Opting to keep your child’s personal information away from military recruiters now shuts them out of any recognition..
Buried within the federal No Child Left Behind Act is a provision that requires school districts to give personal information about students to military recruiters. Parents can choose to keep that information private but some local groups say school districts make that too difficult.
Duval County parents who want to keep their children from military recruiters face an all-or-nothing decision. They can either approve the release of personal information to recruiters or give up all public recognition including being pictured in the yearbook and listed in sports programs and the honor roll.
“If I want to opt out of the military, I have to opt my child out of existence,” said Bill Armstrong of Wage Peace, a group that challenged the policy. “That’s not really in the spirit of compliance when there’s that kind of negative result just trying to exercise their privacy rights.”
It’s all because of a provision of the No Child Left Behind Act that requires public high schools to hand over the student names, addresses and telephone listings to military recruiters who want the information. School districts that fail to do so risk losing federal education dollars.
U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., inserted the provision into the No Child act — a law about education standards.
Military recruiters applaud the law….
Duval County notifies parents at the beginning of the school year about its policy for giving out personal information. Parents have three options. They can approve the release of student information, restrict it to the military and colleges and universities only or they can prohibit the release of any personal information whatsoever.
But the last option has meant students would also be kept out of the yearbook, sports programs and listings of honors and awards.
Why bother with this school stuff? Would it not be more cost-effective to just render the children to the crusade barracks when they reach high school age?
It is not like most have any other career choices, and because some parents may have attempted to instill anti-American values like refraining from torture and sexual predation, in order to become usable assets, some de-programming will be necessary, and that’s tax dollars that could be used to purchase more napalm to melt the flesh off villagers.
Your commentary at the end sure shoots to the heart of this issue. Spend it on propaganda and shit to get them to believe the dream. Or just institute the fucking draft. I guess the answer is pretty obvious though. If we’re going to preserve the illusion of a free and happy society, they have to go with the former, slightly less direct method of population control.
The picture in the yearbook doesn’t list the child’s phone number and address, birthdate, SS# (another thing that most parents don’t know is that youa re fully within your rights to demand that your school district assign your child a state ID# to be used instead for his/her school records) and all of the other information that is given to recruiters when parents don’t opt out.
Even though my son is only in first grade, each of his two years in public school, I present on the first day, a letter to the teacher and principal that unequivocably states in excruciating detail who has my persmission to have access to my child’s information and who doesn’t. I also request notification IN WRITING, when someone asks for his information, for WHATEVER reason. So far, they have complied quite nicely, down to his teacher sending me an email to make sure it was ok that she listed his full name in her weekly classroom newsletter because my son is ‘student of the week’ this week.
I broach NO bullshit with these people and I let them know I mean business right off the bat. Most districts will comply with your wishes, especially when you show that theat the law is actually on YOUR side and put EVERY last thing in writing. It is a pain in the ass, but well worth it in the long run.
I had to read this twice, because I didn’t really believe it. Not that the teacher would send you the e-mail, but that she wouldn’t. At the elementary school I went to, back in the mid-80s, it was a matter of course for teachers to phone parents about things like this. Not just to get permission, but to congratulate them, make sure they knew what their child had accomplished, and to ask if there was anything else pertinent.
As someone who’s just learning to teach (at the university level), I just don’t get this. How can you teach effectively without talking to your students or, when your students are young, their parents? How can you hope to do a good job if you don’t know who you’re teaching?
Most teachers I know, and certainly the two my son has had so far, would agree with this 100%, and communication has been good at this school so far. But it is usually through notes sent home and the like, unless you (the parent) work to establish more than that. It is a two way street — in the teachers’ defense, they could try and try with some parents and they are just not going to be interested.
I just prefer to lay everything out in writing, so that there can be no “oh, we didn’t know!” when the BS comes down. I start out friendly, and only turn into a rampaging ogre when they give me shit.
I teach at the university level too (not at the moment, but taught my first freshman comp. class at Virginia Tech when I was 21 in 1987) — and you are right on, you need to know who you’re teaching in order to be effective — teaching/learning are symbiotic, trust and respect are essential elements, and being able “teach the moment” is a skill that you never stop learning.
What is your subject?
Computer Science. I’m just a masters student doing tutorials and marking now, and I do plan to do some industry stuff after I get my degree. But I think that getting a PhD and doing teaching and research is probably inevitable, since I enjoy it so much.
My (unsolicited) advice to you about Ph.D. is this — get your MS, go out into “the world” and give it some time before deciding to persue the Ph.D. — NEVER give up your day job for it, even if you do decide it is for you, unless you want to be in debt for the rest of your life and think that you will still be able to file for bankruptcy under the new law. I am quite serious about this.
If it is your passion, you can teach at community college and do research on your own terms — the whole graduate school thing is very much in flux right now — the traditional ways will either have to adapt or die, right now, I would not recommend that path to ANYone….
</unsolicited advice>
I’m in Canada – Halifax, to be precise – so the new US Bankruptcy law isn’t really a problem for me. But yes, financing is a major concern. I’ve got funding for my masters, but I don’t want to be reliant on that for my PhD.
Ah, you’ll be fine then — I know NOTHING about the state of grad. school in Canada — all I know is if I could go back 8 years with what I know right now, there is no way in HELL I’d be in pursuit of the ever elusive Ph.D. right now, or maybe I would, but I would not have done it in the way that I did….argh!
I think it is awesome that you want to teach — it is the best job (and I have had a bunch) that I have ever had — want to get back to it ASAP.
I hope you won’t take this the wrong way because I’m only like 3 or 4 years younger than you, but some days, damn I wish you were my mom. It is just so obvious how much you love and nurture and protect your boys. Really Brin, it’s deeply touching, and all good moms deserve so much more credit than they ever get. Plus, you have good taste in music. 🙂
There is a wrong way to take this?!? OMG! I am flattered beyond belief! I try to nurture and protect everything/one I love and care about, but those two boys bring out the momma bear in me every time more than anything I have ever encountered!
And, hey, I have no problem being “mom” to someone only 3 or 4 years younger than me — any time, IndyLib, any time.
letter of yours?
The “notify me” letter?
TIA,
I think so — or at least a version of it that you can adapt — it’s on my other ‘puter tho, so it’ll be a bit….I’ll email it to you, fi you like…
email in profile. Thanks!
I do think it’d be great if you’d say, diary it here. So more people have access to it.
One of the reporters who interviewed me after my trip to Camp Casey referred me to another reporter who wanted my opinion regarding a new provision written into the process of getting a drivers license in the state of New York. I was not aware of it. If you are a male, aged 18 to , I believe, 23 in New York you will find at the bottom of the application, in small print of course, a section that says in effect that by signing this document you consent to your name being registered with the selective service system. I wonder how many other ways they are quietly trapping our kids?
No worries, after the REAL ID Act goes into affect, they’ll be able to collect biometric information on you — no need to actually get your signature on anything anymore….
Hmm. Don’t 18 year old boys still have to register by law? My sons had to check a box on all the financial aid forms and such for college saying they had registered. It was a condition for receiving admission to college and financial aid.
Yes, they’re still required by law to register. But in reality not every kid does register. So this is a way to fix that problem. My opinion is that it may be law, but on a moral level it is wrong to “trap” kids into registering for something they might have chosen not to register for. If it’s required and there are legal penalties for not registering, then why do they need to resort to this tactic?
That is definitely sneaky. Now I’m curious as to the penalties for not registering upon turning 18. I thought the full wrath of the government would rain down upon you if you didn’t. I have another son who will be 18 next month and will have to make that decision. Obviously, if you have to state that you registered on college applications, then he’s going to have to do it or lie about and risk losing financial aid.
It really is a horrible psychological thing that young males are supposed to register to possibly kill and put their own lives on the line in war the very second they become legal adults. I think we (I mean ‘we’ in the grand cultural sense) might underestimate the impact of that on the male psyche. It’s a particularly nasty objectification of men.
Well, it’s messing with my son’s pysche. He’s 18. We went through all his options. Registering, not registering, registering as a consientious objector, leaving the country in the event of a draft. It’s a lot for an 18 yr. old to have on his mind. Since he needs his license and intends to seek financial aide and loans for college next year, he has no choice but to register as a C.O. That brings a whole other set of problems that I won’t get into now.
I went through this back in 1966 when I turned 18. The Vietnam war was raging, I was prime meat, and the dratft was in effect. There were no good choices; every choice had a downside.
Ultimately I didn’t go to war, or to jail. I didn’t have to flee to Canada or elsewhere, but I did have to interrupt an educational opportunity I had at the time that I never managed to be able to take advantage of afterwards.
I’m afraid the insanity of war is going to be with us for a long time now, and the fewer people that get drawn into it the better off the world will ultimately be. To that end I would encourage every parent here to refuse to submit to or cooperate with any governmental or military initiatives dealing with any aspect of recruitment for military service.
If the wars we started were truly necessary there’d be no need for recruiters to prey on schoolchildren.
The penalty is prison time. Not sure how much. I recall something along the lines of two to five years. I was told that if you’re caught, which has until now been unlikely, that you are given a chance to register before being jailed. However, with the present poor state of military readiness due to Bush over stretching it in Iraq and elsewhere, it could be possible that we would see this casual attitude about registration reversed.
Those little recognitions in the yearbook, school newspaper, etc. are very meaningful to the kids. This is a blatant attempt to get the kids objecting to their parents’ attempt to protect them from ongoing military recruiting harrassment.
So it’s all about “parental rights” when it comes to allowing kids access to realistic and factual sex education, but when it comes to allowing military recruiters access to kids’ names, scholastic records and phone numbers, it’s all about punishing the kids socially for the parents exercising those same parental rights…
it is all about states’ rights, until it isn’t — these people never met a blantant contradiction that they couldn’t celebrate in order to advacne their agenda of, as Bush said in his speech this morning, forcing their ideology on all of us.
It’s the new “Southern strategy”. Force people to have children and get married early by denying them access to contraception or real sex ed and stigmatizing unwed child-rearing. Net effect is to nicely cut off their access to higher education, forcing them to join the military or sink into poverty. And oh, how convenient, the military already has their name, phone number, address, and other information.
Of course, there’s no draft. They can always choose to starve.
This is clearly a punitive response to those parents who knew enough to request an opt-out form. It is at the discretion of each individual school system. The high school two of my sons attend filed the opt-out form and there’s been no problem with newsletters, the school paper or the yearbook.
It’s up to parents to inundate that school with phone calls until they change protocol. It is blackmail, pure and simple.
We have one school district locally with an “opt in” policy, no information is released to the military without explicit written permission from the parents. Failure to return the standard form for the “opt out” is considered a refusal to release the information, while in most schools failure to return the form is considered consent. There have been rumblings of withholding of funds due to the schools “noncompliance” but so far they’ve come to nothing. Of course this is one of the posher areas in Rochester so that may have something to do with the kid glove handling, I’m not sure. It(Fairport)is also the only school I know of where recruiters have to make an appointment to speak with students and then they meet in the office, not in a general, public school area. So, it does seem that there are ways to get around this particular scam if we push hard enough.
Seattle enacted similar legislation recently — or just one high school. Memory a bit fuzzy here….
I work at a university. Just went over to the student center/coffee shop with a student to grab a cup o’ joe. Anyway, the marines were there, and sure enugh, they made a bee line for my student. This is what the recruiter said to her — “Join the Marines. Don’t be a loser.”
She said, “No I don’t want to join the military. ” He kept badgering her. I finally had to tell him to stop. He started after me. Then his Marine recruiter buddy walked up. I realized we had better get out of there.
It was icky. They were so intense.
“Desperate” is probably the best word to describe them.
At least to the school?
If we don’t speak up and say that their behavior is outta line, then aren’t we accepting it?
Does the school have a list of rules as to how pushy these people can be? Is it widely known if so?
What about complaining about their behavior to local political reps?
Finally, if you complain to their recruiting office, at least they’d have to spend time dealing with it.
Why not write something, send to:
–student paper
–local paper
–elected officials
–recruiting office (ask for copy rules of conduct)
–whoever’s in charge at the U asking for copy rules of contact
Just a thought. You know “first they came to recruit the college students…”
So does this mean that Sanatorum’s homeschooled kids are exempted?
CodePink is involved with the getting recruiters out of schools.
Also while at the march I was given some info about “Resist or Die! No School Nov 2”
can get their infor from worldcantwait.org
Just read this right after it was posted on a Political Group Board from Jacksonville Florida, Down To Business w/Andy Johnson, a local Liberal Talk Radio Host there!
uggest ‘Everyone’ do as I did, Passed It On to Numerous Groups and Personal doing CR Work as well as Veterans many who Talk in the Schools around the Country!!
http://tinyurl.com/db65b
This story has some GREAT stuff about parents who’re active to try to get the opt-out info to ALL parents locally. Great stuff to imitate!:
I just published an article on the local GI Rights Hotline, and they are seeing a big increase in calls about recruiting in high schools. There’s a sidebar with that specific info, but in cases like this one—absolutely outrageous, and definitely punitive–the GI Rights Hotline is a good resource.
Here’s the link:
http://www.northcoastjournal.com/100605/cover1006.html
Leave My Child Alone
Did you know…
that the regressive No Child Left Behind Act includes a little-known section requiring high schools to turn over student information to military recruiters?
Yikes. What do we do? Any way you look at it, this is a family privacy nightmare, another strong-arming of our local schools, and a creepy warm-up to a possible draft. However, it’s also a great reason to get together and take action.
So, whether you’re a parent, teacher, school administrator, veteran or just another adamant American concerned about privacy rights, look for an action that you like and JOIN US!.
*****
Teach your children well. Teach them to throw up or urinate on recruiters.
Consider them as port-a-potties.
Can’t make it to the bathroom, young one? Veer on over to the recruiter’s table and let loose.
I am so reminded: You WILL sign this loyalty oath or you will not get this financial aid. . .
I’ll be extremely cynical about this: At least this predatory action is an “equal opportunity” one, at least among public school students. That’s good, because that means that kids from Republican families are getting their information given over to the feds just like any other kid.
Not so other recruiting tactics, which focus systematically on students who have many fewer options for their futures.
In our fair city, we have ROTC in high school. One of my undergrad lab assistants was stunned to learn that none of the other undergrads in my lab had ROTC in their high schools. She thought it was everywhere, and naturally, having seen it since her frosh year, it seemed “normal”, “expected”, “no big deal”. What’s the difference? Our fair city is Detroit. ROTC is common in Detroit high schools. It is rare outside the city school systems. And our kids, in the city, are highly recruitable. Promises of college scholarships, vocational training, steady work. All things very hard to come by for students coming from poor urban schools.
Not just a pejorative term anymore, folks.
I’m not real sure I want Bush to have the ability to find and callup every child in the country when they turn 18. What steps would the government have to take in order to reinstate a draft? Would congress have to approve this move? Could it be reinstated in time of national emergency by presidential decree? If thats the case then we are only one terrorist attack away from a draft. If he needs congressional approval we still could be only one terrorist attack away from a draft. The recruiters are getting desperate and we are treading on dangerous ground. I’m worried about my 11 year old son having to pay the ultimate price 7 years from now for bush’s stupidity. We need to be out of Iraq as soon as possible. We are playing with fire. We’ve killed too many and destroyed too many families. This isn’t what we should be about.