mimi37
09-08-2004, 08:25 AM
http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2002/12/00_goodman_no-child.htm
No Child Unrecruited -- Should the military be given the names of every high school student in
America?
David Goodman
Sharon Shea-Keneally, principal of Mount Anthony Union High School in
Bennington, Vermont, was shocked when she received a letter in May from military
recruiters demanding a list of all her students, including names, addresses,
and phone numbers. The school invites recruiters to participate in career days
and job fairs, but like most school districts, it keeps student information
strictly confidential. "We don't give out a list of names of our kids to
anybody," says Shea-Keneally, "not to colleges, churches, employers -- nobody."
But when Shea-Keneally insisted on an explanation, she was in for an even
bigger surprise: The recruiters cited the No Child Left Behind Act, President
Bush's sweeping new education law passed earlier this year. There, buried deep
within the law's 670 pages, is a provision requiring public secondary
schools to provide military recruiters not only with access to facilities, but also
with contact information for every student -- or face a cutoff of all
federal aid.
"I was very surprised the requirement was attached to an education law,"
says Shea-Keneally. "I did not see the link."
The military complained this year that up to 15 percent of the nation's high
schools are "problem schools" for recruiters. In 1999, the Pentagon says,
recruiters were denied access to schools on 19,228 occasions. Rep. David
Vitter, a Republican from Louisiana who sponsored the new recruitment requirement,
says such schools "demonstrated an anti-military attitude that I thought was
offensive."
To many educators, however, requiring the release of personal information
intrudes on the rights of students. "We feel it is a clear departure from the
letter and the spirit of the current student privacy laws," says Bruce Hunter,
chief lobbyist for the American Association of School Administrators. Until
now, schools could share student information only with other educational
institutions. "Now other people will want our lists," says Hunter. "It's a
slippery slope. I don't want student directories sent to Verizon either, just
because they claim that all kids need a cell phone to be safe."
The new law does give students the right to withhold their records. But
school officials are given wide leeway in how to implement the law, and some are
simply handing over student directories to recruiters without informing
anyone -- leaving students without any say in the matter.
"I think the privacy implications of this law are profound," says Jill
Wynns, president of the San Francisco Board of Education. "For the federal
government to ignore or discount the concerns of the privacy rights of millions of
high school students is not a good thing, and it's something we should be
concerned about."
Educators point out that the armed services have exceeded their recruitment
goals for the past two years in a row, even without access to every school.
The new law, they say, undercuts the authority of some local school districts,
including San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, that have barred recruiters
from schools on the grounds that the military discriminates against gays and
lesbians. Officials in both cities now say they will grant recruiters access to
their schools and to student information -- but they also plan to inform
students of their right to withhold their records.
Some students are already choosing that option. According to Principal
Shea-Keneally, 200 students at her school -- one-sixth of the student body -- have
asked that their records be withheld.
Recruiters are up-front about their plans to use school lists to
aggressively pursue students through mailings, phone calls, and personal visits -- even
if parents object. "The only thing that will get us to stop contacting the
family is if they call their congressman," says Major Johannes Paraan, head
U.S. Army recruiter for Vermont and northeastern New York. "Or maybe if the kid
died, we'll take them off our list."
No Child Unrecruited -- Should the military be given the names of every high school student in
America?
David Goodman
Sharon Shea-Keneally, principal of Mount Anthony Union High School in
Bennington, Vermont, was shocked when she received a letter in May from military
recruiters demanding a list of all her students, including names, addresses,
and phone numbers. The school invites recruiters to participate in career days
and job fairs, but like most school districts, it keeps student information
strictly confidential. "We don't give out a list of names of our kids to
anybody," says Shea-Keneally, "not to colleges, churches, employers -- nobody."
But when Shea-Keneally insisted on an explanation, she was in for an even
bigger surprise: The recruiters cited the No Child Left Behind Act, President
Bush's sweeping new education law passed earlier this year. There, buried deep
within the law's 670 pages, is a provision requiring public secondary
schools to provide military recruiters not only with access to facilities, but also
with contact information for every student -- or face a cutoff of all
federal aid.
"I was very surprised the requirement was attached to an education law,"
says Shea-Keneally. "I did not see the link."
The military complained this year that up to 15 percent of the nation's high
schools are "problem schools" for recruiters. In 1999, the Pentagon says,
recruiters were denied access to schools on 19,228 occasions. Rep. David
Vitter, a Republican from Louisiana who sponsored the new recruitment requirement,
says such schools "demonstrated an anti-military attitude that I thought was
offensive."
To many educators, however, requiring the release of personal information
intrudes on the rights of students. "We feel it is a clear departure from the
letter and the spirit of the current student privacy laws," says Bruce Hunter,
chief lobbyist for the American Association of School Administrators. Until
now, schools could share student information only with other educational
institutions. "Now other people will want our lists," says Hunter. "It's a
slippery slope. I don't want student directories sent to Verizon either, just
because they claim that all kids need a cell phone to be safe."
The new law does give students the right to withhold their records. But
school officials are given wide leeway in how to implement the law, and some are
simply handing over student directories to recruiters without informing
anyone -- leaving students without any say in the matter.
"I think the privacy implications of this law are profound," says Jill
Wynns, president of the San Francisco Board of Education. "For the federal
government to ignore or discount the concerns of the privacy rights of millions of
high school students is not a good thing, and it's something we should be
concerned about."
Educators point out that the armed services have exceeded their recruitment
goals for the past two years in a row, even without access to every school.
The new law, they say, undercuts the authority of some local school districts,
including San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, that have barred recruiters
from schools on the grounds that the military discriminates against gays and
lesbians. Officials in both cities now say they will grant recruiters access to
their schools and to student information -- but they also plan to inform
students of their right to withhold their records.
Some students are already choosing that option. According to Principal
Shea-Keneally, 200 students at her school -- one-sixth of the student body -- have
asked that their records be withheld.
Recruiters are up-front about their plans to use school lists to
aggressively pursue students through mailings, phone calls, and personal visits -- even
if parents object. "The only thing that will get us to stop contacting the
family is if they call their congressman," says Major Johannes Paraan, head
U.S. Army recruiter for Vermont and northeastern New York. "Or maybe if the kid
died, we'll take them off our list."