A representative from Ohio Value Voters gave the State Board of Education an earful the other day. Ohio Value Voters describes itself as an organization protecting faith, family, freedom, and the sanctity of life.
John Stover, who is listed as the president of Ohio Value Voters, presented a packet to each Ohio State Board of Education member that included information on how InfoOhio.org has been a resource for children to access hard-core pornography.
InfoOhio.org is Ohio’s pre-K to 12 digital library that offers public schools access to digital materials that can be utilized in the classroom. The Ohio State Board of Education now realizes that some of that material includes hard-core pornography.
You can watch John Stover’s presentation to the State Board of Education in Ohio here:
You can see some of the reactions from the elected board members who go on to ask questions after the presentation. Charlotte McGuire, who is the current Board Chair, mentions something really important that you don’t want to miss. A concern that is being expressed across the country; the sexualization of children.
InfoOhio receives $2.5 MILLION in state (taxpayer) funding so that students can access their education resources. They are supposed to be providing educational materials that support the state academic standards but John Stover presented information on how children can also access hard-core pornography.
This is something that should have been vetted long before InfoOhio.org was accepted as a resource for public schools.
This may not be what InfoOhio.org intended for children, but that is no excuse for their dereliction of duty.
Is this happening in other states? Recently we read that schools in New Jersey promoted pornographyy to children as part of their comprehensive sex education.
The material Schepisi exposed includes a YouTube video on porn.
“Is it normal to watch porn?” the narrator, who sounds like a child, says in the video. “Yes. It’s normal. Lots of people watch porn. After all it’s right there and it’s free.
This not only disrespects families from diverse religious and secular backgrounds, it can cause young children to then go out and seek pornography at an early age.
Parents have been fighting sexualization in their local school districts across the country. There are laws that they should familiarize themselves with, and report the distribution of these harmful materials to their local county attorneys. Ask them to file charges against anyone in the school district who is exposing their children to this kind of content. You can learn more about that by reviewing an older article on reading material that suggests to Bedford students that pedophilia is ok.
Parents can start by opting their children out of objectionable materials, but they should also start reporting these incidents to local law enforcement. Maybe they will step in, maybe they will not. It’s still important to file a report so that if something does come up in the future, at least that teacher has been reported for their participation in this harmful practice.
Sexualizing and grooming children is becoming more prevalent in the local public schools. It’s up to the rest of us to address this and refocus our schools on quality academic content that teaches children to read, write add and subtract.