Taking a Stand

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04/03/03

WISDOM OF YOUTH: So if you want to learn how to make things happen in your community, talk to some students at Santa Cruz High School. Students with the Youth Alliance organization have waged a successful campaign to reign in military recruiters preying on high school kids.
Three weeks ago, the students presented the Santa Cruz City Schools Board of Trustees with a resolution that aims at protecting students in the Santa Cruz High School District from military recruiters. On Wednesday, March 26, the school board unanimously passed the resolution. Under the resolution, recruiters cannot have access to students’ addresses and phone numbers unless parents specifically offer their permission. (Schools are required by federal law to divulge them to the military, but a privacy clause allows parents to request that information be withheld.)
The resolution also takes a shot at military recruiting tactics: “Military recruiters have been known to mislead young recruits about the assignments they will have while in the service, the training they will receive for future employment, and the constitutionally protected rights that they forfeit by entering the military,” the resolution reads.
While the school district can’t force recruiters to willingly cough up the harsh reality of military life, it can make sure its students are well informed. So the resolution also calls for education on “alternatives” to military service, such as information on how to discover your inner conscientious objector.
All of which has SCruz pondering: Seems to us the high schoolers have done more to curb military enlistment than the protestors demonstrating outside military recruitment offices on 41st Avenue. But then again, getting arrested by cops in riot gear sounds much more fun.