Mom behind Erin’s law hopes to break stalemate over bill
COLUMBUS — Erin Merryn, a Chicago-area resident behind an Ohio bill that would require public schools to provide age-appropriate sexual abuse prevention instruction, told a Senate committee Tuesday that 37 states have passed Erin’s Law thus far.
Merryn, who traveled to the Ohio Statehouse to testify on her bill, said she didn’t want Ohio to be the last. Her husband grew up in the Columbus suburbs, and she’s spent time in the state.
“Ohio is one of 13 that has not,” she said. “This is my third time testifying here. Seven years ago, I came and testified before a committee in the House, where it passed. I’ve been coming back year after year, testifying on the bill.”
House Bill 105, also known as Erin’s Law, has been stalled in the Senate after the House passed the legislation last June.
The Center for Christian Virtue, a conservative public policy and lobbying organization, circulated an amendment that would require the instruction to emphasize abstinence before marriage, discourage transgender students from gender-affirming care, ban the simulation of sexual acts, and demonstrate the use of contraception, along with other culture wars-inspired prohibitions. Opponents of the amendment say the amendment takes the focus off child sexual abuse and could cause shame and other psychological harms.
Two men sexually abused Merryn when she was a child. She suffered from an eating disorder and behavioral problems as a result. Adults had taught her about “stranger danger,” but no one told her that most people who sexually abuse children are most likely people they know, she said.
She said that months after the bill became law in New York, children at a school received training, and some recognized that they were subject to abuse.
“These nine kids were all pointing their finger at the same man, not a stranger, but the principal,” she said.
Merryn testified to the Ohio Senate Primary and Secondary Education Committee. Not all committee members were on board with her bill.
Ashtabula County Republican Sen. Sandra O’brien, a committee member, said she was worried about how sexual abuse instruction would ruin a child’s innocence.
“I’m sorry for what happened to you,” she told Merryn. “There is evil in the world, and there will always be evil. I’m concerned about removing the innocence of our young children. I’m very concerned about that. So my question to you is, do you know who is going to develop or have a say in this curriculum? Will it be Planned Parenthood or any of their subsidiaries?”
Planned Parenthood doesn’t have a child sexual abuse curriculum, but it has a sex education curriculum. The Center for Christian Virtue has told people they don’t want Planned Parenthood involved.
Merryn replied she also didn’t want Planned Parenthood involved. Many states use a curriculum provided by local children advocacy centers, many of which already have educational materials.
O’brien replied that even if there’s a parental opt-out in the bill, “my experience in lower-income, disadvantaged students, many, many students live in homes where whomever they’re living with just doesn’t really have the time to expend the effort to look at the curriculum going on in their school district,” she said. “And again, I’m very concerned about possibly ruining or losing the innocence of our young children. I’m terribly concerned about that. But thank you for your testimony.”
Brenner said after the committee hearing that the bill could potentially provide the Ohio Department of Education guardrails around how it would develop a model curriculum for child sexual abuse prevention instruction.
In Ohio, local school districts choose curriculum. But the Ohio Department of Education offers a model curriculum for them to use.
The bill will likely be amended in the Senate. It remains to be seen whether the House sponsors of the bill will accept those amendments, which would end the stalemate.
State Sen. Andrew Brenner, a Delaware County Republican who chairs the Senate Primary and Secondary Education Committee, which heard Merryn’s testimony Tuesday, said he continues to talk with the House sponsors.
There is a chance the bill could move forward in November or December this year, Brenner said.
Brenner asked Merryn whether she would be OK with amendments to her bill that would allow parents to opt their kids out of the instruction to protect students’ privacy and offer more curriculum transparency. The bill currently allows parents to inspect the curriculum before the instruction.
Merryn said she was OK with the potential changes.