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Military Recruiters Not Welcome
In this day and age when anything resembling nationalism is viewed as extreme by many in this country, especially those that are left-of-center, it's not surprising that the Armed Forces isn't looked upon as favorably as it once was.
However, the article below in the Miami Herald took me by surprise, in a bad way.
According to the article, there is a drive underway in South Florida public schools to discourage kids from joining the military. The drive, initiated by a left-coast group known as Leave My Child Alone, is targeting schools with a significant percentage of minority and poor kids, schools which attract more than their share of military recruiters.
More comments after the article.
Groups unite to defy military recruiting efforts
Grass-roots groups have formed an offensive in South Florida to combat military recruiting at schools throughout the region.
By PETER BAILEY
pbailey@MiamiHerald.com
Starting at the break of dawn, Luis Cerros and his team take positions outside high schools around Miami-Dade County.
Inside the schools, military recruiters later station themselves at lunchroom tables, looking for a few good men -- and women -- to join in America's war on terrorism.
And so a battle line of sorts is drawn in an escalating struggle between groups opposed to the war in Iraq -- and the tactics they say recruiters use to enlist students -- and military recruiters who say they are informing students of how they can serve their country and benefit from that service.
Cerros and company are members of Mi Familia Vota (Spanish for My Family Votes), a Miami-Dade group that seeks to empower Hispanics. In mid-August, they launched a campaign to inform parents and students about their right to keep teenagers' names off military-recruitment lists.
They say the school districts need to do a better job of publicizing a federally mandated opt-out form that keeps students' personal information, including home address and phone number, from recruiters.
''We found out a lot of the kids were just signing up [for military service] because they needed the money. They felt they didn't have other choices,'' Cerros said. ``Recruiters were taking advantage of that.''
In less than two months, his group said more than 5,000 students in Miami-Dade had signed up to remove their names from the list.
''We weren't allowed on campus, so we had to catch students on their way in,'' Cerros said.
"Sometimes we would canvass corner stores where parents hung out.''
Several Broward County groups that also oppose recruitment in high schools plan similar campaigns.
Marc Silverstein, who heads the Alternatives to Militarism Project, said his group will reach out to students at Coral Springs and Deerfield Beach high schools. He said at least two other groups, Coral Springs for Peace and the Broward Anti-War Coalition, will also be involved.
AGGRESSIVE RECRUITERS
Franco Caliz, a junior at Coral Park Senior High in Westchester, said he thinks the recruiters are too aggressive.
''They run up to you after school and harass you to enlist,'' he said.
Caliz, a former member of the Junior ROTC program, said the recruiters' pitch is misleading. Students are usually shown a video on the benefits of military life -- traveling overseas and getting money for college, he said. But they aren't told of the dangers, he added.
''They pretty much avoid mentioning that you could get killed,'' Caliz said.
He drafted a petition asking school officials to distribute opt-out forms to parents and students. He said about 200 classmates signed it. ''Students should have the right to privacy,'' Caliz said.
The anti-recruitment fight started with a San Francisco-based group called Leave My Child Alone, which has helped more than 37,000 students remove their names from military lists.
''The highest recruiting is often in lower-income areas, large urban areas such as Miami,'' said Felicity Crush, the group's spokeswoman. ``The people in those communities may not have many options [after high school], but they're being given a fairly unrealistic option by recruiters.''
Not everyone agrees. Recruitment supporters say the military offers many opportunities, especially for students who have few after graduating.
''The military offers a good future for a lot of our kids,'' said Maj. Henry Avellaneda, head of the JROTC program at Southridge. ``It's the best option for many of them.''
''Some students may not want to go to college after graduation,'' said Harvey Spigler, spokesman for the Army Recruiting Battalion in Miami-Dade. ``The military offers an alternative to gain values in life so they can continue at whatever they want to pursue.''
And, he added, ``We don't target schools. We accept all people who are physically and morally qualified, no matter what school they go to.''
But according to district records, recruiters seem to go more often to schools where large numbers of students qualify for free or reduced lunches because of family income. For example, Felix Varela Senior High had 176 visits and Southridge had 123 from recruiters in 2004-05, according to the latest district records.
Yet at Coral Reef, an all-magnet senior high located between those schools, recruiters made 20 visits that year.
DIFFERENT TREND
District records also show another trend. Over the last five years, schools such as Central, which is in a lower-income area, saw twice as many military recruiters as college recruiters. At Barbara Goleman Senior High in Northwest Miami-Dade, officials say they try to keep a close eye on military recruiters, who usually flock to the campus in the fall.
''They were here about four out of the five school days each week in September and October,'' said John Failoni, activities director at Goleman. ``There's been an increase in military recruitment, and we've taken steps to make sure it's done orderly.''
In 2004, Goleman, with a mostly Hispanic student body, had one of the highest numbers of Army recruits among district high schools -- 20. Other senior highs with a lot of enlistees included Central, Hialeah-Miami Lakes, Southridge, Jackson and Homestead -- schools where the number of students who qualify for federally funded lunches range from 57 to 77 percent.
Overall, Pentagon figures for 2004 show that 627 Miami-Dade students enlisted in the Army. Of that group, 65 percent were Hispanic and 27 percent black.
The Broward district does not keep overall numbers on recruiter visits, said spokesman Keith Bromery. Pentagon statistics show that 362 students were recruited from Broward high schools in 2004.
Some private school officials said they don't see military recruiters on campus too often. ''We don't discourage recruiters from coming, but we don't really see them here,'' said Peter Sanders, upper-school director at the University School at Nova Southeastern University in Davie. Sanders said most private-school students are focused on going to college, not the Army.
One of the provisions in the No Child Left Behind Act grants the military access to public high-school students and their personal information. But the 2002 law also requires school officials to notify parents or students that they can sign a form that blocks the release of personal information.
Cerros said many parents he has spoken with were unaware of their right to opt out.
''We just wanted to educate the community,'' said Carlos Pereira, an organizer with Mi Familia Vota. ``They needed to know they had options and the military shouldn't make decisions for them.''
The group's campaign is not always popular, and some volunteers have had their patriotism questioned.
''People would ask why we don't love our country and why are we opposing the war,'' Pereira said. ``We love this country. We just want people to be informed so they can make the right decisions.''
The activists are urging school districts to implement stricter regulations on military access to students.
Neither the Miami-Dade nor the Broward district has a formal policy regulating military recruiters on school grounds. While the No Child law grants access for recruiters, principals can decide where and how long they can be on campus.
Failoni, the Goleman activities director, says there are other factors that draw high schoolers to the military.
''A lot of it is a family thing,'' he said. ``They have siblings who've been in the military, and they kind of follow the leader.''
Cerros agreed that enlisting should be a family decision -- as long as it's an informed one.
''Parents should be given the full picture of the military so they can make the right decision,'' he said. "That was not happening.''
My first reaction after reading this was: Hmmm.
My reaction after reading it a second time: What the #$#$ do these people really want and why are they bothering our kids at school?
Let me start off by saying that I've never served in the military. However, my father served in the Army, and I have grown to respect the Armed Forces greatly throughout my adult life. I have seen how the military has helped shape young men and women and given them a direction in life, as well as providing a solid foundation. Not to mention, they get to serve the United States of America. I know many veterans, both personally and professionally, and almost all of them are solid, principled human beings.
I'm not surprised that recruiters target schools in poorer neighborhoods, and neither should you. The military offers an education, as well as all the positive attributes previusly mentioned. Most kids who come from poor families and/or struggle academically find the military to be a viable and rewarding option. It's either the military or working in menial, hard-labor jobs for most of these kids. Recruiters are going to go to schools that they've had success with in the past, plain and simple. They are less likely to go to a school in an upper-class suburb for obvious reasons, most of those kids have many other options besides the military.
The anti-recruiter groups mentioned in the article (Alternatives to Militarism, Broward Anti-War Coalition, to name a few) have an agenda which is detrimental to our society. They are discouraging kids with few good options from joining the military and strengthening our country's defenses. As a result, the chances increase that those kids will end up on welfare as adults, which naturally continues the classic leftist need to feel empowered and superior.
I really feel bad for reasonable liberals who have to put up with activists on the far left who undermine the values which our country were built on. The military instills many of these values that we can all be proud of.
However, the article below in the Miami Herald took me by surprise, in a bad way.
According to the article, there is a drive underway in South Florida public schools to discourage kids from joining the military. The drive, initiated by a left-coast group known as Leave My Child Alone, is targeting schools with a significant percentage of minority and poor kids, schools which attract more than their share of military recruiters.
More comments after the article.
Groups unite to defy military recruiting efforts
Grass-roots groups have formed an offensive in South Florida to combat military recruiting at schools throughout the region.
By PETER BAILEY
pbailey@MiamiHerald.com
Starting at the break of dawn, Luis Cerros and his team take positions outside high schools around Miami-Dade County.
Inside the schools, military recruiters later station themselves at lunchroom tables, looking for a few good men -- and women -- to join in America's war on terrorism.
And so a battle line of sorts is drawn in an escalating struggle between groups opposed to the war in Iraq -- and the tactics they say recruiters use to enlist students -- and military recruiters who say they are informing students of how they can serve their country and benefit from that service.
Cerros and company are members of Mi Familia Vota (Spanish for My Family Votes), a Miami-Dade group that seeks to empower Hispanics. In mid-August, they launched a campaign to inform parents and students about their right to keep teenagers' names off military-recruitment lists.
They say the school districts need to do a better job of publicizing a federally mandated opt-out form that keeps students' personal information, including home address and phone number, from recruiters.
''We found out a lot of the kids were just signing up [for military service] because they needed the money. They felt they didn't have other choices,'' Cerros said. ``Recruiters were taking advantage of that.''
In less than two months, his group said more than 5,000 students in Miami-Dade had signed up to remove their names from the list.
''We weren't allowed on campus, so we had to catch students on their way in,'' Cerros said.
"Sometimes we would canvass corner stores where parents hung out.''
Several Broward County groups that also oppose recruitment in high schools plan similar campaigns.
Marc Silverstein, who heads the Alternatives to Militarism Project, said his group will reach out to students at Coral Springs and Deerfield Beach high schools. He said at least two other groups, Coral Springs for Peace and the Broward Anti-War Coalition, will also be involved.
AGGRESSIVE RECRUITERS
Franco Caliz, a junior at Coral Park Senior High in Westchester, said he thinks the recruiters are too aggressive.
''They run up to you after school and harass you to enlist,'' he said.
Caliz, a former member of the Junior ROTC program, said the recruiters' pitch is misleading. Students are usually shown a video on the benefits of military life -- traveling overseas and getting money for college, he said. But they aren't told of the dangers, he added.
''They pretty much avoid mentioning that you could get killed,'' Caliz said.
He drafted a petition asking school officials to distribute opt-out forms to parents and students. He said about 200 classmates signed it. ''Students should have the right to privacy,'' Caliz said.
The anti-recruitment fight started with a San Francisco-based group called Leave My Child Alone, which has helped more than 37,000 students remove their names from military lists.
''The highest recruiting is often in lower-income areas, large urban areas such as Miami,'' said Felicity Crush, the group's spokeswoman. ``The people in those communities may not have many options [after high school], but they're being given a fairly unrealistic option by recruiters.''
Not everyone agrees. Recruitment supporters say the military offers many opportunities, especially for students who have few after graduating.
''The military offers a good future for a lot of our kids,'' said Maj. Henry Avellaneda, head of the JROTC program at Southridge. ``It's the best option for many of them.''
''Some students may not want to go to college after graduation,'' said Harvey Spigler, spokesman for the Army Recruiting Battalion in Miami-Dade. ``The military offers an alternative to gain values in life so they can continue at whatever they want to pursue.''
And, he added, ``We don't target schools. We accept all people who are physically and morally qualified, no matter what school they go to.''
But according to district records, recruiters seem to go more often to schools where large numbers of students qualify for free or reduced lunches because of family income. For example, Felix Varela Senior High had 176 visits and Southridge had 123 from recruiters in 2004-05, according to the latest district records.
Yet at Coral Reef, an all-magnet senior high located between those schools, recruiters made 20 visits that year.
DIFFERENT TREND
District records also show another trend. Over the last five years, schools such as Central, which is in a lower-income area, saw twice as many military recruiters as college recruiters. At Barbara Goleman Senior High in Northwest Miami-Dade, officials say they try to keep a close eye on military recruiters, who usually flock to the campus in the fall.
''They were here about four out of the five school days each week in September and October,'' said John Failoni, activities director at Goleman. ``There's been an increase in military recruitment, and we've taken steps to make sure it's done orderly.''
In 2004, Goleman, with a mostly Hispanic student body, had one of the highest numbers of Army recruits among district high schools -- 20. Other senior highs with a lot of enlistees included Central, Hialeah-Miami Lakes, Southridge, Jackson and Homestead -- schools where the number of students who qualify for federally funded lunches range from 57 to 77 percent.
Overall, Pentagon figures for 2004 show that 627 Miami-Dade students enlisted in the Army. Of that group, 65 percent were Hispanic and 27 percent black.
The Broward district does not keep overall numbers on recruiter visits, said spokesman Keith Bromery. Pentagon statistics show that 362 students were recruited from Broward high schools in 2004.
Some private school officials said they don't see military recruiters on campus too often. ''We don't discourage recruiters from coming, but we don't really see them here,'' said Peter Sanders, upper-school director at the University School at Nova Southeastern University in Davie. Sanders said most private-school students are focused on going to college, not the Army.
One of the provisions in the No Child Left Behind Act grants the military access to public high-school students and their personal information. But the 2002 law also requires school officials to notify parents or students that they can sign a form that blocks the release of personal information.
Cerros said many parents he has spoken with were unaware of their right to opt out.
''We just wanted to educate the community,'' said Carlos Pereira, an organizer with Mi Familia Vota. ``They needed to know they had options and the military shouldn't make decisions for them.''
The group's campaign is not always popular, and some volunteers have had their patriotism questioned.
''People would ask why we don't love our country and why are we opposing the war,'' Pereira said. ``We love this country. We just want people to be informed so they can make the right decisions.''
The activists are urging school districts to implement stricter regulations on military access to students.
Neither the Miami-Dade nor the Broward district has a formal policy regulating military recruiters on school grounds. While the No Child law grants access for recruiters, principals can decide where and how long they can be on campus.
Failoni, the Goleman activities director, says there are other factors that draw high schoolers to the military.
''A lot of it is a family thing,'' he said. ``They have siblings who've been in the military, and they kind of follow the leader.''
Cerros agreed that enlisting should be a family decision -- as long as it's an informed one.
''Parents should be given the full picture of the military so they can make the right decision,'' he said. "That was not happening.''
My first reaction after reading this was: Hmmm.
My reaction after reading it a second time: What the #$#$ do these people really want and why are they bothering our kids at school?
Let me start off by saying that I've never served in the military. However, my father served in the Army, and I have grown to respect the Armed Forces greatly throughout my adult life. I have seen how the military has helped shape young men and women and given them a direction in life, as well as providing a solid foundation. Not to mention, they get to serve the United States of America. I know many veterans, both personally and professionally, and almost all of them are solid, principled human beings.
I'm not surprised that recruiters target schools in poorer neighborhoods, and neither should you. The military offers an education, as well as all the positive attributes previusly mentioned. Most kids who come from poor families and/or struggle academically find the military to be a viable and rewarding option. It's either the military or working in menial, hard-labor jobs for most of these kids. Recruiters are going to go to schools that they've had success with in the past, plain and simple. They are less likely to go to a school in an upper-class suburb for obvious reasons, most of those kids have many other options besides the military.
The anti-recruiter groups mentioned in the article (Alternatives to Militarism, Broward Anti-War Coalition, to name a few) have an agenda which is detrimental to our society. They are discouraging kids with few good options from joining the military and strengthening our country's defenses. As a result, the chances increase that those kids will end up on welfare as adults, which naturally continues the classic leftist need to feel empowered and superior.
I really feel bad for reasonable liberals who have to put up with activists on the far left who undermine the values which our country were built on. The military instills many of these values that we can all be proud of.
posted by Robert at 9:55 AM
7 Comments:
I don't know, Robert. If I had my 17- or 18-year-old come home one afternoon and tell me that they are thinking of joining Donald Rumsfeld's military after talking to some recruiters at their high school, I would feel like they had just been kidnapped from me.
Like I wouldn't trust a used car salesman to sell my high-schooler a car if I wasn't around, I don't trust military recruiters to sell a career in the armed forces to that same teenager. That child is a number to them. And, believe me, as the son of a career Army officer who recruited in the 70's, I know from where I speak. It was all about my father's station meeting their monthly, quarterly and yearly quota. They would do and/or say just about anything to get the kids signed up.
There are plenty of commercials, literature and other ways that young men and women can learn about military careers which, just for the record, I agree can be very rewarding if made with careful consideration and discussion with parents.
Just as I wouldn't want my own child being approached by recruiters while out of my control, I can't approve of other children being approached while attending school, regardless of their social status or ethnicity.
As a result, I agree with what these groups are trying to do.
What I see here is that the article and the Leave My Child Alone is giving the impression, perhaps unintentionally, that recruiters are forcing kids to sign up. That couldn't be further from the truth.
Furthermore, the activists are being quite aggressive themselves: hanging out at the corner shop and seeking out parents, running up to kids outside of school.
In the end, it's all about advancing their anti-war agenda, not about giving disadvantaged kids a viable option, regardless of who's president.
The same thing is happening at a college level, where they are trying to kick out not only the recruiters but the ROTC as well. Rick I can understand the fact that people don't want their kids going into the military in a time of war, but the kids should know that that option exists and what it entails. Kicking the recruiters out, almost borders on infringement on their Freedom of Speech
LOL George!
Believe it or not, they're out there. I don't agree with their views, but at least you can have an conversation in which they don't stop to mention how stupid conservatives are.
Bernard Goldberg, who wrote the excellent book "Bias", is one of them.
Nobody joins the military unless they want to. The army has a s much of a right to recruit as to colleges and other post high school occupations. At the end of the day it's not the parent's choice. Once a child turns 18 he/she is no longer a child. And I hate how these fucking radicals use words like "Rumsfeld's Army". Ok buddy you stand up for Saddam and I'll stand up for democracy and human rights. What we did in Iraq we should do in North Korea, Iran, and of course Cuba.
Well, I'm the "unreasonable liberal" kid quoted in the article. Good to see this stirring up some passion. My only problem is this why is my information being given to the military by my counselors (No Child Left Behind Act). Why is the military calling me repeatedly after I've said no to them numerous times. Why should they intimidate "Where are you from?"
"here"
"your parents?"
"Nicaragua"
"oh so your a communist and a sandinista that's why you won't join"
and harass students in my school?
That's my problem with our constantly being bothered.
OK I'll bite and respond to "anonymous".
You say you're the kid (Franco Caliz) quoted in the article. By the way, I don't think anyone referred to you specifically as being an "unreasonable liberal". Thanks for reading and commenting.
Franco, I'll take your word as far as the recruiters' behavior toward you is concerned. It's wrong what they're saying and doing.
I have to say this though...you were a member of the JROTC program so you obviously have an interest and knowledge in the military. Then, why would you be surprised that they don't mention that you could be killed. Anybody with even a marginal understanding of the military knows that it's a high-risk field. The recruiters' job is to emphasize the positives...that's what any recruiter for ANY organization should and ought to do. They should also be able to honestly answer questions from potential recruits, both positive and negative.
What the activists are doing is NO DIFFERENT from what you seem to be accusing the recruiters of doing. At the end of the day, the recruiters, no matter how much of a nag they are, are not forcing YOU or ANYONE else to join, am I right? The activists' attitude
smacks of anti-military and is pushing a personal agenda which is detrimental to our society.
As far as privacy is concerned, I have no problem if parents want to opt out, it's their choice and this is a free country. But please don't confuse the overall message that the Armed Forces is trying to promote vs the possible actions of a few over-aggressive recruiters. Unfortunately, it looks like the "other" recruiters have done their job on you quite well.
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