
“But I will be supporting the bill,” he said.
Coronavirus amendments to the bill
The coronavirus changes in the Ohio Student Religious Liberties Act of 2019 largely came from House Bill 319, introduced last week.
It will extend special education through telecommunications, allow school bus drivers to become certified over the internet and not in person, and not require third-graders to repeat the grade due to their scores on the reading test, among other changes.
Source: Ohio Senate unanimously passes student religious expression bill - cleveland.com