COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Counter-Recruitment: General
Lieber bill would tighten recruiters' access to students
Casey Weiss, Mountain View
February 22, 2008
Activists protesting outside the new Army Career Center in MountainView last week called for more honesty and tighter policies for
military recruiting among high school students.
Their wishes could be partially granted if the state Legislature
passes a bill reintroduced this week by local Democratic
Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, who said it would help to better inform
parent and students about military recruiting policies on high school
campuses. Recruiters currently have access to high school students'
contact information -- unless parents sign a denial of consent form.
Although all families are required to receive this opt-out form with
other registration and back-to-school information, Lieber said they
often miss the form, which is on page 78 of a packet for Mountain
View and Los Altos high school students.
"The bill would put it front and center where families can see it,"
Lieber said.
Under the proposed bill, the option to opt out of the recruitment
process would be on the emergency contact form. The bill would also
push to inform students that the armed services receive their contact
information if they take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude
Battery, an online test that helps students explore career
opportunities through math and verbal testing. The site's home page
only refers to the test as the ASVAB career exploration program.
Lieber said she often hears complaints from families who are
receiving constant calls and e-mails from recruiters.
"We see this as an important privacy issue. California, unlike other
states, has the right to privacy in our Constitution, " Lieber said.
"We have a responsibility. "
Lieber is not directly working with last Friday's protesters. Paul
George, director of the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center in Palo
Alto, which helped organize the event, said he favors even tighter
recruiting policies.
Calls to the local recruiting center were referred to the Army's
local public affairs spokesman, who did not return several phone
calls seeking comment. The Army's national media relations office in
Kentucky also did not return calls seeking comment.
Under the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act, all schools that receive
federal funding must provide military recruiters with students'
names, addresses and telephone numbers, unless parents have signed
the consent forms. Public schools also must give military recruiters
the same information colleges and potential employers receive, MVLA
associate Superintendent Brigitte Sarraf said. The government will
withhold funding from schools that do not comply with NCLB.
"If you allow college recruiters to come on campus, you have to make
that option available to military recruiters," said Sarraf, referring
to the law.
She said a fair number of parents opt out, and that only a few
students from the high schools enlist each year.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill co-sponsored by
Lieber in 2006, but the assemblywoman said this time, with more
people critical of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, she is hopeful
it will pass.
While Lieber's bill, which she will present to the Assembly on
Friday, would cover only California students, Congressman Mike Honda,
D-San Jose, is pushing for a national opt-in policy, which would
prevent release of information to recruiters unless a guardian signs
a consent form.
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