By: Journalist Chloe Oller (OSU)
House bill TU-509 was presented to the House floor on Saturday, April 5, 2025. Author
of the bill, Representative Saleh (TU), became emotional during her author’s explanation of her
legislation relating to Title IX, also called “Why Are We Making Victims Name Themselves
Again?” Act of 2025. The bill’s content fills about half of a page and contains no “punishment” section.
This piece of legislation requires all institutions with a Title IX office to accept anonymous reports and
treat them as they would non-anonymous reports. During the author’s explanation, Rep. Saleh (TU) shared her inspiration behind this piece of legislation, sharing a personal story of how she has been directly impacted by Title IX rules and regulations. The author’s explanation was concluded with several statements about sex-based discrimination reports and statistics in Oklahoma, emphasizing the intended urgency behind this bill. Immediately, caucus struck among the floor and several questions were directed toward Rep. Saleh (TU). Rep. Molder (OKWU) expressed his concerns with the bill by saying, “5.9% of Title IX violation reports are already false, I have to wonder how much that number would go up if this bill is passed.” Rep. Molder (OKWU) ultimately voted against the bill.
Though there seemed to be some controversy on the floor that caused passionate
discussion, the majority of the conversations seemed to be for the legislation to pass. Rep. Saleh
(TU) received many praises for her bill, posed as questions for the author, during her presentation. Rep. Hood (OSU), in favor of the bill, said, “The author’s emotion is what initially
made me realize the importance of the bill, and after discussion with other representatives, I was
given reason to believe the bill had the potential to make a positive impact on the state of
Oklahoma.” The bill passed in the House with a final vote of 56-6.