COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: War Protests: General
Teachers Oppose Recruiters at School
Kevin Herrera, Wave Newspapers
Sep 28, 2005
LOS ANGELES — Teachers here are issuing an executive order to military recruiters: Stay away from our students.At a rally held Monday afternoon at Abraham Lincoln High School, educators joined with community activists to announce the beginning of a nationwide campaign called Operation Opt Out, intended to inform parents about their right to withhold a child’s personal information from recruiters.
“Keep your hands off of my students,” said Fernando Ledezma, a member of the board of directors for United Teachers Los Angeles, which has endorsed the campaign. “I am speaking on behalf of thousands of young Chicanos, thousands of young African Americans and poor whites who gave their lives all under the auspices of being given an opportunity. … You want to give them a real opportunity, teach them how to read, teach them how to write and give them a college education.”
Serving in the armed forces has long been a viable option for those without the means for a higher education. Giving four years of your life to the military often meant being rewarded with valuable job experience plus money for college.
But with ground troops still under fire in Iraq and Afghanistan, many high school seniors are reconsidering a career in fighting the war on terrorism.
“Maybe they could offer you training or money for school, but what good is that if we don’t come back?” said Lincoln High junior Andrea Molina. “It’s not worth it.”
Students like Molina have made it more difficult for recruiters to fulfill their enlistment quotas, which can be as high as 100,000 a year for some branches of the military.
To entice young people, recruiters have resorted to offering treats, from doughnuts to rides in military vehicles. Those with Operation Opt Out said some recruiters have even resorted to misleading students, which is why opponents have stepped up their own counter-recruitment efforts, particularly in schools of color where they feel recruiters swarm.
Army recruiters did not return calls seeking comment.
“If you talk to students you will find that since 9/11 and the war in Iraq there have been noticeable differences in military recruiters on campuses,” said Roosevelt High School teacher Arlene Inouye, coordinator of the Coalition Against Militarism in Schools, one the members of Operation Opt Out. “Now we have seen Humvees on campus, pull-up bars, Army vans. They are coming with all kinds of hardware and coming in places they didn’t come before. … There has been a definite change and what we want our school officials to understand is this is something happening today. Maybe before we didn’t need to draw so much attention to have a balance, but now they have to understand the military recruiters are under pressure to get their two-to- three recruits a month and they are trying harder than ever to get them from our schools.”
Under the federal education law No Child Left Behind, school districts are required to distribute lists of students who are at least 17 years old with their names, addresses and telephone numbers to all state colleges and universities and to members of the armed forces. If districts fail to comply with the law, they can be subjected to financial penalties, something which is rare, according to a spokesman for the California Department of Education.
Under the law families have the option to withhold this information each year by filling out an Request to Withhold Directory Information Form, distributed by the district at the beginning of each school year. The forms are mailed to parents, district officials said, and they are included in the student-parent handbook.
A spokesperson with the district said that many students do not show the handbook to their parents and the forms mailed home are often not returned by the deadline, which is Oct. 21 this year.
Many students at Lincoln High School said they did not know the forms even existed.
The Opt Out campaign said that last year only 18 percent of 11th and 12th graders in LAUSD schools chose to withhold their information, an increase of 5,000 students over last year. Their goal is to increase that number.
The LAUSD is trying to accommodate.
The school board passed a motion last year requiring the superintendent to mail out the opt-out forms to each student along with a letter explaining the law, potentially eliminating any confusion, a spokeswoman for school board President Marlene Canter said.
School board member David Tokofsky introduced a motion Tuesday calling on the district to support a bill sponsored by Rep. Mike Honda, D-CA, which would change the policy from opt-out to opt-in, meaning students and their parents could chose to give personal information instead of it being distributed automatically each year.
Jay Staunton, communications director for Honda, said the bill is still lingering in Congress and he does not believe “the Republican leadership is making it a top priority,” despite calls from constituents.
While his motion does not do anything concrete to address the issue immediately, Tokofsky said, supporting Honda’s bill will send a message to lawmakers in Washington.
“It will also bring the issue up locally and hopefully the administration will also come up with some of its own recommendations,” Tokofsky said. “We need to balance the general welfare of a nation with the individual rights. … As a parent of a second grader, the more we encourage interaction between the government, schools and parents the better, and if that includes putting the opt-out form on emergency contact cards, that’s better than assuming parents understand.”
Putting the opt-out form on emergency contact cards is just one recommendation Operation Opt Out has made. They would also like to see the deadline for returning the forms extended and a database created so that students do not have to fill out the forms each year. The group would also like the forms made available in all languages.
There is also the issue of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test. If students chose to take the aptitude test their scores and contact information will be given to recruiters even if they have signed the opt-out form.
Many students said they do not care about recruiters and don’t think they are a problem.
“I don’t really see them around campus,” said George Vasquez, a sophomore. “I’m not even worried about them. I’m just focused on finishing school and going to college. I don’t want to join the military.”
Neither does sophomore Sam Berumon. “I feel like they are trying to cheat us out of our lives,” he said. “I used to want to join the military, but now I’ve changed my mind. If they want us to fight so bad, then how come they aren’t out there in Iraq?… There are just too many options for me to want to go to the military.”
Most students interviewed said they do not have a lot of money for college, but they know they can take out school loans or take on a part-time job to help pay the tuition and other expenses.
This archive consists of a topically organized selection of
articles culled by members of the Counter-Recruitment List Serve from printed
publications and web sites. The archive is not complete. We have chosen
material relevant to the work of