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****************************************************************** Published on Monday, June 28, 2004 by
the June Wednesday June 29, 2004
Peace Activists Plan to Counter Recruiting by
Military in Palm Beach Schools
by Prashant Gopal South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Recruiters pitching military service to high
school students tout job training, college
scholarships, foreign travel and lifelong
friendships.
A Palm Beach County peace group offers a
different view: Enlisting in the armed forces
isn't like signing with a job placement agency.
War can kill you.
That's why peace activists say students who hear
from recruiters in school should also expect to
hear from them.
"We want to be there to balance that
perspective," said Javier del Sol, an
activist and professional storyteller with a gray
ponytail and a bandana knotted around his head.
"The military has money and personnel. But a
few people can make a difference."
For now, the ideological battle will play out
first in Lake Worth High School, which claims one
of the largest JROTC programs in the world, in a
town that is a center for counterculture
activism.
Through a pilot program this fall, students at
Lake Worth High could see peace recruiters in the
cafeteria, career fairs, assemblies, classrooms
and JROTC classes -- all the places on campus
they now see uniformed military representatives.
In time, Palm Beach Area Draft Counseling, a
Quaker-sponsored anti-war group, says it will
seek equal access to all Palm Beach County
schools. And they'd like their campaign to spread
to Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
Del Sol and Marie Zwicker, who joined the
anti-war fight in the 1960s, say they're
recruiters for peace. They'll counter claims made
by recruiters and distribute information on
alternatives to the armed services, such as the
Peace Corps and college degrees in diplomacy. And
they say they'll tell students of their right to
not have personal information shared with
representatives of the Army, Navy, Air Force and
Marines.
The pilot peace program appears to be on firm
legal footing because of a little-known 1982 U.S.
district court ruling granting the peace group,
of which Zwicker was a member, the same access to
students and the right to hand out literature.
In the decades that followed, peace groups around
the nation have won similar cases. But principals
continue to resist giving military detractors
access to students, said Oskar Castro of the
National Youth and Militarism Program, a Quaker
group, in Philadelphia. If the Lake Worth High
School program moves forward, it could be one of
the few programs of its kind, Castro said.
School district officials in Broward and
Miami-Dade say they are not aware of any similar
anti-military activism in their schools.
Lake Worth principal Ana Meehan said details must
be sorted out, but she's open to the idea of
letting Palm Beach Area Draft Counseling onto the
campus.
"We're looking for a balanced
approach," Meehan said. "From what I've
seen, veterans and parents are open to all points
of view, particularly veterans because they
understand what democracy is. We want students to
hear a variety of options."
Geoff McKee, principal at Boca Raton High School,
said he would prefer that the group focus on
alternatives to enlistment and not speak
negatively about the military. Many students in
his school with relatives who are veterans might
be offended, he said.
"I can see how their message could be
construed as anti-patriotic, and they would have
to be sensitive of that in their presentation and
have to put energy into not creating a disruption
in order to be welcome on campus," McKee
said.
Erin Killian, 18, who graduated this year from
the school's JROTC program, said the peace
group's campaign is unnecessary.
"The military protects the country and the
people in it. We should honor them and not right
away say how horrible they are," Killian
said. "People should know [war] is dangerous
just by knowing about history and growing up in
this country."
Sgt. David Holley, an Army recruiter assigned to
Lake Worth High School, said del Sol and Zwicker
have a right to speak their mind. But he's
skeptical of their viewpoint because recruiters
can't force anyone to join an all-volunteer
military, he said.
"Nobody is going to stop them," Holley
said of the peace activists. "But it's
really hard for them to know what really goes on
in the military unless they have experienced it
for themselves."
The battle of ideas at Lake Worth High School may
have something to do with Lake Worth itself.
The armed forces recruit heavily in this
working-class city with a growing number of
immigrants from Guatemala, Haiti and Mexico. The
high school's Air Force JROTC, with 475 cadets,
claims to be the second largest in the world. But
Lake Worth also is the region's counterculture
capital, having spawned many recent anti-war,
anti-globalization protests.
Del Sol said the military is particularly
attractive to poor residents who struggle to find
good jobs or money for college and are eager to
be accepted as Americans. For foreign nationals,
the Department of Defense offers an expedited
citizenship program for those who enlist.
Holley tries to visit the school cafeteria once a
week to distribute fliers, answer questions and
meet potential recruits. He's also invited to
make his pitch to the JROTC class and the
school's magnet programs in medicine, carpentry,
plumbing and masonry, and criminal justice.
One of Holley's most useful recruiting tools is
the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a
test administered by the Department of Defense.
The test, given in 14,000 schools around South
Florida and the nation, is either mandatory or
voluntary, depending on the school.
In South Florida districts, the tests are given
at the principal's discretion.
At North Miami Beach's Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior
High School, for example, juniors who don't take
the PSAT are required to take the test. At Coral
Springs High, Principal Anne Lynch said the tests
are voluntary, but students are encouraged to
take it.
The military requires the test for prospective
recruits, using it to find and place cadets. The
schools, which get the test at no cost, use the
information to gauge abilities.
In some schools, students sign up to take the
test. In other schools, all juniors or seniors
are expected to take it. Principals often aren't
informed by the military that they can opt out of
sharing test scores and student contact with the
recruiters who administer the test.
In Lake Worth High School, the test is given to
all 11th-graders, though students can decline to
take it. The scores, along with student grades
and home contact information, are provided to
military recruiters.
Once the peace group is allowed into the school,
Zwicker said, it would begin to monitor the test
to make certain students are told that it's
voluntary.
The group also intends to inform students that
they can fill out a form telling the school that
they don't want any personal information shared
with recruiters. High schools must comply with
the requirement, part of the 2001 No Child Left
Behind act, or risk losing federal grants.
Students and parents can opt out by submitting a
written request to the school district asking
that the information not be shared.
The No Child Left Behind act also guarantees that
military recruiters have as much as access to
schools as college and company recruiters.
Jean Schurr, who has had three children go
through Lake Worth High School, said she's used
to getting calls and brochures from recruiters.
She'd like to keep them out of the schools.
"I feel the same way about anything. It
bothers me that people are handing out Bibles at
school. It's setting things up for handing out
information on the devil next," Schurr said.
"I don't think you'll ever get recruiters
out of the school. So people with an alternative
view should definitely have access."
The Palm Beach Area Draft Counseling group has
had a history in county schools.
A U.S. federal district court judge ruled in 1982
that the Palm Beach Area Draft Counseling group
should have the "same opportunity to
distribute pamphlets, literature and related
material opposing participation in the military
in the same manner military recruiters are
permitted to encourage participation in the
military."
After the 1982 decision that granted the group
equal access, del Sol and a few others began to
distribute materials to guidance offices
throughout the district. But the campaign ended
with the Cold War in the late 1980s.
The war in Iraq and a proposal in Congress to
re-establish the draft spurred the two Lake Worth
residents to action. Del Sol said he expects to
have more help this time. Finding volunteers has
become easier because of a flood of young
activists who have moved to Lake Worth in recent
years.
Students aren't getting the whole story about
joining the military in a time of war, said
Zwicker, who was one of the plaintiffs in the
1982 case.
Military brochures have been sanitized, she said.
They no longer show combat. And they focus on
glamorous jobs, not the ones on the frontlines,
she said.
"We need to be there," Zwicker said.
"And all the teachers need to be aware that
if they invite a military recruiter to a
classroom to give a talk about why it's good to
be in the military, according to the agreement,
they need to be inviting us as well."
© Copyright 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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