He and fellow area Rep. Tom Young, R-Washington Twp., are joint sponsors of House Bill 371, which proposes three additions to Ohio’s existing mandatory reporting laws.
The first addition: “An elected official who knows, or has reasonable cause to suspect based on facts that would cause a reasonable person in a similar position to suspect, that a child under eighteen years of age, or a person under twenty-one years of age with a developmental disability or physical impairment, has suffered or faces a threat of suffering any physical or mental wound, injury, disability, or condition of a nature that reasonably indicates abuse or neglect of the child shall immediately report that knowledge, or reasonable cause to suspect.”
The proposal goes on to direct elected officials to make that report to a public children services agency or to a relevant law enforcement officer; and it notes that elected officials must make the report whether they learned about the incident in their professional or personal capacity.
H.B. 371 would also define an elected official as “an elected officer of the state or any political subdivision, other than a member of a central committee of a political party.”
Current law reserves mandatory reporting for a wide range of listed occupations, from attorneys to health care professionals to marriage and family therapists to school employees to camp counselors to dog wardens and deputy dog wardens, and more.
“We put it on other people, right? Why shouldn’t it be, as elected officials, our responsibility even more so?” Young told this outlet.
The bill was introduced over summer recess and has not yet had any activity. Lawmakers are expected to return to the Capitol sometime this month to resume business. Both lawmakers figure they’ll get support.
“I don’t know how an elected official could be opposed to this morally or ethically, you know what I mean? It just doesn’t make sense that somebody would be opposed to this,” Plummer said.
The proposal was preceded by a Dayton Daily News report detailing Plummer’s participation in a state criminal investigation into his colleague state Rep. Rodney Creech, R-West Alexandria, who had been accused of an action that state investigators described as potential sexual imposition.
Plummer told state investigators that, in a private, one-on-one conversation about the accusations, Creech made comments that Plummer described as “disgusting and uncalled for,” which motivated Plummer to participate in the investigation.
Creech denied any wrongdoing, and the state’s investigation closed with a special prosecutor deciding not to bring charges.
Today, Creech and Plummer are competing for an Ohio Senate seat to replace term-limited Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City.
Plummer, a former Montgomery County sheriff, said his bill was partly informed by the Creech investigation, and his concerns that public officials may not report things they become aware of.
“I should be a mandatory reporter if somebody’s calling about an abuse or neglect. You know, I would (report) because of my background, but does everyone else (do) that? Does the trustee or council member (do) that? You’d hope so.”
Creech sees the bill as brazenly political.
“This isn’t my opponent’s first attempt to try and tear me down and confuse voters about who I am and what I stand for,” Creech wrote to this outlet when reached for comment. “I would encourage my colleagues to focus on implementing the MAGA agenda here at home, rather than seeking to divide Republicans for personal political gain.”
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
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