COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: Student Privacy
Sunnyside to restrict military recruiting
HEIDI ROWLEY, Tuscon Citizen
October 12, 2005
Military recruiting will be limited under a policy adopted by Sunnyside Unified School District last night, after complaints by some parents that students were being hounded.Desert View High School Principal Jon Hanson said the most important part of the new policy is an opt-out option for students and parents.
By law, schools must give military recruiters the names, phones numbers and addresses of students or face loss of federal funds. The same information that is available to college recruiters is available to the military.
There is an exception if students and parents each year sign a form requesting that the information not be given to the military.
Veronica Ahumada, who has two sons at Sunnyside High School, told the board that recruiters from all branches of the military call her house almost every day.
"I think our kids can go to college without seeing the only way to pay is through the military,' " she said.
The South Side district's new policy is similar to that of Tucson Unified School District, which encompasses much of the metropolitan area.
About 50 parents and community members showed up at the school board meeting, most in support of a change to the recruiting policy.
Many wanted military recruiters banned from the high schools, something that is not possible.
According to the No Child Left Behind Act, schools must give equal access to prospective employers, college recruiters and military recruiters or lose specific federal funds.
Aggie Nizhonie Hart, a parent of a Desert View student and a Native American student adviser at the school, was the only parent at the meeting who asked the board not to limit military recruiters on campus.
"It would be ideal if U of A, Pima and ASU were knocking down our doors, but it doesn't happen," she said. "If we have to limit the military recruiters, we have to limit all recruiters."
Board members voted to limit all recruiters to one visit per month.
Hanson requested that the visits not be limited because it would also limit college recruiters.
In addition, Desert View has an Air Force ROTC class on campus that provides a continuous military presence.
While generally keeping visits to once a month, school board members gave principals the option of allowing more visits in "special circumstances."
"We have discretion based on the knowledge we have," Hanson said.
Hanson said he was worried that limiting recruiters would cut into Desert View's ROTC program, and a program with Pima Community College called Project College Bound, under which representatives come in every other week.
As a principal, Hanson said he now has the authority to continue those programs, and at the same time "curb incidences of horror stories of the recruiters harassing students."
U.S. Marines recruiting spokesman Sgt. Eric Cantu said the policy is "not a good thing" for the Marines.
"In a way it limits the students' opportunity to get the information from us," he said. "We will still continue with our recruiting efforts in the schools and try to provide information to the students.
"All we want to do is offer the information to the students, and it's always their choice," he continued, adding that he was recruited in 1993 while attending Cholla High School.
"We don't perceive a real change in how we do business," said Sgt. Russ Martin of the U.S. Air Force. "(Recruiters) can only hit their schools about once a month anyway."
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