Seattle high school seeks military recruiter ban
24 May 2005 23:44:28 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Linda Thomas

SEATTLE, May 24 (Reuters) - A high school in Seattle has become the first
in the United States to tell the military that it is no longer welcome on
campus because recruiters unfairly target poor inner-city teens to fight the
U.S. war on terror.

"Who goes to fight wars? It's not George Bush's kids or senators' kids or
Donald Rumsfeld's nieces and nephews," said Amy Hagopian, co-chairwoman of
the Parent Teacher Student Association, PTSA, at Garfield High School.

"It's poor kids who fight wars," Hagopian said.

Earlier in May, the PTSA passed a resolution that said: "Students should
not be harassed by military recruiters... The U.S. military should not
recruit in public schools."

Despite that, the school has no legal authority to keep recruiters off
campus. Under federal law, all school districts are required to release the
names and contact information of students to military recruiters.

The issue at Garfield High is part of a national debate as the military
struggles to replenish its numbers for the war on terror and the war in
Iraq.

The U.S. Supreme Court said earlier this month it will consider whether
the government can withhold funding from colleges that bar military
recruiters.

"We offer a lot in terms of skill training and money for furthering
education," said Douglas Smith, a spokesman for U.S. Army Recruiting Command
in Fort Knox, Kentucky. The United States has relied on an all-volunte er
military since the draft ended on July 1, 1973.

Garfield is an inner-city high school where one-third of the 1,600
students are black in a city that is predominantly white and Asian.

On Monday, more than 100 high school and college students protested at
three military recruiting offices in Seattle.

The National PTA, based in Chicago, supports the Seattle parent-teacher
group's action. PTA President Linda Hodge said the resolution is a first
step toward "holding lawmakers accountable to their communities."

Hodge said she knew of no other PTA group in the country that had asked
military recruiters to stay away from school.

In September 2004, the Army had 6,128 recruiters. By the first week of May
this year, that number had risen to 7,545.

"One of the impediments to recruiting is the ongoing war on terrorism,"
Smith said. "With physical dangers and the risk of death, recruiters have to
spend more time and energy talking through what enlisting now holds for an
individual and their families."