My daughter is a student at Ohio University. She’s enjoying the summer with friends in a shared house off campus before her senior year.
Yesterday she called me as she was walking home from work. We were catching up on her day when she said, “Guess what, Mom…they are taking down the letters from the Women’s Center right now. I can’t believe they are actually doing this.”
The image of a hopeful young woman gloomily walking by the physical dismantling of a supportive centerpiece of the female community is striking and disturbing. In the year 2025! I ask the people in the Ohio General Assembly: What is so terribly wrong and threatening about women on a college campus having a place to gather, to share common experiences, to seek assistance for uniquely female issues? It literally angered me so much that I felt myself starting to shake.
Shame on Gov. Mike DeWine for signing SB 1 into law! And shame on Sen. Jerry Cirino for spearheading the effort!
Sad to say, but I am encouraging my daughter to explore her future outside of this increasingly backward state that I recognize less and less every day.
Tracy Reiss, Akron
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: SB 1 is taking effect — and the results are disturbing | Letter