Documentary: Law gives Military Access to Student Data
WASHINGTON - It began as a class assignment for Alexia Welch and Sarah Ybarra: Make a five-minute video news story about advertising in public schools.
But the Lawrence, Kan., teenagers’ project snowballed into a 25-minute documentary on how the federal No Child Left Behind law to improve education promotes military recruitment, infringes on students’ privacy and encourages school officials to look the other way.
The movie’s fans include a Democratic California congressman who’s been trying to change the law for two years and award-winning liberal filmmaker Robert Greenwald, who viewed some early rushes and offered the pair his lawyer’s services, just in case.
Their film, “No Child Left Unrecruited,” premiered in April at an arts center in Lawrence, the home of the University of Kansas. A short trailer on YouTube has gotten 630 hits in the past month, and the film made its Washington debut Tuesday.
“We found out this wasn’t a school assignment anymore,” said 17-year-old Ybarra, who’ll be a senior next fall at Lawrence High School. “This was going to go beyond the walls of the district.”
So there they were Tuesday, the two teenage auteurs from Jeff Kuhr’s broadcast media class, at a screening in the basement of the Capitol, hosted by their congressional patron, Rep. Michael Honda.
“You get an A plus,” said Honda, who was a schoolteacher and principal before he came to Washington.
Eighteen-year-old Welch, who just graduated, said she and Ybarra just wanted to answer questions about the rules surrounding military-recruiting policies. They didn’t anticipate the fuss.
“All this other stuff blew us away,” she said. “I don’t think we ever thought about a Washington screening.”
The idea came to Welch last summer when a contract Army recruiter wrote and offered her $100 if she’d enlist. She wondered how he’d obtained her name, address and telephone number.
They discovered that a little-known provision of No Child Left Behind, which President Bush signed in 2002, requires schools to give the military personal information about their students. Otherwise, the schools’ federal aid could be at risk.
Welch and Ybarra found that their high school published all that information and more - age, gender, date of birth and parents’ work phone numbers - in the high school directory, which anyone can buy for $2.
Students could opt out of the directory, they learned, but few knew that they could. And the consequences of that would be not seeing their names listed in the yearbook or school newspaper or on the honor rolls.
The film follows Welch and Ybarra’s odyssey “down the rabbit hole” as they question school officials about the ease with which the military can breach student privacy, and the roadblocks that face parents who seek to keep the data out of reach.
Welch and Ybarra contacted Honda after an Internet search showed that he’s been trying to amend No Child Left Behind so that military recruiters couldn’t get access to the information without parental consent.
The law is up for renewal this year. Honda’s bill has 57 co-sponsors.
Welch and Ybarra said their film wasn’t about the military’s right to recruit students - which Welch said she had no problem with - but more about “making sure no question is left unanswered,” Ybarra said.
Welch said she’d probably enroll at the University of Kansas next fall and might study journalism. Ybarra has another year of high school but has become passionate about documentaries.
For now, everyone involved is just enjoying the ride.
“This has been an amazing opportunity for all of us,” said Kuhr, who accompanied the pair to Washington. “I mean, we’re in the basement of the Capitol. Pretty cool.”
ON THE WEB
A movie trailer for the documentary can be seen at http://youtube.com/watch?v=f7xOKj3u-A
McClatchy Newspapers 2007
Now, THAT’s what I recognize as the American spirit! There are days when all of the bitching we Canadians do about the American empire just slips away into the shadows of some Americans’ heroic demand for a little accountability. Congratulations, kids! Uncle Sam’s future is in your hands.
As much as possible, we ALL need to be the media.
Create and support media democracy or be crushed by media monopoly!
As an as aside, where do the military recruiters get off on totally avoiding the major lifetime psychological health risks, not to mention the physical, associated with their service. Aggressive local education of our young people is a partial answer, but the military should not be allowed to violate truth in advertizing or failure of full disclosure with their contracts.
jon
Connecting the dots: from human behaviors to ecosystem decline
http://StudentsForTheEarth.org
Bravo to those kids and their teacher!!!
Those brilliant teenagers- way to go!
So many students still don’t know how easy it is to go to college- even if you are poor and need some remedial classes. So, many end up enlisting, ’cause the system doesn’t recruit for college those poor kids with a typical lackluster US education; however, the military recruiters hover around like vultures, feeding our youth (who feel they have no future) the enormous lie that the military will somehow save them, enrich their lives and even provide for college.
If ya’ want to go get paid to kill people, why not apply for a job with Blackwater, as a mercenary. They get paid as much in day as most teenagers, fresh out of high school and going into the military, will make in a entire month! Balckwater (and other mercenaries) have the best equipment, all the protective armor, great vehicles, and what’s more, they get to stay clear of the really icky fighting, leaving that to the wage slave troops. Also, when Bush says he needs more money “for the troops”, he’s really talking about his private military, not the poor kids out there killing, and being killed, for a war based on LIES.
I’m the guy who spent 24 years in the army (2 in VN) and I was working in a high school when the NCLB was enacted. I once asked a fellow teacher for a list of his soccer players so I could try to find a volunteer to help me coach my son’s recreational soccer team. He said “Rich I can’t legally give this list even to you another teacher” Now we give those entire lists to some of the lowest scumbags in the military-RECRUITERS! All of them have to follow Colin Powells example and sell their souls if they want to succeed. Colin Powell is the highest ranking SCUMBAG ever! There were several jobs in the army that I never wanted to be stuck in-recruiting was always at the top of the list. So I spent my 24+ years as an Infantryman and was glad of it. Old CSM Ret.
Public schools and Military grooming children for war. Now that’s a society that cares for their kids.
That’s FANTASTIC youth journalism and something every school should be teaching!
Recruiting is a sleazy business, no question about it. However, the military is a real career path, a hand up from poverty for a family’s future generations. It’s better than unemployment in a high-crime area. Once young people get involved in criminal activity to make a living, the risk of getting killed skyrockets. I’d guess that drug-dealing on many city streets is probably a higher risk of getting killed than enlisting in the military, even with today’s current level of ridiculous activity overseas.
All that said, school administrators that actually care about their students shouldn’t be handing over names and phone numbers to recruiters. I’m guessing there’s funding issues… if you refuse to give up the info, there’s probably a penalty.
$100 to enlist in the US Military???
I hear Al Qaeda will give you at least One-Fiddy.
Two highschool girls scoop all the big-bucks ” journalists ” ar NYT,WP,LAT…Makes you wonder if above journalsits are schmoozing with the
Pentagon, just wonder, mind you
I don’t understand. This is “old” news, though
don’t remember where I first saw it reported. I
remember sending email to a “mother” to let her
know about it a few years ago so she could opt
her kids out if she wanted. (Though it was not
mentioned at that time that the kids wouldn’t be
in the yearbook, etc. - maybe that’s a Kansas
school thing.)
Go for it! We all need to be vocal about the abuses of the Bush administration. One year ago on June 28th the Granny Peace Brigade Philadelphia went into and were arrested at the U.S. Military Recruiting Office for trying to enlist, saying “Take us to Iraq, not our grandchildren. We don’t want them to kill or be killed.” We’ll be at the Recruiting Office again on June 28th 2007.
You are invited! Come to Philly and help us read the names of those who were killed.
Marlena Santoyo for Philadelphia Granny Peace Brigade
http://GrannyPeaceBrigadePhiladelphia.org
PS: Parents and/or kids can sign an “Opt Out” form which lets the principal know they do not want their name and personal info given to the military.
All great journalism or documentaries begin with simple curiosity and a willingness to follow the facts whereever they might lead. Establishment media ownership should facilitate rather than hinder this process. Their failure to do so has been the chief cause of their failure to maintain their own integrity or any respect on the part of the public.
Well well, here is the chance to strike back instead of trying to do what is right. Since Bush gives “misinformation ” 24 7, Clinton did on a part time bases and all the rest of the Prez Klan did somewhat now and then….all the student has to do is follow the lead from the oval, give “misinformation”. {i.e. Doe, John..dob 01011990
parents He Buck and Rollingin Doe. Parents manage their wealth so do not “work”. John has no desire to ever wear any kind of uniform. What a loving dear family.}…oh well if you are going to bs make it good, bush tries to just that.
Pigs were spotted flying over two Minnesota lakes, damn I hope they do not the Air Farce.
Bill
The problem with the “opt out” proviso is that the vast majority of parents and high schoolers don’t know about it, and most school boards resist fiercely citizen efforts to disseminate the proviso’s availability. We absolutely must have the protection afforded by Rep Honda’s amendment (HR 1346) to insure that peace-loving high schoolers and their families can opt out if they want to.
THIS is so WRONG, I cannot count the ways. If every young person out there knew this, most would probably try to find a school w/o federal funding; they are out there, however, they are difficult to find. Seems this WH has an ulterior motive for everything they do. Schools are not babysitting services, nor should parents dictate how schools function. Even bad teachers can be dumped, IF the administrators document.
When we let federal money in, we invite their meddling–NOT a problem until we got this bunch of lying hypocrites in the WH and their cohorts in any other department they can stick them in. NONE of us should blindly be following our joke of a leader off the cliff like lemmings. WHY can’t citizens see how vile, sneaky, underhanded, and dishonest this WH and its cronies are? Have we lost the ability to figure this out? In 1990 I stopped teaching; average American IQ was about 90; NOW I believe it is probably more like 80-85. Probably the reason the young people are not protesting this No Child Left Behind like they did in earlier generations.
We MUST hold these government officials (ALL of them) accountable for their lack of ethics and snooping for their own amusement. Congress is the place to stop this. We have privacy laws in effect–teachers here would NEVER put remarks on a student’s permanent record; surely, if we hold teachers to this high standard, then WHY don’t we hold elected officials to a higher one? NO one should have access to students records unless the student and parents okay that access.
My disgust at this bunch in DC is only surpassed by the seemingly dumbed down American people. First, they take down the educational system, then they take over–They, being the dictators out there. IF you don’t believe we have one, then you truly are deaf, dumb, and stupid!!!
“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.”
Abraham Lincoln
At last someone is paying attention… some of us have been screaming bloody murder about this issue since “No Child Left Unrecruited” was shoved through Congress.
This provision is buried on around page 460 in the UNFUNDED “No Child Left Behind” Act… and allows military recruiters (and other Fed snoops) complete access to the high school campus and PERSONAL records including grades and family data of the students. This is information that has been traditionally inviolate.
Half of the police forces in America are not permitted to ask if someone they arrest is in our country illegally, yet we allow the Feds complete freedom of information on our own children!
No wonder some states opted out of NCLB!
rgmccon: I know whatchya’ mean! Was in the military and it’s astonishing, the number of lies fed to our vulnerable youth by recruiters.
GreatGooglyMoogly: You have good intentions, but are again perpetuating the myth that keeps funneling our poor youth into the military. Sorry, for most that path is a dead-end, because what kind of job can you REALLY get with most of your military experience?
“Military preference”? Yah, ’cause they make really excellent wage slaves.
From what I have read, opting out requires filling out a form providing some of the same information you want to opt out of providing. Go figure. The merging of corporate power and government power (recall Eisenhower’s warning against the “military-industrial complex”) is fascism. That isn’t name calling. That’s what it was in the first half of the 20th century and what it is by any other name, privatization, neo-conservatism, corporitocracy, corporatism. It always goes the same way: invasions, war profiteering, the destruction of democratic institutions via scapegoating, fraud, control of the judiciary and the media. Recruiting for the wars is critical.