The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees voted in favor (4 to 3) of a proposal to increase student and family awareness of the OPT-OUT choice parents have to deny military recruiters access to private student information.

As a result of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, a requirement of federal education funding is that high school administrations release student contact, and other information to military recruiters. Students and parents may “Opt-Out� of the information release list, but notification of this option is careless-to-nonexistent.

In the predominantly Latino district, where recruiters “descend on students like vultures on road kill,� (as one counter recruitment worker stated) how is family and student notification of Opt-Out best assured?

That the “opt-out choice be included on the [mandatory] emergency card for all high school students including those at alternative high schools� was the motion eventually approved.

A coalition of trustees, parents, students and community organizations wanted greater assurance of opt-out choice notification. Board chair Rhea DeHart bluntly stated, “I have talked to too many people where this important information gets lost in the shuffle.� story and photos...

photos and notes: PVUSD Supports Student Privacy

audio: Hidden Clause in No Child Left Behind Act Lets Parents Opt-Out
audio: Pajaro Schools Support Opt Out Option

see also: Being a Military Recruiter Must Suck || All around the U$, Recuiters are Feeling the Heat || 4/20 Watsonville Counter-Recruitment Action || UCSC Students Kick Military Recruiters Off Campus

El 17 de Junio en un centro comunitario de Watsonville, California donde se dan clases de ciencias a los niños Camp Sea Lab. El Colectivo Caldo de Cultivo Urbano (de Mexico) fuimos invitadas a dar un taller de xilografia para la comunidad...

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On June 17 at a community center in Watsonville, California where there are science classes for children called Camp Sea Lab. El Colectivo Caldo de Cultivo Urbano from Mexico City were special guests for a workshop on printmaking for the community.

[ Camp SEA Lab || Colectivo Caldo de Cultivo Urbano desde la Ciudad de Mexico ]

Some 16,500 clerical workers at the University of California's nine state campuses, began a three-day strike June 13, to demand higher pay. The Coalition of University Employees, or CUE, is unaffiliated with other unions, and consists largely of women and people of color. Ninety-four percent of its members voted to strike after talks reached an impasse this spring. Vinny Lombardo reports from Santa Cruz, where 150 people held a lunch time rally. Audio

Photos: 1 | 2 | 3

[ 3-Day CUE Statewide Strike of UC June 13-15 || Coalition of University Employees (CUE) ]

Despite a bit of scheduling confusion, about a dozen young people organized a leaflet action on June 12, to encourage a boycott of Urban Outfitters. They're upset that company CEO Richard Hayne, is a major contributor to the Republican Party, and specifically to Pennsylvania's Rick Santorum, one of the most rabidly anti-gay US Senators.

"If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual gay sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. All of those things are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family and that's sort of where we are in today's world, unfortunately. It all comes from, I would argue, the right to privacy that doesn't exist, in my opinion, in the United States Constitution." - Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), Associated Press, 04-22-03

Audio: Rockin' the Boat: Youth Boycott of Urban Outfitters!
Photos: Think Urban Outfitters is Gay Friendly? Think Again!
Photos: PIX: UrbanOut Boycott 6/12, part 1 | part 2

On May 27, the Fourth Annual Youth and Power event took place at the Veterans Memorial Building in Watsonville. The theme was "Youth Empowerment Through Art, Education, and Music." About three hundred people, mostly teenagers, enjoyed an evening of music, dancing and great food!

A commenter writes, "...this event will never just come and go. It was about planting seeds of consciousness and revolution in the minds of our young people of Watsonville.I think we accomplished that. Events like ours rarely get attention of the local mainstream press, but let the growers put on some drunkfest like the Stawberry Festivel and the press is all over it. No big deal, because our work continues. Thanks Indymedia for covering Youth and Power and thanks to the Watsonville Brown Berets for all the work you do in this community."

Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Audio: Entrevista/Interview: Fernando Suarez del Solar

See also: Kick Recruiters Out of Our Schools! Regional Youth BBQ (6/4) || All Around the U$, Recuiters are Feeling the Heat

Land for peace?

Free Skool’s biggest quarter yet: 38 different classes taught by more than three dozen teachers offering a decentralized educational network outside the system (and still $20 thousand less than UCSC)

The co-founder of the Crips gang, who may be innocent of the particular crimes he was convicted of, is scheduled to be executed in CA on December 13, 2005.

Activists at Chancellor Denton's Investiture passed out fake programs informing audience about UC's failure to enforce its code of conduct prohibiting the use of sweatshops to make univeristy apparel, and urging Denton to support to proposed changes that will make the document more comprehensive and effective.

California voters will soon decide the fate of a slew of ballot measures in the most expensive election in state history. Called for by Governor Schwarzenegger in mid-June, the measures had early support, but according to several recent opinion polls, opposition is growing, and many of them appear to be headed for defeat on November 8. WIN reporter Vinny Lombardo examines what's at stake in this election for unions in California. 4:58