Human Rights

Not many citizens of Columbus are aware that if the police think you report too many crimes – or complain about them – Columbus’ finest will put you on a “list” and simply ignore your complaints. The history of how a whistleblower or concerned citizen becomes a “chronic complainer,” blacklisted by the Columbus Police, is well-documented in public records. Take for example Bernadine Kennedy Kent, the woman who initiated the federal investigation into vendor theft and fraud in the Columbus City Schools system. At the same time Kent was acting as a whistleblower and igniting a federal investigation into the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) funds, she was being blacklisted by the Columbus Police. How to become a chronic complainer Kent, a former Columbus City Schools vice principal, runs the nonprofit advocacy group PASS – Parent Advocates for Students in School. In 2006, Kent filed complaints with Columbus Police against the Columbus City Schools for theft and fraud in NCLB funds. When this did not yield results, Kent provided information to the FBI that launched an investigation into the Columbus School’s tutoring program.

Much has been printed concerning the “data-scrubbing” scandal in the Columbus City Schools (CCS) district. Less has been revealed about the more blatant criminal theft and misappropriation of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) tutoring funds. As a result of the Tuesday, January 27 release of State Auditor David Yost’s long-awaited report on student data tampering, four principals were immediately fired and Columbus Schools data czar Steve Tankovich may be facing possible criminal charges. Yost also told reporters that former Columbus Schools Superintendent Gene Harris may have known about the illegal activity: “There’s a reasonable inference, at least based on our interviews that she was at least aware of what was going on.” Yost is sending the information he gathered in the data tampering scandal to the Columbus City Attorney’s, Franklin County Prosectutor’s and the U.S. Attorney’s offices.

I have seen images of many executions over the decades that I’ve been working to end the death penalty. One that stands out in my mind is film footage of an Iraqi military execution of a number of men tied to posts. After the initial volley, an officer then walked down the line, quickly putting a bullet into the head of each victim. The Coup de Grace, a final blow to end the suffering of a mortally wounded person, seems to be an odd demonstration of compassion in the midst of an otherwise gross violation of human rights. Yet, if Ohio is allowed to continue with its current execution protocol, I can see a day when those charged with carrying out executions will insist on its use. Amnesty International (AI) opposes the death penalty as a violation of the right to life, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

On January 14, the Federal Appeals Court for the District of Columbia struck down a Communications Commission rule that guaranteed what is called “net neutrality.” The rule prohibited internet providers from blocking internet traffic to consumers based on content or bandwidth or charging consumers a greater fee to access content. The split decision by the court in favor of Verizon and MetroPCS had additional support in the form of briefs from right­wing lobbying groups and the conservative former Attorney General of Virginia, Ken Cuccinelli. Cuccinelli had filed friends of the court briefs to assist the appellants in their case. The court leaned heavily on a similar decision in 2010 in favor of ComCast, that prompted renewed rules prohibiting the blocking of internet traffic based on content. Verizon brought the new lawsuit that asks to charge both the internet subscriber for access and the content providers for access to the subscribers.

The Problem Over forty years after the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision established abortion to be a constitutional right, the state of Ohio has begun to deny women their ability to exercise it. Three abortion clinics were shuttered in 2013, with more facing closure soon. Within the span of a few years, access may be virtually nonexistent. Toledo is likely to be the first major metropolitan area in the state without an abortion provider. One clinic, Capital Care Network, has received orders to shut down and remains open pending a hearing with the Ohio Department of Health. Their chances of remaining open after the hearing are slim to none, although the move has bought some time. The other clinic, the Center For Choice, closed in June after operating for thirty years. It had survived constant harassment, anthrax scares and even being firebombed. It could not, however, survive the smothering bureaucracy thrust onto it by a state government determined to scale back women's rights by half a century. The Process The systematic dismantling of abortion access in Ohio has been an ongoing project of the Republican-led state legislature for some time.

Recently Ohio Right to Life brought a bill to the Ohio General Assembly that would change substantially the way adoptions are done in the state. HB 307, known as the Infant Adoption Reform Bill, shortens the time that an adoption in Ohio can be challenged post-finalization, decreases the time a man is eligible to file with the Putative Father Registry, permits individuals and couples to advertise for a child to adopt and increases the Ohio adoption tax credit from $1500 to $10,000. ORTL president Mike Gonidakis claims that these measures will reduce abortion rates and encourage adoption by relieving potential adoptive parents (popularly known in adoption reform as “paps”) from the stress and expense of a long drawn-out, often expensive, adoption process. There is nothing in the bill, however, to indicate how making the adoption process easier and cheaper will increase newborn adoption rates since newborns are traditionally in short supply. Nor does it address how to increase the adoption of hundreds of available children warehoused in the state's over-burdened foster care system.

This past summer two busloads of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma hit the road to pay a visit to the Ohio Historical Society at its headquarters adjacent to the state fairgrounds. The Oklahoma Shawnee were not on vacation mind you, but on a mission: to give the Ohio Historical Society (OHS) a history lesson. And as one OHS employee recalled in a diplomatic tone, “We’ve learned from our past.” The Oklahoma Shawnee had gotten wind that the Serpent Mound in southern Ohio – the world’s largest effigy mound and recently named by National Geographic as one of “Great Wonders of the Ancient World” – was becoming a popular destination for New Agers. Indeed, over the past three years at certain New Age-themed events the mound was surrounded by hundreds of admirers as their reverence for the mound was clearly on display.