thedrifter
11-27-05, 07:07 AM
Marin teenagers say 'no way' to Uncle Sam
Jennifer Gollan
Marin Independent Journal
Incensed about a federal law requiring schools to give students' phone numbers to military recruiters, two Tamalpais High School students are on the warpath, persuading 300 of their peers to drop their names from a list of potential enlistees.
Juniors Paul Koch and David Crawford distributed opt-out forms to Tam High students this month in advance of a Nov. 15 deadline for the school to respond to the military's request for a list of its students.
Schools are supposed to be learning havens, not incubators for potential service members, Koch and Crawford say.
"The government forcing schools to turn over that information is hypocritical because it makes students feel uncomfortable and a school has the duty to make their students feel safe," Koch said.
Koch and Crawford are among 6,770 high school students in Marin, or 65 percent, who have refused to provide military recruiters with their personal information, a phenomenon spurred as much by Marin's political leanings as its relative economic prosperity, some observers say.
As part of a history class project, Koch and Crawford started a Web site, www.nochild
leftstanding.org, which allows students to download opt-out forms. The site has received 10,000 page views since its inception in May, said Koch, who along with Crawford recently lobbied the district's Board of Trustees to adopt a resolution opposing the requirement that schools turn over student information to the military.
District officials are reviewing a draft of the measure, and no date has been set for its consideration.
Some experts say Marin's preponderance of college graduates and higher median income make Marin students less inclined to enlist in the military compared with their counterparts in neighboring counties. Military recruiters said they are doing their best to foster relationships with local schools, despite being refused access to some students' names and phone numbers, or worse, being spat on by vehement critics of the Iraq war.
The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires that high schools provide military recruiters and colleges with students' names, addresses and telephone numbers. Schools that fail to comply with the law risk losing their federal funding. Parents are permitted to request that their children's information remain private by filing a form with schools.
Opt-out rates vary dramatically depending on the high school, figures show.
At Sir Francis Drake High School in the Tamalpais Union High School District, 82 percent of students have asked that their information be withheld from military recruiters - the highest opt-out rate of any high school in the county.
At Madrone High School in the San Rafael High School District, just 14 percent of its 65 students withheld their information, the lowest opt-out rate in Marin.
Although the military does not track the exact number of students who refuse to release their contact information, Marin's opt-out rate appears higher than many other areas in the state, said Sgt. Christine Odom, a marketing and public affairs representative at the U.S. Marines Recruiting Station in San Francisco, which oversees recruiting in Northern California.
"It has been a little more difficult to get on campuses and get these lists (of students' contact information), seeing as the war has gone on a little bit," Odom said. "Parents are worried that the military is there to replenish the ranks, but we want to provide opportunities to students."
Some students, parents and civil rights advocates take issue with the federal requirement, saying it violates a student's right to privacy. Others said more students should withhold their names from military recruiters.
"It's not OK that the military requires that students' information is provided," said Elizabeth Stoner, a Drake High School junior. "Personal information, you should have control over because of privacy issues. I don't think it's right for the government to get the young people. They are so impressionable most of the time É kids could think - 'Oh, it's because I'm special,' when, in fact, they aren't.'"
Aref Ahmadia, chairman of the Marin County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has 4,000 members, agreed.
"Anyone who wants to join the military should go and join the military," he said. "The students are young and you could easily persuade them, and I don't think it's a good idea to persuade students to join the military."
Although he says he does not oppose the military, Koch, the Tamalpais High School student, criticized the No Child law requirement that students turn over their information in return for federal Title I funding, which helps low-achieving students.
"We don't approve of the extortion aspect - we don't approve of the threat to withhold Title I," he said.
In September, a suggestion posted online by a Terra Linda High School parent - that students download opt-out forms from a Web site - erupted into a vitriolic exchange over the military's collection of lists of students' names from schools.
"In my opinion, this widely accepted and tolerated practice should be stopped at once," wrote Joe McQueeney, in a Sept. 21 message on the OneTL list serve, an online forum that allows Terra Linda parents to notify each other about events and school news.
"Well, that's your problem," Jeff Zane, whose son attends Terra Linda High School, responded. "Some of us still support our troops É even in Liberal Land Marin."
Elsewhere, recruiters have faced growing resistance to military recruiters' ability to contact them through school lists.
"I don't like it, personally," said Lexi Curtice, a senior at Novato High School and president of the Associated Student Body, which represents 1,200 students. "A lot of my friends have checked the box on the form not to be called, and they still are. I think the people that will be successful in the military are the ones who seek out the information themselves."
That notion resonated on Nov. 8 with San Francisco voters who approved Proposition I, a resolution opposing military recruiters in public schools. Although largely symbolic and limited in its practical implications, the measure reflected voters' frustration with federal policies.
At the College of Marin, the job placement coordinator, Emy Bagtas, said student and staff complaints about military recruiting tactics prompted the college to ban them from wandering campus unannounced. The recruiters are now required to visit the college by appointment and approach students from behind a table in a designated building.
"Students didn't like the fact that they were stopped," Bagtas said. "They felt that recruiters were - I don't want to say aggressive, but persuasive. A lot of times students felt obligated to give them their phone numbers, and then they were called at home."
No complaints of harassment have been filed with the Army's Sacramento Army Recruiting Battalion, which oversees recruiting in Northern California, said John Heil, an Army spokesman.
"It is not like we're going to hound them if they are not interested," Heil said, adding that critics of the No Child law should contact their congressional representatives.
"Because how else are we going to get in touch with them?" Heil said of potential recruits. "We are not going be able to get ahold of these people if we don't have names and numbers and get ahold of them to find out if they would be interested in a career in the Army. A lot of times you are offering up an option that people haven't had before."
In another sign of distaste for military recruiters, local Army officials say seven local Marin high schools, which he declined to name, refused to provide students' contact information in 2004-05, and again this year.
"We try and start getting the lists in July," said Staff Sgt. Garrith Walker, a local Army recruiter, referring to his requests of Marin's high schools. "Some of them say, 'We'll get it to you,' but they just never do, they just say 'We don't have it ready yet, we don't have it ready yet.'"
Walker said he and other recruiters had relayed their frustration to Army commanders in Sacramento. When asked about the matter, Heil said the Army had not taken action against the schools, in part because recruiters wanted to continue visiting campuses.
"We could enforce the law, but it just depends," Heil said. "Sometimes if we want to keep our relationship up with the schools, we try to get what we can."
Walker said his visits to select Marin schools have turned sour on occasion.
"I've been swung at and spit at in the high schools when I've visited for recruiting out here," he said. "You can be mad at the government, but don't take it out on me."
Sasha Notman, 16, a sophomore who is part of the ROTC program at Novato High, said skeptical students should consider the country's broader aims.
"I think it's fine to come on campus because we're in a war right now," Notman said, wearing a uniform at a recent Veterans Day ceremony. "It's necessary; we need people."
"We don't have a high propensity of having high school kids wanting to join in this area," he said. "Most families around here push their kids to go to college or have plans to versus joining the military."
That trend is rooted in several factors, among them Marin's relatively high number of adults with college degrees - 50 percent in Marin County versus 30 percent in Alameda County, for example - making children more apt to attend college, said Deborah Reed, an economist at the Public Policy Institute of California, a non-partisan think tank in San Francisco.
"In Marin, high-schoolers are more likely to think about college versus other counties," Reed said.
In addition, compared with many other Bay Area counties, Reed said Marin's low minority population, coupled with its higher median income, makes students more likely to choose college over the military.
"It makes immediate recruiting out of high school less likely, because they are thinking that their main option is college," Reed said.
Ellie
Jennifer Gollan
Marin Independent Journal
Incensed about a federal law requiring schools to give students' phone numbers to military recruiters, two Tamalpais High School students are on the warpath, persuading 300 of their peers to drop their names from a list of potential enlistees.
Juniors Paul Koch and David Crawford distributed opt-out forms to Tam High students this month in advance of a Nov. 15 deadline for the school to respond to the military's request for a list of its students.
Schools are supposed to be learning havens, not incubators for potential service members, Koch and Crawford say.
"The government forcing schools to turn over that information is hypocritical because it makes students feel uncomfortable and a school has the duty to make their students feel safe," Koch said.
Koch and Crawford are among 6,770 high school students in Marin, or 65 percent, who have refused to provide military recruiters with their personal information, a phenomenon spurred as much by Marin's political leanings as its relative economic prosperity, some observers say.
As part of a history class project, Koch and Crawford started a Web site, www.nochild
leftstanding.org, which allows students to download opt-out forms. The site has received 10,000 page views since its inception in May, said Koch, who along with Crawford recently lobbied the district's Board of Trustees to adopt a resolution opposing the requirement that schools turn over student information to the military.
District officials are reviewing a draft of the measure, and no date has been set for its consideration.
Some experts say Marin's preponderance of college graduates and higher median income make Marin students less inclined to enlist in the military compared with their counterparts in neighboring counties. Military recruiters said they are doing their best to foster relationships with local schools, despite being refused access to some students' names and phone numbers, or worse, being spat on by vehement critics of the Iraq war.
The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires that high schools provide military recruiters and colleges with students' names, addresses and telephone numbers. Schools that fail to comply with the law risk losing their federal funding. Parents are permitted to request that their children's information remain private by filing a form with schools.
Opt-out rates vary dramatically depending on the high school, figures show.
At Sir Francis Drake High School in the Tamalpais Union High School District, 82 percent of students have asked that their information be withheld from military recruiters - the highest opt-out rate of any high school in the county.
At Madrone High School in the San Rafael High School District, just 14 percent of its 65 students withheld their information, the lowest opt-out rate in Marin.
Although the military does not track the exact number of students who refuse to release their contact information, Marin's opt-out rate appears higher than many other areas in the state, said Sgt. Christine Odom, a marketing and public affairs representative at the U.S. Marines Recruiting Station in San Francisco, which oversees recruiting in Northern California.
"It has been a little more difficult to get on campuses and get these lists (of students' contact information), seeing as the war has gone on a little bit," Odom said. "Parents are worried that the military is there to replenish the ranks, but we want to provide opportunities to students."
Some students, parents and civil rights advocates take issue with the federal requirement, saying it violates a student's right to privacy. Others said more students should withhold their names from military recruiters.
"It's not OK that the military requires that students' information is provided," said Elizabeth Stoner, a Drake High School junior. "Personal information, you should have control over because of privacy issues. I don't think it's right for the government to get the young people. They are so impressionable most of the time É kids could think - 'Oh, it's because I'm special,' when, in fact, they aren't.'"
Aref Ahmadia, chairman of the Marin County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has 4,000 members, agreed.
"Anyone who wants to join the military should go and join the military," he said. "The students are young and you could easily persuade them, and I don't think it's a good idea to persuade students to join the military."
Although he says he does not oppose the military, Koch, the Tamalpais High School student, criticized the No Child law requirement that students turn over their information in return for federal Title I funding, which helps low-achieving students.
"We don't approve of the extortion aspect - we don't approve of the threat to withhold Title I," he said.
In September, a suggestion posted online by a Terra Linda High School parent - that students download opt-out forms from a Web site - erupted into a vitriolic exchange over the military's collection of lists of students' names from schools.
"In my opinion, this widely accepted and tolerated practice should be stopped at once," wrote Joe McQueeney, in a Sept. 21 message on the OneTL list serve, an online forum that allows Terra Linda parents to notify each other about events and school news.
"Well, that's your problem," Jeff Zane, whose son attends Terra Linda High School, responded. "Some of us still support our troops É even in Liberal Land Marin."
Elsewhere, recruiters have faced growing resistance to military recruiters' ability to contact them through school lists.
"I don't like it, personally," said Lexi Curtice, a senior at Novato High School and president of the Associated Student Body, which represents 1,200 students. "A lot of my friends have checked the box on the form not to be called, and they still are. I think the people that will be successful in the military are the ones who seek out the information themselves."
That notion resonated on Nov. 8 with San Francisco voters who approved Proposition I, a resolution opposing military recruiters in public schools. Although largely symbolic and limited in its practical implications, the measure reflected voters' frustration with federal policies.
At the College of Marin, the job placement coordinator, Emy Bagtas, said student and staff complaints about military recruiting tactics prompted the college to ban them from wandering campus unannounced. The recruiters are now required to visit the college by appointment and approach students from behind a table in a designated building.
"Students didn't like the fact that they were stopped," Bagtas said. "They felt that recruiters were - I don't want to say aggressive, but persuasive. A lot of times students felt obligated to give them their phone numbers, and then they were called at home."
No complaints of harassment have been filed with the Army's Sacramento Army Recruiting Battalion, which oversees recruiting in Northern California, said John Heil, an Army spokesman.
"It is not like we're going to hound them if they are not interested," Heil said, adding that critics of the No Child law should contact their congressional representatives.
"Because how else are we going to get in touch with them?" Heil said of potential recruits. "We are not going be able to get ahold of these people if we don't have names and numbers and get ahold of them to find out if they would be interested in a career in the Army. A lot of times you are offering up an option that people haven't had before."
In another sign of distaste for military recruiters, local Army officials say seven local Marin high schools, which he declined to name, refused to provide students' contact information in 2004-05, and again this year.
"We try and start getting the lists in July," said Staff Sgt. Garrith Walker, a local Army recruiter, referring to his requests of Marin's high schools. "Some of them say, 'We'll get it to you,' but they just never do, they just say 'We don't have it ready yet, we don't have it ready yet.'"
Walker said he and other recruiters had relayed their frustration to Army commanders in Sacramento. When asked about the matter, Heil said the Army had not taken action against the schools, in part because recruiters wanted to continue visiting campuses.
"We could enforce the law, but it just depends," Heil said. "Sometimes if we want to keep our relationship up with the schools, we try to get what we can."
Walker said his visits to select Marin schools have turned sour on occasion.
"I've been swung at and spit at in the high schools when I've visited for recruiting out here," he said. "You can be mad at the government, but don't take it out on me."
Sasha Notman, 16, a sophomore who is part of the ROTC program at Novato High, said skeptical students should consider the country's broader aims.
"I think it's fine to come on campus because we're in a war right now," Notman said, wearing a uniform at a recent Veterans Day ceremony. "It's necessary; we need people."
"We don't have a high propensity of having high school kids wanting to join in this area," he said. "Most families around here push their kids to go to college or have plans to versus joining the military."
That trend is rooted in several factors, among them Marin's relatively high number of adults with college degrees - 50 percent in Marin County versus 30 percent in Alameda County, for example - making children more apt to attend college, said Deborah Reed, an economist at the Public Policy Institute of California, a non-partisan think tank in San Francisco.
"In Marin, high-schoolers are more likely to think about college versus other counties," Reed said.
In addition, compared with many other Bay Area counties, Reed said Marin's low minority population, coupled with its higher median income, makes students more likely to choose college over the military.
"It makes immediate recruiting out of high school less likely, because they are thinking that their main option is college," Reed said.
Ellie