Editor’s Commentary: Ohio’s ‘Parents’ Bill of Rights’ will irreparably destroy – yes, destroy! – education.

This piece was originally published on 6/25/24.

I have a dirty little secret to share here during Pride Month: I habitually respond to posts in an uber-conservative Facebook group for “Parents’ rights in education.”

The list of frequent original posters in the group reads like a who’s who of Ohio’s most anti-LGBTQ+ personas, including:

• Darbi Boddy, the ousted Lakoda school board member, who insists there is no such thing as transgender. 
• Linda Harvey, the head of Mission: America – a virulently antigay “ministry” – who prays for the end of times, because that would be the end of Pride Month. 
• Lisa Breedlove Chaffee, a failed school board candidate and the moderator of the group, who often testifies in the Statehouse in favor of anti-LGBTQ+ bills. 

Republican Reps. Gary Click, Angie King, Josh Williams and Beth Lear – the architects behind all of Ohio’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation – are all members of the group. So too is David Mahan, policy director for the Center for Christian Virtue.

And me. 

I’m honestly surprised I haven’t been kicked out yet, which isn’t for some of the members’ lack of interest in seeing me gone. This weekend, Chase publicly asked Chaffee whether I should be banned because I don’t “contribute helpfully.” Some other guy with an American flag profile pic surprisingly and successfully argued for me to stay in the group. 

So in the group I remain, quixotically trying to insert my perspective where it truly is not wanted.

Editor’s note 12/2/24: I have since been kicked out of this Facebook group.

I have watched these folks say horrible things about LGBTQ+ people. I have watched these folks bust out every anti-DEIB trope known in the conservative playbook. And I have watched these folks fight for all of Ohio’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, perhaps none more so than HB 8, “The Parents’ Bill of Rights.”

HB 8 would force all teachers and school staff – including school counselors, therapists, social workers and psychologists – to automatically out LGBTQ+ students to their parents. 

The actual language:

The policy shall require a school district to … notify a student’s parent of any change in the student’s services, including counseling services, or monitoring related to the student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being or the school’s ability to provide a safe and supportive learning environment for the student … including any request by a student to identify as a gender that does not align with the student’s biological sex. 

Proponents have made it clear that a student sharing their LGBTQ+ identity falls squarely into a “change in the student’s services.”

HB 8 was passed by the Ohio House in June 2023 and Republicans have recently said they are determined to pass it in 2024. If it is voted out of the Senate Education committee, it will move to the full Senate for consideration and, if successful there, on to Governor Mike DeWine’s desk for approval. 

During the hearings in the House and Senate, 15 individuals have spoken for the bill, and 127 have stood against it. Those 127 include representatives from a host of professional organizations, who say that HB 8 violates the standards of their field by obliterating the confidentiality that students reasonably expect from mental health providers. 

To be clear, there are many pieces of legislation affecting LGBTQ+ youth on the table right now in Ohio. 

But as someone who is the editor of an LGBTQ+ publication, a tenured full professor of education who holds a Ph.D. in educational leadership, and someone who regularly works with teachers and therapists-in-training, there is no bill more harmful to our entire education system than HB 8. 

There is also a curricular component of this bill that would require parental notification regarding “sexuality content” (i.e. – LGBTQ+ stuff), but the forced outing alone is enough to cause actual harm to students. And not just the gay kids. 

Here are the myths I have seen posted on that Facebook page and the actual reality:

MYTH: Teachers are hiding things from parents. 

REALITY:  A student seeking out an adult in school to get advice does not automatically mean anyone intends to withhold information from parents. It could just be a child and a trusted adult strategizing on the best way to share information with parents, especially if there is fear of abuse. I had absolutely zero fear of being abused by my parents, and yet I still went to a teacher first to strategize before coming out to my parents.

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MYTH: Parents have a right to know. 

REALITY: Students also have rights, including the right to come out on their own terms. Consider the stats:

• Up to 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ, while the general youth population is only 10% LGBTQ. 
• 26% of homeless LGBTQ youth report being forced out of their homes solely because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

I don’t think that we should assume parents will automatically kick their LGBTQ+ students out of their home, but we should start from a place where we trust youth when they select an adult with whom they want to share their personal details.

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MYTH: HB 8 will allow teachers to solely focus on teaching.

REALITY: There will be fewer teachers. In my work with teachers-in-training, I explain to them the forced-outing language in the bill, and they are universally appalled. Of course, teachers get into this field to educate students, but also to be a source of support in students’ times of need. With all of the overwhelming pressures currently on teachers, it will only take one parent lawsuit against a teacher they feel is withholding information to convince other teachers and teachers-to-be that this vocation surely isn’t worth it. 

MYTH: HB 8 is only about telling parents if students are LGBTQ+, something parents have a right to know. 

REALITY: This is the big one, and I cannot overstate the immeasurable harm that will be done here. Once students understand – and they will grasp it quickly – that adults will be sharing private information with parents, they will no longer confide in teachers. 

Not just the LGBTQ+ students; all students. 

Word will get out and no student will confide in a teacher: not about an eating disorder, an abusive dating situation or whether they are experiencing bullying. Here’s the key piece:

The Parents’ Bill of Rights will not mean that teachers and school staff will start sharing information with parents. The Parents’ Bill of Rights will mean that youth will stop sharing information with teachers and school staff. 

Again, not just the LGBTQ+ students; all students. 

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The goal of the Parents’ Bill of Rights is to “reinforce the fundamental right of parents to make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of their children.” 

I wholeheartedly support that goal and do everything I can to explain to my students that parents are our allies in education, and most certainly not our enemies.

But reaching that goal of partnering with parents by way of annihilating the trust between youth and school adults will have repercussions that will affect every part of our educational system. 

HB 8 will dramatically increase the likelihood of students suffering in silence, muzzle school staff from providing solid resources and ultimately give parents less information than they currently have about their children.

Please talk about HB 8 with people around you. Make the commitment to explain this bill to three people in the next 24 hours, before the bill has its next hearing on Wednesday: call three family members, text three friends or respond to three posts in an uber-conservative Facebook group.

Challenge the very idea of a “Parents’ Bill of Rights.” The safety of our students truly depends on it. 🔥

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