COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Counter-Recruitment: General
ACLU gives students strong voice at VHS
Tony Burchyns,Times- Herald
December 9, 2007
It's a typical lunch period. The hallways of Vallejo High School echo with laughter. Students talk, joke, text, horse around - just be themselves.
But others huddle in a classroom. The military is coming to campus
Monday. These students want peers to know there's more to enlisting
than what recruiters - with shiny Hummers, flashing lights, loud
music - will tell them.
It's a typical lunchtime meeting for the American Civil Liberties
Union club, which has been going strong since the contentious Rodney
King trial in 1992 sparked outrage on campus.
Back then, students also protested censorship of their newspaper and
their school plays, said honors history teacher Daniel Anker, one of
two advisers who helped launch the club.
"The students were concerned about many things," said Anker, a
laid-back baby boomer who protested the Vietnam war after serving
three years in the U.S. Army.
"They were concerned about the reaction to Rodney King. They wanted
the school to do something," Anker said, adding school officials
eventually held a discussion on the police officers' acquittal and
racial issues.
But beyond that, Anker said, students wanted to organize. "They
wanted to get together to figure out which rights they legitimately
had," he said.
Along with honors government and economics teacher Bruce Wilson,
Anker helped pave the way for a new civil liberties club after
students contacted the ACLU.
Ever since, the club has been a springboard for youth activism on a
campus full of issues. There have been debates on police-teenager
relations, drug laws, abortion rights - issues that recur.
"Most students already have an interest in these issues before they
come to the club," Wilson said. "And the club is often a vehicle for
them to not only express ... but to do something about their beliefs."
Membership varies from year to year, but there are usually 10 to 30
students involved.
Weekly lunchtime meetings are held Wednesdays.
"The club is for the students, and as a senior, I feel responsible
for other students," said 12th-grader Lyndon Bilag, who joined this
year. "I want everyone to have the best experience they can at
Vallejo High School."
Taking action
On a typical Wednesday, the students have circled their desks.
They've brought lunches with them. Nine students brainstorm about
what they feel are "myths" about enlisting in the military.
It's a myth that you can escape combat, one student says. Military
training doesn't prepare you for the job market so much as for
military jobs, another says. Veterans account for a third of the U.S.
homeless population, another points out, citing Veterans
Administration statistics.
Pretty soon it's a long "myths" list.
"We are concerned about students feeling the military is their only
option after high school," said senior Doris Le, a fourth-year club
member and the de facto leader of this year's group.
"Recruiters come onto campus, ... they bring Hummers and flashing
lights, ... so we're planning to have events for students throughout
the year," Le said.
Later this year, the club hopes to invite guest speakers, maybe even
young Iraq war veterans.
Le said she learned about the issue during the ACLU's civil rights
summer exploration tour. The eight-day trip brought her and other
high school students from Northern California face-to-face with
combat veterans, their parents and VA hospital workers.
"It's shocking to see how young they are," Le said. "It was
especially painful to talk to the parents who have lost their kids."
Finding a voice
Not every one - adults included - tries to change the world around them.
Somehow, the kids who join the ACLU club are different. They seem to
have a wider perspective. Club leaders often come from honors
classes. But they are often students who know there's something more
important in life than getting the A.
"I just felt the club is something that actually mattered," said
senior Luis Alejandre. "I wanted to make a difference. It was the
only club that stood out for me."
Earlier this year, Alejandre and other activists made themselves
highly known, handing around a petition on clean bathrooms that
garnered more than 800 signatures.
"A lot of them were happy we were trying to do something," Alejarndre
said. "It was actually pretty easy. We just explained to them what
was going on, and most of them signed."
Club members have also been vocal at school board meetings.
"They have brought an issue to our attention, as any student should,"
said Tish Busselle, Vallejo City Unified School District spokeswoman.
So far the school district has responded by doing inspections, hiring
additional custodians and creating policies to discourage student vandalism.
Students, however, are only semi-satisfied. "The problems haven't
completely gone away," Bilag said.
Youth revolution
Le, who loves history, fondly references Maximilian Robespierre, a
prominent figure in the French Revolution, when she speaks of youth activism.
In the same breath, she mentions youth activists of the civil rights
era. "How successful would that have been if youth weren't involved?"
she asks.
Her teachers wonder if the school district does enough to encourage
young people to learn about politics.
There is a standing requirement of seniors to complete a community
service assignment, including volunteer hours with a community
organization and attendance at three local government meetings.
"It's a relatively weak assignment," said Anker, the club's faculty
adviser. "That's the only even remotely overt thing the district does
to encourage anything that comes close to what we try to encourage."
At the same time, Anker said, this is a delicate age group. Many are
afraid to disagree with adults outside of classroom debates.
Busselle said other extra-curricular activities are just as important
- like sports, yearbook and debate teams. "At the high school level,
it's important they are engaged in something," Busselle said.
But she credits the ACLU club for teaching how government works, how
to achieve a voice and how to define common goals. "We may feel
differently about their views, but our view is (all campus clubs) are
providing learning experiences for students," Busselle said.
Alejandre said if students have problems, they should know what to
do. He said some grown-ups might have been peeved by the bathroom
petition, but others were pleased.
"I think mostly they were surprised we would do something like that,"
Bilag said. "A lot of people complain, but don't do anything."
That's why the ACLU club matters, Anker said.
"Students can learn through handing around a petition, or talking to
other students, or attending a school board meeting, or writing a
letter to the editor, ... whatever it might be," he said. "I don't
think many know they can make a difference."
---
Contact Tony Burchyns at tburchyns@thnewsnet .com or 553-6831.
.
This archive consists of a topically organized selection of articles culled by members of the Counter-Recruitment List Serve from printed publications and web sites. The archive is not complete. We have chosen material relevant to the work of Eugene, Oregon’s Committee for Countering Military Recruitment that we think may be of use to others individuals and groups with similar goals.
Because our web site is public, personal comments about the articles and (frequent) corrections of reporters’ errors are also not included. If an article interests you, we encourage you to return to the Counter-Recruitment List Serve and put the article’s headline into the search line, which should bring up (often wise and useful) commentary and corrections. If you do not belong to the List Serve, it can be found at counter-recruitment@yahoogroups.com
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the articles on this site are posted without profit to those who have expressed prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposed.