COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio House sent to the Senate on Wednesday a measure that would prohibit public schools from penalizing students for some work that contains religious beliefs.

Critics have called the bill unnecessary or valuing religion over secularism. One critic said under the bill, if a student turned in homework saying the earth is 10,000 years old – a belief held by some creationists -- they couldn’t get docked in their grade. However, the bill’s sponsor said it was more nuanced than that.

House Bill 164 passed the House 61 to 31.

The bill

HB 164, known as the Ohio Student Religious Liberties Act of 2019:

Requires public schools to give students the same access to facilities if they want to meet for religious expression as they’d give secular groups.

Removes a provision that allows school districts to limit religious expression to lunch periods or other non-instructional times.

Allows students to engage in religious expression before, during and after school hours to the same extent as a student in secular activities or expression.

Prohibits schools from restricting a student from engaging in religious expression in completion of homework, artwork and other assignments.

Sponsor says it’s needed

Children these days face pressures over drug use, student violence and increasing rates of depression and suicide, said bill sposnor Rep. Timothy Ginter, Youngstown-area Republican.

“We live in a day when our young people are experiencing stress and danger and challenges we never experienced growing up," he said.

Ginter said he’s convinced that allowing religious self-expression would be positive.

Religion over science?

ACLU of Ohio Chief Lobbyist Gary Daniels called HB 164 a mixed bag. On the one hand it removes some restrictions on students’ religious rights.

On the other hand, Daniels said that if a student submitted biology homework saying the earth is 10,000 years old, as some creationists believe, the teacher cannot dock points.

“Under HB 164, the answer is ‘no,’ as this legislation clearly states the instructor 'shall not penalize or reward a student based on the religious content of a student’s work,” he said.

Amber Epling, a spokeswoman for Ohio House Democrats, said that in an analysis of the bill by the legislature’s nonpartisan staff, “they cannot be rewarded or penalized for the religious content in their assignments.”

She believes the bill could result in teachers accepting assignments that fly in the face of science.

But Ginter, the bill’s sponsor, said that the student would get a lesser grade in a biology class for an evolution assignment. Even if the student doesn’t believe in evolutionary theory, the student must turn in work that accurately reflects what is taught.

“It will be graded using ordinary academic standards of using substance and relevance,” he said.

However, if students were assigned a report based on historic figures, they could turn in a paper on a historical figure, such as Moses or Mohammed, Ginter said.

Ginter said his bill is providing educators clarity on issues related to religious expression in school.

“This doesn’t give student a get-out-of-jail free card," he said.

Necessary?

Rep. Phillip Robinson, a Solon Democrat, said many parts of the bill are redundant. For instance, children are currently protected if they wish to start religious clubs at school and read the texts of their faith.

“We already have religious freedom protected at the federal and state level," he said.

Rep. Catherine Ingram, a Cincinnati Democrat, also questioned whether the bill simply repeated religious expression freedoms in the Constitution, or if it violates the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment, separating church and state.

“Schools may teach about religion, explain the tenets about various faiths, discuss the role of religion in history, literature, science -- and not for the purpose of anti-science – but in science, and other endeavors and the like,” she said. “As long as it has a secular purpose to promote educational goals, and there is no effort to promote or inhibit any religious beliefs.”

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