Eastside group warns parents of military recruiting in schools /Seattle

[icymist]

Thursday, June 03, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.

Eastside group warns parents of military recruiting in schools

By Leslie Fulbright
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

Todd Boyle knows service personnel regularly promote the military in his son's high-school cafeteria. He knows recruiters are allowed to call his 15-year-old boy at home, invite him for pizza and pitch military benefits like camaraderie, health care and scholarships.
His main concern, though, is that other parents don't know.

The Bellevue father and some other Eastside parents are working to get the word out about recruiting activities in schools at a time they feel the armed forces are aggressively targeting their children.

The parents are among a growing number of "counter-recruiters" nationwide, fueled in part by a law signed by President Bush in 2002 that gave the military greater access to teens through their schools.

"I really don't think parents realize the amount of recruiting going on in the school system," said Boyle, 52. "That irritates me."

Boyle's son attends Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, where military recruiters set up tables every Tuesday. A different service branch comes each week, said Peter Daniels, a district spokesman.

More at this

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Remember when all we had to worry about were pedophiles?

:eyes:

[colonel odis]

8. what do you mean "had to"?

these guys are screwing our kids.

[saigon68]

2. NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

ITS IN THE BILL


hERE'S HOW THEY WILL COME HOME

THEY WILL HAVE DIED ONLY FOR HALLIBURTON'S PROFITS---NOTHING MORE !!!!!!!!!!

[saracat]

3. We are running out of bodies.

Rummy needs fresh meat!

[soup]

4. How frightening is this?

Makes me absolutely furious. They're coming for our children. Children. 15 year old children. Recruiting kids who can't drive. Targeting kids who can't buy a ticket to an R rated movie.

Speaking of movies, for some reason this reminds me of Pinocchio. 'Trust me. Pleasure Island awaits.'

from the article:
>
Vicky Monk is one parent who wishes she would have known more about school recruiters.

The Sammamish woman said her teen met with a recruiter for six months off and on without her knowledge and then decided to quit school, take the GED and join the Army. He is in Iraq.

Monk said the recruiter courted the teenager, taking him out to eat and to chat about how the Army could positively change his life. Together, Monk's son and the recruiter decided the 17-year-old would enlist when he turned 18.

"I knew nothing about this plan until he needed my permission to take the GED," Monk said. "I wanted to talk about college and other alternatives, but he had already made up his mind."

Rossevelt, the Army spokeswoman, said it is not uncommon for recruiters to deal only with the student. Parental involvement is not officially required until the young person decides to enlist.
<

I wish the parent group success, and hope the 'counter-recruiting' catches on nationwide.

[BiggJawn]

5. Tell them the recruiters for "Gold Star Mothers" are working the school...

"Gold star Mothers? who are they?"

"Well, when your kid signs up for the Army and gets shipped overseas, you get to put a banner with a blue star in your front window. When they get KILLED, you get to change the banner to a GOLD star...THEN you get to join the 'Gold Star Mothers'. Cool, huh?"

Rumsferatu needs Fresh Blood.

[2Design]

6. changed the law in 2002....again this is all pre planned

You have to continually connect the dots with this administration....
They signed the law in 2002.....they knew they were going to need more recruits.....

They signed a law with Canada in 2001 not allowing people to escape the draft by crossing the border......

They have carefully and completely being laying plans in all different areas to support their wars against multiple nations....

They continue to deceive.....

[1monster]

7. I remember the recruiters coming to our high school in the early '70s...

It wasn't a good time to be recruiting. We'd seen friends, relatives, and neighbors coming home in body bags most of our lives.

The attitudes of the students were skeptical at best and hostile as the norm.

Today's kids are not getting the daily dose of "body counts" on the evening news everyday, are not seeing the amputees struggling to find some way to make a new life for themselves, not seeing the nondescript cars pull up in front of neighborhood homes with two men in military uniforms get out...

The recuiters are playing on the invincibility belief of the young and their still child-like belief in the "glory" of war.

Little Play Soldiers
(Brothers Four)

Two little soldiers
Their games are such fun
Each with his helmet and
Little toy gun
Pretending they're lying
On the battle field dead
After they're tucked away
Safely in bed.

Quiet! Don't disturb
All the innocence of youth.
Teach them not to lie,
But never tell them the truth
That men will fall and die
While little boys grow.
But little play soldiers
Too busy to know.

Little play soldiers
If only you knew
What kind of battles
Are waiting for you.

Little while crosses
And their rows are so long.
How will it end
If they don't know it's wrong?
For little play soldiers
Will never know why
We love them and kiss them
And send them to die.