Representative Gail K. Pavliga - District 72

Schools will be required to publicly post their policy on oral recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, if a bill introduced in the Ohio House of Representatives becomes law.

Ohio schools are already required by law to have a policy on whether or not students recite the pledge.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Gail Pavliga, R-Atwater, and Rep. Tracy Richardson, R-Marysville, would require school districts to make their pledge policies publicly available and post the policy on the district website if there is one.

Rebecca Wert said her first inkling she was a widow came less than two months after her wedding, from a police scanner.

Early Jan. 31, 1981, she heard her husband, Ravenna patrolman James Wert, had been struck by what was reported as a drunken driver while outside his cruiser on state Route 88.

Governor DeWine signs ‘Patrolman James R. Wert Memorial Highway’ Bill Signed into LCOLUMBUS – State Rep. Gail Pavliga (R-Portage County) announces that Governor DeWine has signed House Bill 251 and will now become law.  Last month, the General Assembly approved the bill designating a portion of State Route 88 in Portage County as the "Patrolman James R. Wert Memorial Highway."

Two years after implementation, more Ohioans are seeking mental health support from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, reaching an all-time high of 20,000 contacts in June.

And yet the federally required service does not yet have a dedicated funding source and is still subject to "political whims," said Rep. Gail Pavliga, who has been the go-to lawmaker for 988 issues.