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Teachers Union Opposes Military Recruiters in Schools

Michael Hirsch, uft.org (United FEderation of Teachers)

Feb 15, 2007

High school students Gigi Martino and Lamia Harper felt so strongly about military recruiters having no business in the schools that they had to tell the Delegate Assembly.

The Secondary School for Law students, whose small school is housed in the former John Jay HS complex in Park Slope, were organizers of a contingent of high school students lobbying delegates to support a resolution that puts the UFT on record as opposing military recruitment in city high schools.

Invited by UFT President Randi Weingarten to address the DA, Martino told delegates it was "important that teachers hear from students about what issues affect them, instead of assuming what might bother us the most," and cited a poll of 500 students conducted at both her school and Paul Robeson HS in which students rated military recruiters on campus their No. 1 grievance.

Martino said she and many of her peers feel that recruiters are less than honest in their pitch to
students. "They deceive us," she said, about the supposed benefits that come with enlistment like free college tuition. "And you won't be able to receive those benefits because, well, you'll be dead," Martino said.

While he did not disagree with the resolution, John Garvey, the head of the UFT Veterans Committee, said he was disappointed with his fellow delegates at what he perceived as an undercurrent of "attacking recruiters as though they were some kind of evil people." Garvey,
a Desert Storm veteran, said that he was never lied to as a youth in making his decision to enlist.

After a spirited discussion about wording, an amended resolution passed with the support of about three-quarters of the body. The amendment reads: "Whereas military recruiters maintain an active presence in New York City high schools, be it therefore resolved that the United Federation of Teachers formally opposes the presence of military recruiters in New York City high schools."

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