The Ohio Student Religious Liberties Act says public school students “may engage in religious expression before, during, and after school hours in the same manner and to the same extent” that “a student is permitted to engage in secular activities or expression before, during, and after school hours.”

Further, the new law prevents school districts from prohibiting a student from “engaging in religious expression in the completion of homework, artwork, or other written or oral assignments.” Teachers “shall not penalise or reward a student based on the religious content of a student’s work,” the law says.

The law defines “religious expression” as:

• Prayer.
• “Religious gatherings, including but not limited to prayer groups, religious clubs, ‘see you at the pole’ gatherings, or other religious gatherings.”
• “Distribution of written materials or literature of a religious nature.”
• “Any other activity of a religious nature, including wearing symbolic clothing or expression of a religious viewpoint, provided that the activity is not obscene, vulgar, offensively lewd, or indecent.”

The Citizens for Community Values, a Christian organisation, applauded legislators and DeWine for supporting the new law. 

“No student should have to hide their faith just because they enter a public school,” said Aaron Baer, president of the organisation. “The law is carefully crafted to ensure school administrators can’t unfairly penalise students of all faiths, or no faith,” he explained.

Source and image: christianheadlines.com