Thursday, May 22, 2003

Uncle Sam isn’t a just a pointy-fingered, laid-back recruiter anymore.

Aided by President Bush’s "No Child Left Behind Act," legislation that was approved a couple years ago by Congress, the top-hatted salesman can now aggressively pursue high-school students. If students don’t "opt out," they’re in Sam’s crosshairs.

According to a relatively small provision in this massive piece of legislation, a school district is mandated to provide names, addresses, and telephone numbers of high school students to any military recruiter who asks for the information. The only names not to be turned over to a recruiter are those of students whose parent or guardian filled out and returned to the high school an "opt out" form.

School districts that don’t turn over information to military recruiters stand to lose federal grants coming into the district, according to the legislation.

Dana Sullivan, the Montclair School District’s business manager, told The Times that the local district has received roughly $700,000 in federal grant money covered by the act, most of this Title I funding given to the district based on having 20 percent or more low-income students in a given school. Five schools in Montclair receive Title I funding: Mt. Hebron and Glenfield middle schools, and Nishuane, Northeast and Hillside elementary schools.

Sullivan said she doesn’t believe that federal money received for special education was covered by the act. If it were to be included, she said, the district would stand to lose upwards of $2 million for noncompliance.
All of this came to head recently after Montclair High School Principal Elaine Davis sent out a mailing on Feb. 10 to the homes of all 1,750 high school students with a cover letter to parents, students, and guardians explaining the law and including an attached "opt out" form.

High school officials said that even though the legislation was passed two years ago, it is just in the past several months that military recruiters have contacted officials at the school to request a list of students.
Davis said she received back roughly 600 "opt out" forms, half of which were returned in the mail, and half returned through the efforts of a student group, "OYE, OYE", who set up tables at the high school to educate fellow students on the subject.

The student group, whose full name is "Open Your Eyes, Organized Youth Educators," made their presence felt at the Board of Education meeting this past Monday night.

Sarah Heydemann, a 10th-grader and member of OYE,OYE, asked board members to set a formal policy in regard to the policy and pass a resolution coming out against this provision of the "No Child Left Behind Act."
"Harassment by military recruiters is not something to be taken lightly or pushed to the bottom of the agenda," Heydemann told board members, applauded enthusiastically by the other 15 members of her group who attended the meeting.

Betty Holcomb, representing the Montclair-based NJ Peace Action, an anti-war organization, told board members that school districts in Rochester, N.Y., and San Francisco and Santa Cruz in California, have adopted a policy not to turn over student names to military recruiters unless parents or guardians sign an "opt in" form.

Students distributed at the Monday night meeting a memo written last October by staff persons of the New York Civil Liberties Union that also promoted the concept of pursuing an "affirmative parental consent" before contact information is released.

School Board members pledged to look into the matter more deeply.

In the meantime, school officials are complying with a straightforward reading of the legislation.

Mary Anne Wasko, Principal Davis’ secretary, told The Times on Tuesday that she turned over a list of 11th- and 12th-grade students, minus "opt outs," to a U.S. Army recruiter who first contacted the school last autumn and then returned earlier this month.

Even though the recruiter was entitled to a list of all the high school students, under the provisions of the act, he only requested information pertaining to juniors and seniors, Wasko said.

Individuals must be at least 17 and possess either a high school or general equivalency diploma to join the U.S. military, a recruiter explained to The Times on Tuesday. Parental consent to join the armed services is required for applicants under the age of 18.

Wasko said that the recruiters representing the U. S. Air Force and U. S. Marine Corps also made initial contact with the school last autumn, but haven’t returned.

James Patterson, personnel administrator for the Montclair School District, told The Times that until the district receives a reliable legal opinion that it can operate differently, high school officials will turn over student information to recruiters when requested.

"You have to comply somehow," said Patterson. "If the law tells you to do something, you’ve got to do it."
In other business at the meeting, Florence Demming and Barbara Gottesman were re-elected as president and vice president of the seven-member board.

Prompted by a news article that appeared in The Times about a sixth-grader who had to appear in court because he had brought a toy gun to school, Deb Chromow, a parent of a middle school student, asked the board to "re-examine" the school district’s relationship with the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.

"We are not proposing not involving the police when appropriate," Chromow said, "but because of established protocols, once a child in placed on the path toward involvement with the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, and with an almost guaranteed zero tolerance response at the end of that path, we better make sure that is the response we ultimately desire."