At the risk of putting too grandiose a spin on it, I have some information that might save the life of your high-school-aged child. Actually, it comes courtesy of the American Friends Service Committee, and it consists of two words: Opt out. This simple concept gives parents the legal ability to do just that, when it comes to military recruiters in public schools.
And, as kids are headed into a new school year, now is the time to act.
As you may recall from your own high school days, teenagers are filled with piss, vinegar and testosterone, but they are often unsure of what to do with their lives. Thus they're sitting ducks for the Bush-Cheney war machine. The war pimps know this, which is why they spend so much time lurking in the corridors of our high schools, especially in the inner cities. These recruiters are using a loophole snuck into the No Child Left Behind Act—did our Congress really pass this monstrosity of a bill?—that allows them access to private contact information of public school students. In other words, not only can they come onto school property, set up booths, give away freebies and whip up war frenzy with recruitment rallies, they can also contact a high school student at home.
If an adult did that in a Myspace chat room, he/she would risk incarceration, but Bush and Cheney are not guided by the laws by which the rest of us live. Recruiters now gain access to students through lists provided by the school administrators and even from breakdowns of SAT scores. However, there is one way to outmaneuver them. That is, print out and sign an "Opt Out" form, which takes your child's name off the lists given to recruiters. If you sign this form—and, to be sure, follow up with a face-to-face confirmation—school officials are required to remove your child's name from these lists.
Go to this link on the American Friends Service Committee website: http://www.afsc.org/youthmil/militarism-in-schools/opt-out.rtf, from which you can download an Opt Out form and present it to the school administrators on the first day of school. Don't take any chances that school officials will supply this information. They won't. They're so petrified of the federal government now that they are willing to let kids be cannon fodder rather than stand up for what's humane and right.
By early 2009, when we finally have a non-Republican president, this legislation will be one of the first to be overridden by new legislation, followed hard by a complete gutting of the Homeland Security Act. Until then, "Opt Out" is a stop-gap. One of my readers supplied me with this firsthand account from a mother who went through the "opt out" process:
"I register my son next week; he's in the 11th grade. Once again I'm reminded that I have to fill out an opt-out form, each year I have to submit a new one. Many of the people in his school didn't know what the opt-out form was and I find it scary to think that they are OK with recruiters contacting the children at home… We turned in a copy to the school superintendent and kept a copy for our records… I implore you to sign the form and turn it in to your child's school no later than the first week of school. Some schools state that if it's not turned in within that time then they have no power over whether the recruiters contact your child. I once worked for a school district and know that is simply untrue. However, those who are for sending our kids to war will say what they want without accountability, and they expect us to follow like sheep."
