April 28, 2005

Local high schools to adopt military recruitment policy

Recruiters only allowed on campus one day a month, career days

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

After parents complained that San Jose high schools were allowing military recruiters on their campuses more than academic and professional recruiters, district officials began thinking of ways to make their access to students more equitable.

Two military recruiters speak to a group of Leland High School students during Career Day in 1998. Photo courtesy of Leland High School.

Such brainstorming has produced the first across-the-board San Jose Unified School District military recruitment policy, drafted in February and already studied by trustees at two previous board meetings. The policy is expected to come before the board of education for a vote at 6:30 p.m., May 5, at district headquarters, 855 Lenzen Ave.

“The parents were wondering if this was fair and equitable,” said Mike Carr, district director of student services, about the frequent visits of such recruiters—Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force or Coast Guard.

Due to the parents’ outcry, particularly as the country enters its third year of war in Iraq, Carr invited the six district high school principals, the district’s director of educational services and SJUSD Superintendent Don Iglesias to a meeting last February to review how each campus was handling military recruiters’ presence on their campuses.

District officials discovered an inconsistent policy that needed to be standardized.

Under the new policy military recruiters would no longer approach young impressionable high school students about joining their ranks. Instead, they’ll be allowed to set up a table where they can use video equipment and display handouts for students who come to them. They’ll be allowed on campus only one day a month and be permitted to attend career days when they can bring vans and other equipment to the schools. No other equipment can be brought to school at any other time, the policy states.

Pioneer High School Principal Barbara Lepiane said she is pleased with the policy. She said her school’s previous military recruitment rules closely resembled the district’s new draft policy.

“They will not approach our students. Our students will approach them if there’s an interest,” Lepiane said.

Similarly, Leland High School Principal Bob Setterlund praised the policy noting that it puts military recruiters on the same playing field as college recruiters. “We’ve never had any difficulty with this issue or complaints,” Setterlund said. The high school has career days every other year, so in 2006, the policy will come in handy, he added.

The issue of military recruitment at the high schools came to the forefront when several parents complained that their children were being asked to join the military.

Many didn’t even know the district allowed such recruiters on campus. Others were surprised by how many times military recruiters were allowed on campus. Some high schools were allowing them more than once a day.

“You would sometimes have all military branches there and the schools were ending up with a lot of people on their campuses,” Carr said.

Also under the new policy, military recruiters can only speak to students whose parents have “opted in,” instead of those whose parents have “opted out” by signing a form against them contacting them found in the student handbook. Parents have complained that the form is not easily found and have also stated it only precludes the recruiters from calling the students’ home and doesn’t prevent their contact with students at schools.

“The parents felt that their children were immature and really didn’t have enough knowledge and were afraid that they would make a decision without them knowing about it. The parents wanted more involvement and we can understand that,” Carr said.

At Pioneer High School, Lepiane said, not many parents have complained about the military recruiters’ presence.

“We control pretty well who’s here and what they’re doing,” she said. “The parents don’t want them approaching their kids and we don’t allow them to do that. Parents don’t want their kids being actively recruited by anyone. We try to protect them from that.”

Parent Joan Cooper, president of the SJUSD Council of PTAs, whose son is a senior at Pioneer High School, said parents’ intentions were never to prevent recruiters from doing their job, but only to have a consistent policy that parents would know about.

“We wanted it to be more in line with the policy we have regarding those who come to high schools from universities and employers,” she said. “It’s not like other recruiters are banging on the doors of high schools for other things. At some high schools they (military recruiters) were present quite a bit.”

Cooper said she’s happy the issue has made more parents aware about what’s being presented to their children at school. “I wanted parents to address this in their own home and in their own way. If they want to opt out, great,” she added. “If the kids are interested and go to the military recruiters’ tables, it doesn’t matter who opted out of what. Some of the things that the recruiters were doing were so attractive, like contests… We don’t want to sound anti-military. We’re proud of the young people who choose to serve.”

School districts are required to provide the federal government with students’ names, addresses and phone numbers so students may be contacted and recruited for military service, a controversial provision of the No Child Left Behind Act approved by Congress in 2001.

Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, is sponsoring the Privacy Protection Act, which would allow the military to only recruit students whose parents give written permission. Critics say the proposal would further complicate the military’s effort to recruit students in public school districts.