COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: War Protests: General
Military Recruiters Protested At School
Lori Aratani, Washington Post
February 3, 2006
About
a half-dozen people -- led by a Montgomery County parent -- staged a
protest outside a Silver Spring high school yesterday to highlight
their continued opposition to the presence of military recruiters on
high school campuses.
The target of their wrath was the Army Cinema Van, a multimedia vehicle
used by the Army in its recruiting efforts. The van, which shows videos
and has a NASCAR simulator, stopped at Montgomery Blair High School
yesterday and has made other stops recently at Gaithersburg and
Magruder high schools. It is one of a number of ways the armed services
promote careers in the military.
Throughout the day at Montgomery Blair, recruiters ushered interested
students into the vehicle to watch a movie about physics and roller
coasters and talk about the Army. About 80 students took part. School
administrators would not allow a reporter to interview students about
their impressions.
Pat Elder, a Walt Whitman High parent who helped organize the protest,
said the van and similar recruiting methods glorify careers in the
military while minimizing the risks students who enlist will face if
they join.
Parents across the country have voiced opposition to allowing military
recruiters on campuses as the third anniversary of the war in Iraq
approaches and casualties mount. A provision of the No Child Left
Behind law that requires high schools to give recruiters student
information -- or face sanctions -- also has ignited opposition.
Many public schools give military recruiters the same access to student
information as college recruiters. Parents can prevent recruiters from
contacting their child if they fill out special forms.
Kelly Rowe, public affairs officer for the Baltimore Recruiting
Battalion, compared the Army Cinema Van to efforts by colleges to
recruit students. "I don't think it's any different from an athlete who
gets 10 letters saying, 'Come play for us,' " Rowe said.
Stacey Gurian-Sherman, a Montgomery Blair parent, was not among the
protesters marching on the sidewalk yesterday, but she went to the
school to see the recruiters' presentation. After watching it, she
said, she was even more opposed to their presence on campus.
"We don't even allow students to vote until they're 18, but we're
allowing 14-year-olds to watch this?" she said, referring to the Army
Cinema Van programming. "The military should not be recruiting at high
school campuses."
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