Talawanda Schools will create guidelines to accommodate a bill passed by the Ohio House of Representatives that will impact gender and sexuality topics in the school district.

Ohio House Bill 8 passed and Gov. Mike DeWine signed it into action Jan. 8. 

The bill addresses parents’ right to make choices regarding their children’s sexual education and a new mandate on released religious times.

Legislative liaison board member Matt Wyatt introduced the act to the Talawanda Board of Education meeting Feb. 6. 

The bill requires schools to consult with parents before teaching sexuality content, which Talawanda enforced prior. It bans sexuality content for students in kindergarten through third grade. It commands teachers and faculty to reveal the “student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or wellbeing,” to parents, including outing students if they express identifying as a different gender than their assigned sex at birth. It allows students to leave for religious release times or Sunday school during the school day, Wyatt said. 

Talawanda has not applied these changes yet, but the superintendent and school board plans to create procedures with the student’s best interests in mind.

Wyatt compares the bill to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill that prohibits sexual orientation and gender identity content for students from kindergarten through third grade. He explains these new policies restrain teachers and counselors and jeopardize students. 

“ I think it’s a horrific thing,” Wyatt said. “If the parents doesn’t already know, there’s a reason why they don’t already know. And so by forcing, you know, the one group of people in students’ lives that they should trust and rely on, which are their educators, to then tattle tale on them about something private like that is outrageous.” 

He urges parents and students to speak up because the school board can only do so much. He recommends calling state senators and representatives to voice concerns. 

Talawanda parent and Miami University Spanish and Portuguese Senior Lecturer Tamise Ironstrack agree that this is a step in the wrong direction.

 ”I think that it will make kids less informed and less aware about different aspects of identity and different aspects of diversity,” Ironstrack said. “I think kids who are members of the LGBTQ+ community will have more self hatred and more questions about who they are. Those kids already suffer, they already struggle, they already have higher rates of suicide.”

Ironstrack worries that outing students puts them in danger if parents do not accept them at home. She said she fears schools will feel less safe for students.

Wyatt does not want students to feel uncomfortable confiding in their educators.

“ I don’t think any of our students need to worry that we’re not going to be compassionate and listen to everyone’s concerns and what’s going on in their lives,” Wyatt said. “And we’re going to do that within the realm of the law.”

Talawanda and other Ohio public schools must implement these changes by July 1.