Florida schools run interference for military recruiters

[babylonsister]

POLITICS-US: Peace Group Barred From Florida Schools
By Mark Weisenmiller

TAMPA, Florida, Dec 4 (IPS) - Public school districts in two Florida counties are refusing to allow members of a peace organisation to counter the presence of military recruiters by talking with high school students about options other than joining the service, according to a spokesperson for the group.

"They (the Manatee and Sarasota County School Districts) are saying that we can't go on their campuses because we aren't offering any sort of information on post-secondary opportunities," said Don Thompson, co-chairman of the Coalition of Concerned Patriots (CCP), a Florida-based peace group. "But that's an excuse because we tell the students that the Job Corps and the Peace Corps are possible opportunities for jobs."

"Some of the military recruiters (who visit students on high school campuses) aren't telling the truth about the ways of the military. We don't question the existence of the military; we question the duplicity of military recruiters," Thompson, a retired United Methodist minister, told IPS.

Under President George W. Bush's "No Child Left Behind" law, signed in 2002, public high schools must give military recruiters access to students, including their names, addresses and telephone numbers.

Parents and students can "opt out" of this requirement by filling out a form, but many are apparently unaware that they have the right to do so.

Numerous attempts by IPS to speak with members of the Manatee County School District were unsuccessful. However, Scott Ferguson, a spokesperson for the Sarasota County School District, argued that, "They (the CCP) are not directly offering job career opportunities."

more...

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40343

[T Wolf]

1. Unfortunately, this is SOP for many (or most) school districts. Even in the

"liberal" northeast, schools do not readily protect students from these predators in uniform. Neither do they voluntarily notify parents that we can refuse to release our childrens' information to the military stalkers.

The sooner we can permanently remove these military pedophiles from the schools, the safer our children will be.

[gratuitous]

2. Gee, Mr. Ferguson

Allowing folks on campus soliciting support for an ongoing crime against humanity hardly seems the stuff of a job career opportunity. The old argument gets hauled out again, that school administrators just want students to be aware of all the options available to them after their high school career is over. As if students in a country whose national religion is the Myth of Redemptive Violence could possibly be ignorant of the military. But propose that students might consider the Peace Corps or VISTA or any of several other eleeomosynary activities for a time after graduation, and you're persona non grata at American high schools.

We very carefully teach our children to pick up weapons, and then we're shocked when they use those weapons.