MWR : School invasion

Last updated November 24.

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April 26, 2010 issue

School invasion

By Fred Suter Westerville, Ohio

I have spent much time over the past three years helping high school students become more aware of their career options. This year the federal act No Child Left Behind is to be reviewed and revised. The NCLB includes a provision that allows military recruiters to enter public schools and get personal information about students. Where is the student privacy? I know parents, including some Mennonites, who feel very uneasy with the recruitment approaches used by the U.S. military.

Too many military recruiters abuse their privilege of entering a public high school. Instead of staying in one assigned location, some roam the halls and the cafeteria. Some have pulled students out of classrooms. This is going way too far. Like the separation of church and state, there needs to be a clear separation between public schools and military recruiting stations.

A U.S. Army publication, the “School Recruiting Program Handbook,” is the recruiter’s essential guide to enter the nation’s high schools and round up warm bodies to fill the skimpy ranks of basic training units. This handbook declares, “The goal is school ownership.” God help us all if this ever happens.

Our elected officials in Washington tried to pull the wool over the eyes of the public by attaching this provision to the end of the NCLB Act. The current NCLB Act permits yet another U.S. military invasion. This time the invasion is to infiltrate the public schools.

Our public schools were established for good reasons, but to allow military recruiters to enter the buildings to prey upon our youth was not one of them. When the NCLB Act is revised this year, Section 9528 needs to be deleted.

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