In a bold move to protect the children of Ohio, Lieutenant Governor John Husted has been stumping for the Social Media Parental Notification Act. A law that would require parental consent for children under 16 to access Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and other popular websites. Children, he claimed were becoming depressed. It’s not a bad idea. There are many things in the world children should not see, or even know about. These websites seem unwilling or unable to monitor them.
It is difficult to remember the heartfelt platitudes about the needs of our children in Ohio when you see the state ranks 35th in child food security, 36th in 4-year-olds enrolled in public preschool and 37th in child economic security. All of these are factors that could cause some depression in the youth of Ohio.
Ohio has codified a constitutional carry law which allows a “qualifying adult” to carry a concealed weapon without a background check or even the most basic training. We like to think of ourselves as a well-regulated militia, here in Ohio. It’s an illusion, a fairy tale, produced by gun shops and weapons manufacturers, and broadcast by the Republican majority in the statehouse. You see it on the news almost every morning. We’ve had more homicides than sunrises in Central Ohio in 2023.
To protect our children, and keep sacred the 2nd amendment, the Ohio executive branch proposed the Ohio Comprehensive School Safety Framework. Governor DeWine wants school districts to apply for grant money to add metal detectors, school resource officers, and machine gun emplacements (I just made up the machine guns, but it’s probably coming) to Ohio Schools. It makes sense if you don’t think about it too much. Sure, that’s the problem, here in Ohio, not enough guns. It kind of falls apart when you start to think about almost every other country in the world.
When I was a child, in the 60s growing up in a small town in Nebraska, we had tornado drills. We would march, in an orderly fashion into the hallway, bounded on both sides by classrooms and sit in the hallway. Our backs to the wall and our faces grinning into the faces of students on the other side. We knew it wasn’t really for tornados, we knew it was in case the Soviets started a nuclear war. It added a little excitement to our bland elementary school days. Today, they practice active shooter drills, so children know the best way to cower in fear in case a madman with an assault weapon comes to kill them. I worry about the depression that comes from that training.
Concern for the welfare of children was conspicuously lacking last summer when a ten-year-old rape victim had to travel to Indiana to have an abortion. After the Attorney General was finished denying the validity of the story (and only when he was proven to be completely wrong), he went on Fox News and claimed the loopholes in Ohio’s Heartbeat Law were broad enough for this case and the girl could have had the operation in the Buckeye state. Legal experts don’t agree. By the time they finished with the endless procedural maneuverings it would have been too late. A ten-year-old girl who had suffered the unimaginable horror of rape would have given birth. I’m depressed just thinking about it.
Forgive me, Lieutenant Governor Husted if your concerns about the mental status of todays children seems duplicitous, a campaign slogan pushed into a budget item, and presented to the legislature for a vote. Actions speak louder than words, and inaction loudest of all. Until you take steps to protect children from going hungry, living in the streets, or being another victim of 2nd amendment madness maybe you should find something else to boast about.
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: iStock
