Chicago high school students boot the Navy out

[Scooter24]

by Laura Crossett
Oct. 8, 2004

It was a presentation turned into a protest with the trappings of a pep rally. Over 500 students, parents, teachers, and community members packed into the auditorium of Senn High School on Tuesday night for what was billed as a “Community Forum” about Chicago Public Schools’s plan to turn part of Senn into a naval academy run by the Junior ROTC. But the CPS and JROTC presenters weren’t able to give their presentation over the chants of “WE SAY NO!”, nor were they able to show their video to the audience’s turned backs. School and community organizers transformed the event into a real town hall meeting with an open mic, but the CPS and ROTC officials did not stick around to hear what the community had to say.

The evening began at 6 pm, when Save Senn Coalition members gathered outside the high school , located at 5900 N. Glenwood Ave., to greet people as they came and distribute informational pamphlets about Senn High School and the fight to keep it free of a naval academy. Other members, many of them students, circulated with a petition in support of the Save Senn Coalition goals. Area peace activists handed out flyers of “Questions the Military Doesn’t Want You to Ask,” and Andersonville Neighbors for Peace were there to, as their flyer read, “stand with everyone who opposes turning Senn High School into a military training school.” Matt Johnson and Matt O’Donnell sat on a bench with a “Books Not Bombs” sign. Both students at Loyola University, they’d heard about the forum via e-mails sent out through campus listservs. “I’m opposed to the military, period,” said Johnson. “I’ve been trying to get some counter-recruitment organized on campus, and then I heard about this.” O’Donnell explained that he came to learn more about the issues facing the school, “especially the military going into low-income schools and making promises that won’t be fulfilled.”
....

According to the agenda, the introductions were to be follwed by an “Overview of the Proposed Educational Program” for the military academy, given by Colonel Rick Mills. Mills, who was accompanied by four or five other military representatives in civilian suits, had barely started speaking when the audience began to boo and chant “WE SAY NO!”

The chants kept up, and continued, as Mills repeatedly tried to get the audience’s attention. Many of them were now standing, some standing on their seats, and when Mills attempted to show the video, they turned their backs to him and to the screen. The CPS and JROTC people then fled the building as students threw various objects at them on their way out.

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/10/08/6569836

[porphyrian]

1. Ha! Eat shit, recruiters!

Why don't you spend some time at the Ivy League Prep schools? Fucking assholes.

[Scooter24]

8. Because

most of the prep schools don't receive federal funds, recruiters can legally be barred. The government is powerless to force recruiters onto private property and is why recruiters find easier access to students at public schools than private ones.

[Eye and Monkey]

2. Was the military as interested in opening high schools a coupla years ago?

Somehow, I don't think so.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

3. NOW THAT'S REAL DEMOCRACY AT WORK!!!!! KUDOS TO SENN!!!

[OutsourceBush]

4. Good for them!

More schools need to do this.

[baldguy]

5. "Questions the Navy Doesn’t Want You to Ask"

From The Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors website:

http://www.objector.org/Resources/questions.pdf

[greatauntoftriplets]

6. I live two blocks from Senn....

although I went to a Catholic girls' high school. The neighborhood HATES the idea of this around here.

Because Senn is an open school, it draws students from beyond the neighborhood.

The paragraph from the article (below) is very true.

<snip>

Inside, there were tables with official Senn publications. According to one flyer, Senn students come from 70 different countries, with 43.4% of students born outside the US. 64.6% of Senn students speak a language other than English at home, for a total of 57 languages school-wide. Senn’s newsletter noted that at a recent meeting for parents of bilingual students, translation was provided in Spanish, Urdu French, Vietnamese, and Gujarati. Attendants were also asked to sign in, though it was unclear for what purpose and under whose auspices.

<snip>

[Massacure]

7. lol, thats like what happened to my school on steroids

There was an army recruiter at my school last week during out lunch periods, and a bunch of students started chanting "NO MORE WARS!"

We didn't scare the guy out, but no one was going up to him asking him about the Army. I think the people who wanted to were afraid of us. :P