WP: Military Faces Parental Counterattack: HS Recruitment Raises Worries

[DeepModem Mom]

Military Faces Parental Counterattack
High School Recruitment, a Longtime Tradition, Raises Worries in Wartime
By Lori Aratani
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 1, 2005; Page B01


....In past years, parents at Whitman and other high schools across the country may have paid scant attention to calls from military recruiters, but as the war in Iraq continues and the number of casualties grows, parents seem to be growing increasingly sensitive.

Now many parents -- aided by such anti-recruiting groups as the San Francisco-based Leave My Child Alone -- are demanding that school boards make it easier for families to prevent military recruiters from contacting their sons and daughters. They are mounting e-mail and letter-writing campaigns telling families they can block school systems from releasing student information to military recruiters. Even such national educational groups as the PTA are getting involved in the effort to get the word out.

But the military is spreading its own word -- about the benefits of a career in the armed services. This month, the Pentagon launched a $10 million marketing campaign aimed at encouraging parents to be more open to allowing their children to enlist. Although officials say the effort is not tied to growing antiwar sentiment, the commercials feature kids broaching the topic of enlistment with apprehensive parents and urge mothers and fathers to make it a "two-way conversation."

Many states have long allowed military recruiters access to student phone numbers and addresses, but the practice received a boost from the federal No Child Left Behind act. School systems that decline to release the information now risk losing federal dollars.

The advocacy is putting school officials in a quandary, particularly principals who say they want to be responsive to parents but also want to be fair to military recruiters, who by law are allowed the same access to student information as college recruiters. And, principals point out, although some parents wish to prevent military recruiters from reaching their children, others view military service as a good option....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/31/AR2005103101834.html

[Coventina]

1. Gee, I would think all those Republican parents would WANT their kids to

serve.

After all, we're doing such great, noble work over in Iraq. Don't they want their kids to be part of that?

:sarcasm:

[zbdent]

2. I have a question - why don't the recruiters go to all the private schools

and look for recruits there? Especially the Catholic schools?

That's where you should find all the gung-ho, pro-war teenagers "willing to sacrifice" . . . right????