The Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original story.)
The Ohio House passed a slew of bills during a marathon session on Wednesday before going on summer break.
Enact Campus Act
The Enact Campus Act bill (House Bill 606) was woven into Senate Bill 94 earlier this week during House Finance Committee. State Sens. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, and Al Landis, R-Dover, introduced S.B. 94, which passed in the House with a 80-13 vote. The Senate concurred on S.B. 94, meaning the bill will go to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk for his signature.
State Reps. Justin Pizzulli, R-Scioto County, and Dontavius Jarrells, D-Columbus, introduced the Enact Campus Act in response to the recent rise in antisemitic incidents on college campuses last school year after the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
“We want to make sure that we are creating an environment where every student — no matter who they are, who they pray to, what ethnicity or religious background they have — have the best opportunity to learn and to live and be on campuses and be spaces of community … and really learn from each other about the various religious and cultural differences we all have,” Jarrells said.
This bill would require public and private colleges and universities to adopt and enforce a policy regarding racial, religious and ethnic harassment and intimidation.
It would make a campus student safety grant program which would appropriate $1 million in fiscal year 2025 to increase student safety and a campus community grant program that would appropriate $1 million to help with outreach between institutionally sanctioned student organizations at universities. It also would create a campus security support program that would appropriate $2 million in fiscal year 2025.
A recent Hillel and Anti-Defamation League study reported nearly 1,600 antisemitic incidents on college campuses since Oct. 7 — a 700% increase, Pizzulli said.
“Our universities are becoming a breeding ground for this kind of nature,” he said. “Some faculty, staff and student-funded groups have ties to radical propaganda organizations that are assigning a hostile campus climate for the institution and, after speaking with over 50 students across Ohio, it is clear this hate most be stopped.”
House Bill 572 was also rolled into S.B. 94, which requires the Chancellor of Higher Education to conduct a survey of each undergraduate and graduate educator preparation program for teachers to see what’s being taught in terms of mental and behavioral health, behavior management, and classroom management, among other things.
State Rep. Andrea White, R-Kettering, introduced H.B. 572 earlier this year.
S.B. 94 also appropriates $2 million to the Ohio Department of Higher Education to fund educator prep and science of reading programs.
Human Trafficking
The House passed a bill that allows human trafficking survivors to apply for expungement of conviction records for a misdemeanor, fourth-degree felony or fifth-degree felony they committed while being trafficked.
State Rep. Scott Wiggam, R-Wayne County, was the only person to vote against the bill.
People gather to protest human trafficking. (Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
State Sen. Stephanie Kunze, R-Dublin, introduced S.B. 214 earlier this year and it passed in the Senate in April.
“When human trafficking victims finally take steps to escape the scourge of human trafficking, they often have a criminal record (and) carrying a criminal record, as many of us know, creates a major roadblock to accessing gainful employment, stable housing educational opportunities and child custody,” said state Rep. Tracy Richardson, R-Marysville. “These factors are all crucial when a survivor is trying to exit their situation.”
Currently, human trafficking victims can have their records expunged for convicted crimes of soliciting, loitering and prostitution. Expungement is not automatic and people must go through a hearing process.
People who are victims of human trafficking are typically forced to commit crimes, like shoplifting and credit card theft while under the threat of violence
The Human Trafficking Hotline has received 11,224 signals and identified 3,102 cases of human trafficking in Ohio since 2007.
Ohio is a target for human trafficking for many reasons, including its close proximity to the Canadian border, location to several major cities and high number of truck stops, according to Human Trafficking Front.
Teacher licensure fees
The House passed a bill with a 85-12 vote that would fix the potential uptick in teacher licensure fees.
Provisions were added to S.B. 117 in the House Finance Committee that addressed the teacher license fees.
“We also had a problem within the budget last year … and if we don’t do something, act quickly … teacher licensure fees are about to go through the roof,” said state Rep. Jay Edwards, R-Nelsonville.
Five-year teacher licenses cost $200, but would jump up to $350 — a 75% increase — if this problem is not fixed, said state Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, D-Westlake.
Sexual extortion
Brandon’s Law — which would prohibit sexual extortion and aggravated sexual extortion — is one step closer to becoming law after House Bill 531 passed unanimously with 96 votes.
The bill was named after Olentangy High School student Braden Markus, who took his own life in 2021 after someone pretending to be a teenage girl on social media sent him lewd photos and asked him to do the same. After he sent the photos, the person then threatened to publish the pictures on social media if he did not send the person $1,800.
“As a sophomore in high school, Braden did not know what to do,” said state Rep. Beth Lear, R-Galena. “It was a terrifying situation, while the individual continued to push and manipulate him emotionally and he tortured him and threatened the boy. It only took 27 minutes from the time this individual contacted Braden, until he was pushed to the point where he took his own life. And in Ohio, we have no crime for this unless we pass this bill.”
Lear and Brian Lorenz, R-Powell, introduced this bill earlier this year which would make sextortion a crime with felony charges up to 11 years in prison. The court could also impose an additional 10 years if the crime causes bodily harm or death, meaning the person involved in Markus’ death could have received 21 years in prison.
H.B. 531 would also allow a parent or guardian to be able to access a phone or device belonging to a deceased minor within 30 days. Markus’ family wasn’t able to access his phone for 10 months.
At the time of Braden’s death, Lorenz had four children at Liberty High School in Olentangy Local Schools that knew someone close to Braden.
“We had a lot of conversations with our kids about what happened and how we can move forward to make sure this never happens,” Lorenz said.
Walleye Bill
The walleye is one step closer to becoming the official state fish after the passage of House Bill 599, which was introduced earlier this year by state Reps. Sean Brennan, D-Parma, and D.J. Swearingen, R-Huron.
There are 95 million walleye in Lake Erie two years and older, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. To put that in perspective, there are an estimated 600,000 whitetail deer in Ohio.
The Walleye are the nickname of Toledo’s professional minor league hockey team.
State Reps. Jamie Callender, Rodney Creech, Bernie Willis and Tom Young voted against H.B. 599.
The bill now heads to the Senate for further consideration.
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