COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: No Child Left Behind
Teens frustrate military recruiter's ASVAB scam
Antiwar.com
Nov 6- Dec 6, 2006
Nov.
24- On Nov. 17, 17-year-old high school seniors Robert Day and Samuel
Parker decided to act after Day overheard some teachers at Pepperell
High School saying that first thing on Nov. 20 the school's juniors
would be made to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery
(ASVAB) military aptitude test.
Often administered under the guise of a career aptitude test, critics
say the ASVAB's purpose is to better equip the government to prey on
young people tricked or pressured into taking the test.
According to Debbie Hopper of Mothers Against the Draft, it is often
given under the pretext of being a "career placement" test. In some
cases it has in fact been used that way, no doubt in an attempt to
legitimize what many in the US regard as not legitimate: the use of
government schools as military recruiting grounds.
The school board answered a concerned email from Parker's mother with a
suggestion that the test is not mandatory but "customary."
As a senior, he would not be made to take the test, but Day confronted
the high school principal, Phil Ray, in defense of students younger
than himself, and was told that the test was mandated by federal law.
Day says he already believed that to be false, since he remembered the
test being given only to the kids actually trying to join the military
the year before. Regardless, the principal dismissed his objections.
The juniors who were to be tested for their military "aptitude" were
not to be told before the weekend.
Principal Ray did not return repeated calls to his office.
Not easily deterred, Day and Parker decided they would do what they
could to "warn" the juniors themselves. They talked to a few kids at
the end of school on the afternoon of Nov. 17, and over the weekend
sent out more than 20 messages to MySpace bulletin boards discouraging
cooperation. Arriving early on the morning of Nov. 20, Day and Parker
picked out spots soon to be populated with kids waiting for the bell to
ring, and with the help of some others who quickly volunteered, rapidly
distributed their 200 homemade fliers to some and also spoke to many
others, encouraging all to refuse to report to the cafeteria or to
sabotage the test — either by ripping it up or filling in false
information.
One of the military recruiters present attempted to snub their efforts,
claiming the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) allows access to all of
their information anyway, and so they might as well take the test.
Journalist and author James Bovard says the NCLB does indeed "roll out
a red carpet" in terms of empowering the military to demand school
records, but says that the ASVAB is far beyond what even it allows. The
pushing of this military aptitude test, Bovard says, is "typical of how
[this] government guides kids — to an early funeral."
Despite the recruiter's interruption, Parker says that he, Day and
their volunteers made sure every junior who may not have wanted to take
the test had a chance to hear them explain its purpose and to
understand that it was not mandatory.
They estimate that about half of the school's juniors refused to even
leave their regular classes to report to the testing site in the
school's cafeteria. Some of the teachers, apparently learning about
this at the last minute like most everyone else, and confused as to the
nature of the proceedings, insisted that their students at least go to
the cafeteria even if they did not mean to cooperate with the military.
Once they were there, the kids were informed that anyone who showed up
in the cafeteria would be made to take the test.
Some of the students decided to deliberately fill in faulty
information. Perhaps that will go on their permanent record instead.
The soldiers told the students that if anyone ripped up their test,
then all the tests, including those belonging to the one-third or so of
the kids who actually wanted to take it and receive their scores, would
be thrown out. This bit of blackmail apparently worked on the kids who
had reluctantly taken it, as no one physically destroyed their tests.
Day and Parker estimate that less than a third of Pepperell's juniors
went along with the test.
The high school counselor, Ms. Nixon, made it clear to the juniors that
she was very disappointed in them for embarrassing principal Ray, but
so far, no punishments have been handed down.
All in all, Parker and Day said they were pleasantly surprised by the
help and encouragement of kids who they thought would not have cared at
all.
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