“Ohio Student Religious Liberties Act of 2019�

[Menotu]

This is the specific language in HB 164:
Sec. 3320.03. No school district board of education, governing authority of a community school established under Chapter 3314. of the Revised Code, governing body of a Sec. STEM school established under Chapter 3326. of the Revised Code, or board of trustees of a college-preparatory boarding school established under Chapter 3328. of the Revised Code shall prohibit a student from engaging in religious expression in the completion of homework, artwork, or other written or oral assignments. Assignment grades and scores shall be calculated using ordinary academic standards of substance and relevance, including any legitimate pedagogical concerns, and shall not penalize or reward a student based on the religious content of a student’s work.


The letter of the act seems to say students can't be rewarded or penalized for for adding any religious opinions in their work (I'm not an attorney so that's paraphrased).
But it can also be said that a student can substitute a religious answer, that may be wrong, and not be penalized for doing so (shall not penalize...based on the religious content of a student’s work) as the ACLU indicates?

Is this plan B (or maybe C) since creationism isn't working; to allow students to say "the earth isn't spherical, it's a sauce pan because my religious book says so!" and not be wrong?
Or is this a way to prevent religious students from be 'bullied' from their beliefs?

Or, maybe even better yet, this religious talk/support should not be part of a public school?

Or is it something else entirely?

[Divine Insight]

I'm not a lawyer either, but from the wording it appears that teaches cannot prohibit students from expressing religious opinions and/or beliefs, but they can mark them wrong.

Here's the wording:

No school district board of education,....{snip},... shall prohibit a student from engaging in religious expression in the completion of homework, artwork, or other written or oral assignments.

So this sounds to me like if I student is asked to give an oral report of their homework and stands up before the class and pronounces that the world is only 6000 years old, they cannot be prohibited from doing so.

In other words, you need to allow them to spew the false information.

HOWEVER,.... it goes on to say:

Assignment grades and scores shall be calculated using ordinary academic standards of substance and relevance, including any legitimate pedagogical concerns, and shall not penalize or reward a student based on the religious content of a student’s work.

So apparently after the student has given their oral religious opinions, the teacher may then stand before the class and proclaim that the information was indeed wrong and that the student will be receiving an "F" for that homework assignment. Not because of religious prejudice, but simply because the information is wrong based on ordinary academic standards of substance and relevance.

[Menotu]

[Replying to post 2 by Divine Insight]

Do you think this should even be allowed in public school - especially in science classes?
Seems it would be better served in a debate type of class or a study of world religions or the like.