(light music) - Bills passed by the Ohio House impacting LGBTQ+ children and families now moved to the Ohio Senate.

A rally in the nation's capitol is planned in memory of Jayland Walker for the one-year anniversary of his death.

And the National Transportation Safety Board holds hearings in East Palestine as it investigates last February's train derailment.

"Ideas" is next.

(exciting music) Hello and welcome to "Ideas."

I'm Andrew Meyer in for Mike MacIntyre.

Thanks for joining us.

The Ohio House passed measures this week that will impact the lives of LGBTQ+ children and their families.

Those measures included a so-called Parents Bill of Rights and a ban on transgender athletes competing on girls and women's sports teams.

Supporters say the measures are collectively about protecting kids and keeping parents informed.

Opponents say the measures amount to state-sponsored bullying.

It's been nearly a year since Akron Police shot and killed Jayland Walker following a chase.

Activists have plans to mark the anniversary with a rally in the nation's capitol.

While Walker's family has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the city and police.

The National Transportation Safety Board held two days of hearings in East Palestine as it investigates February's toxic train derailment.

The Norfolk Southern train went off the track spilling hazardous chemicals and appending the lives of those who live in the Columbiana County Village.

Joining me this week from Idea Stream Public Media, Akron-Canton Reporter Anna Huntsman.

From the Buckeye Flame Editor Ken Schneck.

In Columbus, Ohio Public Radio State House News Bureau, Senior Reporter Jo Ingles.

Let's get ready to round table.

The Ohio House this week passed legislation that will impact the lives of LGBTQ+ children and families in the state if the measure becomes law.

House Bill 8 is known as a Parents Bill of Rights.

House Bill 68 bans almost all types of gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

Jo Ingles taken together, supporters say the legislation protects children in the state, but opponents have a different take saying it's essentially state-sponsored bullying.

- Yes, the opponents of these bills say that it would essentially out kids and put them in unsafe conditions in their schools, in their communities.

It would make those kids feel targeted, and they say that the bills themselves use language that's offensive.

Representative Elliot Forhan, a Democrat, has gay parents.

He says these bills would make kids from families like his feel like they don't belong, like they're not part of the community.

The LGBT kids who testified said they're already bullied.

They think this would make it worse.

The parents agree.

If this passes, though, kids transitioning would be forced to detransition because they couldn't get the care that they're now getting.

And advocates say that's also a painful process.

Remember, the Trevor Project says one in five transgender and non-binary kids attempted suicide in the past year.

So the fear is this legislation will lead to even more of those problems, and some families of trans kids have plans in place to leave the state if this is adopted.

- Jo, supporters claim that the Parents Bill of Rights is simply about keeping parents informed.

Will it lead to the censorship of subject content?

- Well, the supporters say it won't lead to book bans or subject bans, things like that.

But the opponents are not buying that.

They say the language is too broad and it could be used selectively to silence teachers or subject matters.

And the opponents say it's totally unnecessary because Ohio law already requires schools to notify parents before teaching sex ed and permit students to opt out if they want.

- Ken, those who oppose the bill are worried that the legislation would disenfranchise LGBTQ+ youth and LGBTQ+ parents.

- Yes.

It would 100% do that.

HB 8, the Parents Bill of Rights, takes away all of the trusted adults for LGBTQ youth as it forces, not just teachers, I think a lot of the conversations are focused on teachers outing LGBTQ+ students, though obviously those are trusted adults as well.

It would also force all school staff, which includes school psychologists, school certainly school principals and school counselors, school social workers.

Even if the student shares information in a confidential setting and even if the school staff suspect there might be abuse in the home, this bill would still force all of those school staff to share any and all information with parents.

- Ohio already has a law in the books that it basically says it's a notification policy for sexually-oriented content allows parents to opt their kids out.

Where does this parent bill of rights go that the current law doesn't address?

- The curriculum part of the Parents Bill of Rights doesn't take into account what it actually means to be a teacher in the vice chair of the primary and secondary education committee was proudly homeschooled and has never stepped foot in a public school classroom.

It doesn't account for a teacher, say fielding students' questions in the middle of class.

What it requires is anything that is sexuality connected, and that is very vaguely defined, parents must be informed of that beforehand so that they have the option of removing their student when that subject matter is being taught.

Okay.

If I'm teaching about Martin Luther King Jr. and a student raises their hand and says, "Hey, who's that right next to him?"

Well, who's right next to him is Bayard Rustin, who was a proud out gay Black civil rights activist, who was always at Martin Luther King Jr.'s right hand side.

The teacher is going to be thinking, "Well, can I even talk about that?"

You know what, I'm just gonna skip this lesson altogether, because the idea of informing parents every time something sexuality based comes up beforehand is untenable.

These are folks making policy who truly do not understand, and this is me putting on my professor of education hat before I get in trouble, do not understand what it is to teach in a classroom and what comes up.

- Joe, let's talk about House Bill 68.

They're all to do with eights, I don't know what's going on here.

It includes two bans on gender-affirming care and a transgender sports ban.

How did these two issues end up in the same bill?

- Well, House Speaker Jason Stephens says the bills were similar but different, but the same topics for debate.

So he thought it made sense to debate them in one piece on the floor.

And he said, from a legal standpoint, it makes sense to put these bills together.

(Andrew laughs) - Can I just say I don't know how?

And so it came up at the very last minute.

You had a packed hearing room of folks who were there to talk about the ban on gender-affirming care.

And what they were ambushed with was a ban on trans female athletes.

Again, this only applies to trans females, and so there just wasn't even an opportunity for people in the room to speak to that part of the bill because it came out of nowhere.

- We were talking about this a couple of minutes ago.

What we've seen in other states that have taken these steps is an exodus of families leaving that state.

Do you think we're going to see something similar happen here in Ohio if this does pass?

- We will.

I'm gonna just say that unequivocally, I have spoken to countless, countless parents, probably not countless, we could probably count 'em at some point.

Parents of trans children, all of them have a plan to leave the state, we're not talking about a vague suggestion of what might Pennsylvania be like this time of year?

We're talking about, here's this school district compared to this school district.

They have absolute escape plans to leave this state.

Joe and I were actually talking about this offline yesterday.

What will happen is that all of these youth under HB 68, trans youth in Ohio will be forcibly detransitioned.

I think they have something like, and Jo can correct me, I can't quite remember the timeframe, something like 90 days under which they will no longer be able to access puberty blockers or hormone replacement.

And so they will be detransitioned in 90 days.

Well, another part of the bill is going to effectively close all of the gender-affirming clinics in Ohio.

So we've now increased the number of students of youth, trans youth who have been forcibly detransitioned and decrease the places where they can go for assistance.

Of course, they're gonna leave the state.

But the other fun part of the bill, and I remember the initial press conference, Jo was the first to ask this question to Representative Click is this new part of the bill that charges healthcare providers with aiding and abetting if they recommend gender-affirming care outside the state.

So families here in Ohio can't even get solid advice of where they should go because this bill prevents that type of advice.

- Anna.

- I just have a question.

When we're talking about the gender-affirming care piece of this and healthcare providers, what are healthcare providers saying?

Do they have medical experts at these hearings that are able to offer a perspective?

- It is an endless list, right?

So they're so fixated, the folks on the committee, the Republicans on the committee are fixated on that surgery is happening, that gender reassignment surgery is happening for youth under 18, and all the medical experts line up person after person say, that is not happening.

We are not in favor of that.

And yet that becomes the talking point.

So yeah, there was an endless stream in particular from Cincinnati Children's Hospital because that's really the institution that Republicans on the Public Health Policy Committee have taken aim at.

And they have said, puberty blockers, the effects of these are reversible.

The effects of all of these things are reversible.

Here is what accepted care looks like.

And all of that has been dismissed.

- The timing of this is very interesting.

Ohio's not the first state to try and enact these bills.

There are, I think 20 some odd states have already done this.

But also this is coming at a time when a federal judge just struck down a very similar law in Arkansas, and we're seeing courts address these issues in other states as well.

- That certainly came up.

That was a federal court on Wednesday, was it Tuesday that made that decision?

That certainly came up during the hearings on Wednesday.

I mean, pivoting back to Anna's point, this is a bill that's proposed by a Baptist pastor in rural Ohio.

And on the, this is my favorite part, on the Public Health Policy Committee, there are two doctors, one of them an OB/GYN, and Representative Somani, and one of them a board certified 20 years pediatrician, Representative Liston, and they keep raising their hand and saying, "We are actual doctors.

Can someone listen to us?"

And the answer by the vote is no.

(exciting music) - Tuesday will mark the one-year anniversary of the Akron police shooting death of Jayland Walker.

Activists are planning a rally in Washington, DC at the Justice Department to mark the date.

Police shot and killed Walker last June after a chase.

A special grand jury convened to hear the investigation done by the State's Bureau of Criminal Investigation determined that none of the officers involved would face charges.

Anna Huntsman, what do activists hope to accomplish by making this trip to DC next week?

- So a lot of it I think is just about rallying the community and coming together, becoming unified in marking this anniversary of the tragedy that really shook the community still to this day is still healing.

So, you know, from the videos I've seen of people promoting getting on the bus and going down to DC, it's a lot of let's come together, join us, be a part of this.

But what they're actually gonna be doing once they get to DC is they're actually going to have some speakers and do a little bit of a, I don't know if I wanna call it a march, but they're going to be gathering, calling on the US Department of Justice to open an investigation into the Akron Police Department.

Just in general, this isn't necessarily just about Jayland Walker, this is saying that the police department has a long history of the internal culture is in their minds, has been racist and has been in need of change for a long time.

So that is the main goal of what's going on next week.

- Democratic lawmakers have called on the Justice Department to investigate the Akron Police Department.

Any movement on that?

- Not as far as I know, Andrew.

Yes, but you're right, Representative Emilia Strong Sykes has been one of the people calling for this, and we haven't heard anything yet.

But I will say the police department is still doing its internal investigation of whether procedures were followed that night.

So once we know that, maybe we'll see more things coming out.

I will say that the family did file a lawsuit against the city, $45 million that was announced last week.

So we're still seeing updates every day about this.

- That $45 million, they didn't pick a number out of the hat.

There's a very good reason for that.

- Correct.

So when police shot Walker, they fired 94 shots.

I believe it was 46 wounded or grazed Walker according to the medical examiner.

And so the point of the lawsuit is it's 1 million for every shot.

So it is symbolic.

- And I believe what they're calling for is at least 45 million, so- - [Anna] At least.

- Should a court decide they deserve more, they will get more.

- [Anna] Right, exactly.

- The lawsuit itself, it accuses the Akron Police of having a culture of violence and racism reaching back well before Jayland Walker's shooting.

- Yeah.

It points out some previous actions of the police department of what they say is excessive use of force.

There's some incidents with children.

There's an incident from a few years ago where I believe police, when they were trying to arrest someone, they shoved snow in his face, which is still, that's an ongoing investigation there.

But also they brought up this newsletter that was back in the '90s, it was circulated around the department, and it essentially alluded to Black residents being animals, being wild animals that the police had to tame.

And some of those people stayed in the department for many years, a couple actually still are in the department.

So kind of bringing up these things to say, to kind of go on with the point that I was saying earlier that this has been a long standing culture in the department.

And then, it's like I sit in the review board committee or the oversight board meetings, and I hear like Police Chief Mylett last week saying, continuing to defend the department and saying that in his two years here, he hasn't noticed anything egregious.

So there's a lot of different things to hear.

- The lawsuit names the City of Akron.

It names the Akron Police Department, but individually it also names Chief Mylett and also Mayor Dan Horrigan.

What's the criticism of Horrigan in this suit?

- I think the criticism of Horrigan is that he hasn't taken more action, hasn't called out the police chief, hasn't called out the officers.

He's been very hesitant to do all that, which I understand why he might be hesitant to do all that whenever there is a grand jury decision that has already been made.

It's politics at this point.

However, I've been talking with people this week leading up to the anniversary, and people are still calling out Horrigan for not doing more.

And also taking, having some issues with the police chief as well, and saying, as a leader, they understand why he's gonna stand for his department.

However, you know, basically saying 100 shots, almost 100 shots at a person, why can't you take more action against the officers who did that?

- And Chief Mylett has said that he's planning very soon to institute new policy when it comes to car chases.

- Correct.

So this all started with Jayland Walker failing to pull over because he had a broken taillight and the license plate light wasn't working.

And he had also, had started a chase the night before with a different police department.

So police officers knowing that and seeing that he didn't pull over, initiated a car chase.

And at one point during the car chase, it appeared he fired a gun out of the car, as you mentioned earlier, when there was the foot chase and they opened fire on him, he was unarmed.

So through the past year, people have been calling and saying, this should have never happened in the first place.

Why were they chasing Jayland Walker over a broken taillight?

What was the decision there?

What is the department's policy?

And so actually we're told by the end of the month that Chief Mylett is going to institute a new chase policy, what that policy will be and how far it's gonna go is still up in the air.

However, that is one of the reforms that has been called for over the past year.

So we will wait to see on that.

- You mentioned the oversight board and the meetings they're having.

Let's talk a little bit more about those.

Voters approved a charter amendment back in November that created the Citizens Police Oversight Board.

It's still getting up to speed.

One issue the board is wrangling over right now is just how much investigative authority it has and that was on display at Wednesday's meeting.

- Basically, the point of the meeting was for the police union representatives, their lawyer and the FOP president, to kind of give their perspective on what they think falls under the collective bargaining agreement that the police union has with the city.

And whether this police review board will be conflicting with the collective bargaining agreement if they conduct their own investigations.

The review board over the past few weeks has been trying to figure out its rules and procedures.

And one of the biggest conversations is how much investigatory power do we have?

Do we simply just take complaints and refer them, or do we have the authority to actually investigate them ourselves?

Can we do these investigations parallel, at the same time the Internal Affairs Department of the police is also doing these investigations.

Probably not a surprise, but the FOP says you can't do that.

Not only do they say it would violate the labor agreement, but they were kind of telling the members the reasons why they think that's not quote "best practice."

Basically saying things like, you don't have access to the same resources that police officers do.

Citizens may tell you something different than they are willing to tell the investigators.

So you might have two different findings.

That was kind of their perspective.

Then you go to the review board members who speak up, one of them, Shawn Peoples, former police officer, speaks up and says, "I feel like you're intimidating us.

You're trying to intimidate us and that we're gonna do what we wanna do."

Which the FOP president and the lawyer, they did apologize, and they said they didn't intend to come across as intimidating.

- Looking ahead to the coming months for the board itself, it still has work to do in terms of getting up and going.

They need to get to know one another.

They need the community involvement.

What are some of the plans they have there so that it's not just a small group of board members meeting once a week in a room, in a government building, that they really are involving the community.

- Yeah.

So some of the members have already been going out to just various community events and introducing themselves to people.

The board is creating a logo so that they, so maybe they'll get shirts or something so people can identify them.

That's gonna be voted on next week.

But the big thing is that they're planning some sort of community outreach event in the summer.

Plans haven't been finalized yet, but they want to do an official introduction to the community at some point this summer.

You know, getting the word out, who are we, what we want from you.

So right now it's a lot of kind of showing up at places and introducing themselves.

But they wanna have an official event to do so.

(exciting music) - The National Transportation Safety Board held field hearings in East Palestine this week.

The agency is investigating the February derailment of a Norfolk Southern train.

The train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in the Columbiana County Village and caught fire.

Residents continue to this day to express concern and distrust over what they may have been exposed to in the burn off.

The first day of hearings yesterday zeroed in on the decision to burn off the chemicals.

And some experts cast doubt on that decision.

Anna, the burn off that created that massive fireball that we saw in video reports of the smoke column that resulted the village was presented as, that was the only option at the time.

But experts in the hearing yesterday, they're saying we didn't have all the info, did they?

- Yeah, so I remember that day when this was all unfolding, and I remember there was supposed to be a press conference where they were gonna announce what was going on, and the press conference kept getting delayed.

And the whole thought was, they're all deciding what's the best option here?

Do we vent it and or do we not?

Or what are the options here?

And at the time, we were told that that was the only option and that this was the best possible thing to avoid a catastrophic explosion.

However, in the hearing yesterday, the company that owned the vinyl chloride was saying, we actually don't think that there was evidence that there was going to be polymerization.

And so the lead incident commander was saying, "Well, that was what I was told was the only option."

And he thought everybody had a consensus on that.

So yeah, different communication there.

- I think one of the most interesting things that I've seen from the community meeting that happened on Wednesday night, that the NTSB held yesterday's hearings, and presumably we'll see more of this today, is overall there's been a tremendous distrust of government in East Palestine since the derailment.

But the NTSB itself, the National Transportation Safety Board is getting a lot of love from residents.

- Yes, this is something that Abigail Bottar who is at these hearings observed right away is people, I mean, apparently somebody got emotional talking to them and saying, thank you so much for listening to us, and we really feel like we trust you.

Again, there has been so much distrust and so much skepticism from everybody there on the ground.

But the NTSB, I think them being an independent agency, I think people maybe trust that aspect more.

And I think perhaps they've just done a pretty good job of letting people know that we're here to listen and we are going to fight for changes.

- Hearings are going on.

But Jo Ingles, the people in East Palestine, there are a number of them who are still out of their homes.

They're calling in the state to declare an emergency declaration.

That hasn't happened yet.

Any sense on why?

- Well, the governor's office says that they've been talking to FEMA that this is not something that can be covered under an emergency declaration.

But the thing is that the residents aren't buying that, the residents, as you said, are out of their homes.

They're in a temporary situation.

Norfolk Southern is paying for the temporary housing right now, but there's nothing in place that makes sure that they have that further, they can't get Medicare.

They're wondering if long-term medical conditions are going to be taken care of, monitored, that kind of thing.

They're having actual symptoms right now that they think are tied to this incident.

So they want the permanency of having the federal government in there saying, "Hey, we've got your back."

And the one thing that they came to the State House this week and they kind of protested in the gallery a little bit, but the one thing that they're also pointing out is that businesses in East Palestine have been offered these loans that are interest free.

And they're like, well, you're doing it for businesses.

You're helping the businesses.

But when it comes to the residents, all of our stuff is kind of temporary and up in the air and we're nervous.

- Well, Jo, I understand that Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has said he's working with the railroad to address some of the long-term impacts, such as declining home values.

Has he provided any more details on that?

- Well, he has been talking to Northfolk Southern about the long-term effects of this.

They've been inviting residents who are affected by this to come to the Family Assistance Center in town.

That's something that Norfolk Southern is kind of managing, and they've got Norfolk Southern to, they've set up a fund for future health issues for the residents.

But the residents are wondering if that's enough, and they're thinking that all of this could go away.

There's just a lot of unknowns right now.

(exciting music) - Cleveland leaders and organizations are on the clock for a once in a lifetime show.

It's coming up next April 8th.

Cleveland will be one of the cities in the US offering a view of a total solar eclipse.

The city is what it's known as a path of totality, feels a little ominous, meaning it will go dark for several minutes as the moon passes between the earth and the sun.

You may wanna circle the date on your calendar.

Next time a total solar eclipse will pass through will be in the year 2444, which is well after the sales tax expires.

- But you'll still be sitting here then, I just wanna highlight that.

- I'll still be sitting here.

- [Anna] It's gonna be out of this world, Andrew.

(exciting music) - Monday on "The Sound of Ideas" on WKSU after a three-year long pause on student loan payments put in place, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the US Department of Education has announced that payments will be due starting this fall.

We'll talk about how Cleveland community leaders are hoping to assist residents navigating repayments.

I'm Andrew Meyer in for Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for watching.

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