Mining for Kids: Children Can’t “Opt Out” of Pentagon Recruitment Database

[G_j]

http://www.vermontguardian.com/
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0117-12.htm

Published on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 by the Vermont Guardian

Mining for Kids: Children Can’t “Opt Out” of Pentagon Recruitment Database

by Kathryn Casa

Parents cannot remove their children’s names from a Pentagon database that includes highly personal information used to attract military recruits, the Vermont Guardian has learned.

The Pentagon has spent more than $70.5 million on market research, national advertising, website development, and management of the Joint Advertising Market Research and Studies (JAMRS) database — a storehouse of questionable legality that includes the names and personal details of more than 30 million U.S. children and young people between the ages of 16 and 23.

The database is separate from information collected from schools that receive federal education money. The No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to report the names, addresses, and phone numbers of secondary school students to recruiters, but the law also specifies that parents or guardians may write a letter to the school asking that their children’s names not be released.

However, many parents have reported being surprised that their children are contacted anyway, according to a San Francisco-based coalition called Leave My Child Alone (LMCA).


..more..

[TayTay]

1. My son got a call from a recruiter, even though he opted out of NCLB

It must be due to this. Ahm, my son said he might sign up, but he wanted the recruiter to check and see if he and his boyfriend could join up together. This is Mass, he is 18, and they were planning on a Spring Wedding. (Hate to break up the family.) Ahm, there was no answer to this facetious question.

[The Doctor.]

27. What an excellent question...

"but he wanted the recruiter to check and see if he and his boyfriend could join up together"

That's one for the books.
Only problem is that might put him on a different 'list'.

[MountainLaurel]

2. Grrr

Our children's lives are just a commodity to these people.

:mad:

[leftchick]

3. are the daily outrages coming in 3s and 4s now??

:argh:

[G_j]

8. just the ones that get reported

we can probably rest assured that there is even worse stuff going on, even though would seem almost impossible.

[Fridays Child]

4. So, they can peddle their war porn to our kids, no matter what we do.

This is an outrage. :mad:

[savemefromdumbya]

5. how young are the hildren in this database?

are high schools obligated to inform the parents of this. I don't think many parents are aware of this?

[savemefromdumbya]

6. children not hildren!

keyboard has a sticky 'c' key

[liveoaktx]

7. Completely separate program from the NCLB child mining

The info that the Pentagon is getting, without parental permission, was authorized by Congress and goes into a JAMSR database-I spoke to someone in that program last year and was told that the only way to stop them is to lobby Congress to change the law.

It almost seems pointless, doens't it, for parents to say, "You can't have my child's information" with the NCLB optout, when the Pentagon can put info into a database without parental say so.

AND you can never get the info removed. If you ask for your child to be removed, what happens is a flag gets set on the data, but your child is not removed.

[savemefromdumbya]

15. perhaps when we remove the 'plantation'

when the plantation is removed by fitzgerald and the 2006 elections, we may be able to overturn this data mining of our little ones, plus a lot of other nasty things!

[FreedomAngel82]

24. Now you know why the name huh?

He doesn't fund the program so why the name? Because of this policy. I found out about this sometime in 2004.

[bigtree]

9. kick

[Catrina]

10. Are the Bush twins in that data base and have they ever been

approached by a recruiter? If not, then a huge class action suit is in order, imo. You cannot discriminate like that. It does say NO child left behind.

Don't all these rightwingers have kids? If none of them are being harrassed by recruiters, then neither should anyone else's.

True that they probably have made it impossible to sue to get off the list, but how about a suit based on class discrimination? Do a sort of endrun around their Machiavellian rules? It would have the added advantage of exposing the sheer hypocrisy of these people.

Bring back the draft!! They are doing everythign they can not to have to that, because then THEIR kids would to go. A gigantic lawsuit should get some answers as to just how 'consitutional' this is.

[Xithras]

11. The trick is to opt out BEFORE the Pentagon gets it.

The NCLB/FERPA opt-out does prevent schools from giving the Pentagon ANY information, but if you opt out AFTER your childs school has handed the information over the damage has already been done. Once the Pentagon has your childs data, there's little you can do about it without filing a federal lawsuit.

[liveoaktx]

14. Maybe that's what needs to be done-filing a lawsuit

If someone who was directly affected filed, it could go through the court system to change. Right now the JAMSR database is like a pig in sh*t, they know there's nothing that parents can do without Congress changing the law.

[sybylla]

28. My kids were on the list the minute they got a driver's license at 16

That info is available to anyone who has the money. The Pentagon buys data from the states. If your kid is in "the system" for anything, no doubt the recruiters have it.

But I did opt my boys out of the school's obligation to submit their information. There is no need for the Pentagon to have any idea what kinds of grades they have. If they knew their strengths in school, they wouldn't leave them alone.

[Left_Winger]

12. I am a high school teacher and I "run interference"

everytime I see the recruiters at school. Luckily I have no classes when the students are at lunch and am able to do this. Yesterday the Marines were here and I kept them so busy talking to me about the war that they could not get at the students; when I informed them that I was once a Marine they became totally obsessed with trying to convince me that the war was correct and justified that they forgot all about the students. I kept them so occupied that when the bell rang sending the students back to class, they were left empty-handed (I need a Simpson's-styled "ha-ha" here). Then I said, "Sorry, I have a class and need to go."

I've got to admit those jarheads were some persistent little buggers (some things never change). One gave me his card, with phone number, and wanted to continue the conversation. Fat chance!

I wonder how long it will be before the recruiters (they are the same ones each time) figure out what I'm doing?

[AzDar]

13. Good job...Jeebus, teaching is hard enough these days, I would

imagine, without having to run interference to try to save some kid from ruining(or sacrificing) his/her life for LIES. That makes you a HERO, IMHO.

[Left_Winger]

17. Thank you for your kind words

[G_j]

16. good work

you may well have saved some lives.

thank you! :applause:

[Left_Winger]

18. Thank you

I just hope they don't figure out what I'm doing too soon.

[G_j]

19. anti-recruitment efforts

are working and may be one of the most effective strategies of the anti-war movement at this time.

I too hope you are able to continue.

When I was in college in the early seventies, we set up a fake mafia recruiter right across from the army's recruitment table.
Of course we were thrown out eventually, but it was an effective distraction. :-)

[dsc]

20. I wish I could do the same

but my plan period isn't when lunch is. I do try to talk to kids who I know are thinking about it. I don't know how sucessful it is but I do try.

[EFerrari]

21. Bless your heart. If we can help your effort in any way, let us know.

:(

[FreedomAngel82]

25. I remember when I was in high school

the recruiters would come. They never bothered anybody and had a table set up and had pamplets and a little tv playing the introduction video. I didn't mind that since people could freely walk over there and find out information and make their own decisions without anybody bothering any students. So that I don't mind. I don't like it when they bug people to death where someone says "fine!" to get them off their back. That's just plain wrong and other wrongful tactics they use. Oh and the recruiters I remember only came in the mid/late spring before the end of the year which was good for the seniors who were graduating and everything.

[G_j]

22. ~~

[FreedomAngel82]

23. We used to get calls here

asking for my brother but my mom told them to bug off or she'd report them to their supervisor and they never called back. The strange thing is they never asked my brother if he wanted to join. Always to just "check up" on him. :shrug:

[DarkTirade]

26. For some reason...

whenever I got recruitment calls from people when I was in high school, it was always the army. No other military group. Not sure why.
Considering I have flat feet, a heart murmer, and my hair is almost down to my waist (religious reasons... I ain't cutting it unless I go bald naturally in the next 10 years or so.), I doubt I'd even be allowed in anyway.

[sybylla]

29. Caller ID weeds out those annoying recruitment calls.

Occasionally they leave a message but they've gotten so they rarely call because we don't answer.

I could have kicked my oldest up the block. Last spring he agreed to let a friend in the guards turn his name and phone number in to recruiters (part of a bonus program). We got several calls a month for about three months. I said to him what was the point of all the work to keep his name off the lists if he was just going to hand it over. He said he was just trying to help his friend, which I couldn't begrudge him. Thankfully, they gave up by mid-summer and we haven't had a call since.

Though we still get plenty of junk mail from all branches of service.

[greiner3]

30. The military and especially the present administration lie?

:sarcasm: