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Recruiting for the Military in Schools and the NCLB Policy
ROCHESTER, N.Y. - A debate over who, and how, military recruiters can contact Rochester City School District students is heating up.
It comes after Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard and the district's legal counsel recognized that the school board's current policy was in violation of the No Child Left Behind law.
In 2005, the board enacted a policy that allows parents to choose whether the district can pass along contact information for their child to military recruiters. An "Opt In" sort of a policy.
But, the district now feels that policy violates the law and should reflect the policy of every other school district in Monroe County. That policy would mean that parents must specifically notify the district to prevent their contact information from being passed along to military recruiters.
At stake is tens of millions of dollars in Title I federal funding. Brizard said this was brought to the district's attention by some military recruiters who wondered why they were receiving significantly fewer names of potential recruits from the district.
"We have a dilemma; federal legislation and the board policy contradict each other," Brizard explained. "NCLB requires that children and families opt out of the system where the board policy requires them to opt in to the system."
Many Speakers at School Board Meeting
Thursday night, at a meeting of the RCSD Board, speaker after speaker--students, parents, and members of the community--all expressed their overwhelming opposition to an apparent change in the district's policy regarding military recruiters.
Crescenzo Scipione, a senior at the School of the Arts, addressed the school board Thursday night.
"I think what the superintendent and this board may be forgetting is that your first and foremost responsibility is not to a Marine recruiter, it is to the students of this city," Scipione said.
Another speaker, Mary Adams, an RCSD parent, said, "Military recruiters themselves are under tremendous pressure to increase their numbers and they themselves are pressed to use psychological manipulation, deceitful promises and non-stop pursuit of potential recruits."
Phil Davis, another parent of students in the district, said that he wonders how the military can dictate education policies.
"I much prefer the Army not calling them, and I would prefer that they keep the policy the same way and that they not encourage my son to become violent," he said.
Still, some parents don't share this point of view.
Patricia Schmidt said she has four children who've chosen a career in the military and she thinks more students need to at least consider that path.
"There are people that have good experiences and bad experiences with the military but it doesn't mean that they shouldn't have that choice to make," Schmidt said. "18-year-olds vote, and I'm sure their parents don't go into the voting booths with them."
The district sent a letter to parents last month that reflected the proposed change in policy. It explained how parents and legal guardians "are permitted to deny disclosure of this (contact) information" to colleges, employers, the military, or other organizations.
Late Thursday night, the board and superintendent agreed to look at the issue closer over the coming months and attempt to bring the district's policy into compliance with NCLB law.
A district spokesman said the superintendent maintains that must happen, while the district and community can commit to lobbying federal lawmakers for a change to the current law.
See video coverage here.- Posted in
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23 Comments so far
Show AllCertainly this is a violation of youthful conscience not yet formed.
Certainly harassment of school children by the military.
Occasionally this information has come forward -- we need to have it
leap forward now in testimony against miitarization of our schools!
"I think what the superintendent and this board may be forgetting is that your first and foremost responsibility is not to a Marine recruiter, it is to the students of this city," Scipione said.
Meanwhile, military recruiters are commiting suicide.
We are all tortured by these brutal laws.
"According to all myth, the female - not the male -- gives life"
The greatest effort to militarize our children does not come from military recruiters. It comes from Hollywood, where the standard solution is a "good guy" demonstrating his "goodness" by using superior strength against the "bad guys."
I remember when I was in my early 20's. I couldn't walk through the mall without being targeted by a recruiter. They were the most agressive hawkers in the mall. Later in seminary, we had a military recruiter on campus who kept interrupting a small group discussion we were having, no matter how many times we explained to him that we were in class at that very minute doing an assignment.
I think one of the easiest ways to balance the budget would be to cut funding for military recruitment. New military recruits would have to "opt in" by seeking out a recruiting station. This would produce savings not only at the front end by reducing marketing costs, but at the rear end where less taxes would be spent on military training and payroll. This idea wouldn't get through congress, of course. And if the White House tried to quietly cut it out of the military spending package, some misguided person would swiftly call it to the public's and congress's attention.
Yes, the media: films, magazines, T.V. shows and ads, billboards- not to mention psy-ops, all play a strong role in keeping the U.S. military presence high.
What peace group can compete when this kind of propaganda is a wall-to-wall, daily thing?
Numerous school districts have determined, often under pressure, that the plain language of the NCLB Act (below) gives the student the right to opt-out of having their personal information given to the military, independently of the parent or guardian, and even if under 18.
http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg112.html#sec9528 -
SEC. 9528. ARMED FORCES RECRUITER ACCESS TO STUDENTS AND STUDENT RECRUITING INFORMATION.
(a) POLICY-
(2) CONSENT- A secondary school student or the parent of the student may request that the student's name, address, and telephone listing described in paragraph (1) not be released without prior written parental consent, and the local educational agency or private school shall notify parents of the option to make a request and shall comply with any request.
For more information see:
http://www.leavemychildalone.org/
http://www.afsc.org/Youth&Militarism/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/18302
The trouble is, that even opting out does nothing to diminish the bold frequency of the presence of recruiters in high schools!!
With their uniforms and freebies, it's very hard to compete with them. It "normalizes" the military, makes it seem sexy and fun.
No matter how diligent Quaker-style non-profits & peace orgs are, we cannot keep up with the Army and its tricks.
It's time for NCLB to go and recruiters to be banned from schools.
If they are eager to enlist, kids can sign up on their free time. Not at school!
Yeah, how about bringing statistics to high schools about the rates of suicide among troops and veterans in the last few years?
As I posted elsewhere on CD a few days ago, the alarming rate of suicides among the recruiters themselves is an indication of how bad things have gotten. This trend should be taken into account.
Recuiters, many of them, are very young & inexperienced men and women who are being pressured- even coerced- to lie to HS students to get them to enlist and to keep recruitment quotas high. It's an ugly system.
I've personally observed (from a distance) recruiters stalk - yes, follow- High School students and corner them without any adults nearby. Recuiters feel this is an appropriate opening for a "friendly" chat with a young person. What other adults with a heavy agenda do we allow to "befriend" our kids in this way?
This kind of blatantly predatory behavior by recruiters has to stop.
Youth have a right to be in school without being seen simply as cannon fodder.
NCLB needs to be dumped, for this (recuitment) and many other reasons (like high stakes testing).
None of this would be a problem if we had mandatory service terms. And, we wouldn't have a clear division between suburban parents who can participate and basically, pay (if you consider that property taxes fund education) to keep their kids "safe" while urban or less financially empowered kids end up as cannon fodder. If we really want to limit war, put kids that society "cares" about in uniforms!
This law is clearly unfair and an infringement on individual rights, but considering what a tenuous grasp we have on power, the size of other world militaries, and the general fragility of peace, I'd rather have a big military than no military at all. Right now its the only thing keeping your gas tanks filled. And, being that its winter here in Chicago, I like a little warmth in my house. People spout about cutting back on the military without considering that the US is a hegemonic military power - unless you're prepared to live a 3rd world life, reconsider your views or actually change the nature of this country.
Typically more of the same. You're assumed to be opted in, unless you take steps to opt yourself out.
"I think what the superintendent and this board may be forgetting is that your first and foremost responsibility is not to a Marine recruiter, it is to the students of this city," Scipione said."
This seems to be the clearest statement made and the most truthful.
AS long as the recruiters stay out of the schools and parents can simply notify the school to not release contact information for their child when they are under age, no one should have a problem with that.
We've had this discussion before.
For the most part - recruiters DON'T stay out of schools. Secondly, there have been numerous instances of conservative administrators and school boards who either withheld information on the opt-out policy, or contrived it in such a way as to actually penalize the student who decides to opt-out: e.g. if you opt-out of giving info to recruiters, we will consider it a blanket opt-out and not give your contact info to colleges, business, etc. Don't tell me it doesn't happen - I have helped parents / communities work through these issues for the last eight years. Third, some counselors actually smooth the way for at-risk kids to see recruiters, the logic being these kids are lost anyway and the military might give them a direction in life. Note the class distinction here - at-risk kids, urban kids, and rural kids are much more likely to be targeted - yes, I said targeted - by recruiters than those either living in the suburbs or gentrified sections of the city.
The problem is this: the American empire demands bodies. If you have a draft - people begin to ask questions - people with political, economic and social power especially. So, let's let the poor kids, the less well-educated, the legal aliens, the Hispanics and Blacks, fight our imperial wars. Hell - that ought to work out fine - UNLESS OF COURSE THEY DISCOVER, AS MARK TWAIN DISCOVERED, THAT MOST OF THESE WARS ARE FOUGHT AGAINST RATHER BACKWARD, DARK-SKINNED HUMANS IN POSSESSION OF RESOURCES WE DESIRE.
"We've had this discussion before"
Yes we have. And all I can say is that schools musdt make sure recruiters stay out of high schools. Thats their job, if they are failing, call them out, call the recruiting officers incharge and give them the date and non-com involved.
NO...NO DRAFT...EVER AGAIN. A draft removes your choice. Consider being drafted and you have to go to a war you don't agree with, that you don't want to fight and your only recourse is to run. And it takes a certain type of person to desert, most people won't. I don't mean cowards, though there were certainly some among them, there were plenty of cowards in combat.
You oppose having a military I know, but since that is not possible, I'd ask you to consider that the services do have to recruit and these are the same kids that would be drafted, but with a volunteer service they get to choose.
"poor kids, the less well-educated, the legal aliens, the Hispanics and Blacks"
These are generally the kids that make up any military in the world. Its no big plot. They have always made up the military, no matter whose. For many its the best job they can find. And in many cases they end up going career. The thing that many miss is that its not a bad deal except when you get "clueless" in charge and we end up in a war we shouldn't be in.
I'm with Penelope as far as cancling NCLB, its done nothing that I can see. Recruiters can get the information easily from other data.
"Third, some counselors actually smooth the way for at-risk kids to see recruiters, the logic being these kids are lost anyway and the military might give them a direction in life. Note the class distinction here - at-risk kids, urban kids, and rural kids are much more likely to be targeted - yes, I said targeted - by recruiters than those either living in the suburbs or gentrified sections of the "
I forgot to say this is undoutedly true. There is of course a class distinction, if I were a recruiter I'd know a kid from the inner city, a kid that had few skills, etc would be far more likely to sign up than Mommys boy from Highland Park who has Daddys money as a backstop.
But business is hitting these kids by hiring illegals for the jobs they would usually get (7-9 million jobs), our schools seem more intent on not offending (somebody) than educating, blah, blah, blah. You know these circumstances as well as I, better probably if you've been working with this very thing. A counselor that would help a recruiter directly, guide a kid that way....I'd be in favor bringing back public flogging.
The kid must get fair information and make up their own mind. NO under age child should ever be approached, with or without their parents permission. But if they bring parents permission or the parents to the recruiting office, fine.
The volunteer military is a growth industry.
A responsible school administration might print up and post/distribute a list of questions and points of interest for the recruiters to answer/tell each candidate.
1. What are the words of the oaths a recruit will take upon both entry and commissioning.
2. The legal significance of each phrase in the oath---what a legal order is; who makes, or, at what level of command, is the determination made about the legality of an order.
3. Will they be required to kill non-combatants?
4. What treaties and laws are in effect, and are likely to remain in effect for the term of their service?
And so on. The Quakers probably have a more expansive list.
3. Will they be required to kill non-combatants?
I trust you are joking?
Thomas More - right on.
I had a college instructor in the sixties who told us about going through officer training in the military. He told a movie they were made to watch over and over.
In it, soldiers went into a village and an old man, a pregnant woman and a couple of small children came out of the little shack they lived in. They grabbed the kids by the ankles and swung them against a tree, blew off the old man's head, and bayonneted the woman through the stomach, then shot her.
All but a few of the class watching the movie ran out when the kids were killed, and most never made it to the door before emptying their stomachs.
Every day the same thing happened, although fewer and fewer did so with each showing. Finally the day came when no one ran out. Instead, they watched, laughing at the way the old man just stood there with no head for awhile; at the surprised look on the woman's face before they shot her, and acted like it was all a completely normal thing.
There was a retired military officer on one of the talk shows that told basically the same kind of thing during the run-up to the Iraq war. It went right over the heads of everyone, and was never mentioned by anyone in the news. It was like, who cares.
The lure of easy $$ is the biggest obstacle to overcome......
Just like anything else the lesson begins at home. How about the parents educating themselves about the realities of military service and the not so good long term effects of being in a combat zone. Little Johnny and Suzy will not come home as the same little boy/girl you once knew and doted over. It is a life changing experience. I of course am speaking from experience
and what ladybug said....
~ Some people live their whole lives without ever waking up ~
The USA has become a monster that is hardly less lethal to its own citizens than to whatever hapless country it decides to destroy.
It's out of control. Nobody seems able to stop it. Empires do imperialism. It's in their nature, and once set in motion, no empire has ever stopped until it spent its last dime and sacrificed its last ideal.
As far as I'm concerned, no one should be allowed to enlist in any branch of the military until they're 21. Being able to enlist kids in their late teens is one of the things the State counts on to keep its foolish, stupid imperial wars going, as long as restoration of conscription is too politically suicidal to implement. So I would favor not only making conscription illegal (defining it as "involuntary servitude" and thus a violation of the 13th Amendment), but raising the age of enlistment to 21 as well.
If you raise the legal age to 21, the voting age to 21, I think this would be a fairly good idea.
You'd have to raise the legal age because you can't take freedom of choice from anyone if they are of age. It can't be someone else's decision.
US-style 'Hitler Youth' anyone?
Walk in peace.
Isn't there some international law against child soldiers?
Oops, I forgot we don't care - remember the 15 year old Canadian captured in 2002 - who is still in Gitmo?