S.F. School Board May
End JROTC Program
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web, May 24, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO -- The San
Francisco Board of Education is considering expelling the Junior ROTC program
from the city's high schools because of the Pentagon's ''Don't Ask, Don't Tell''
policy on gays.
A resolution introduced Tuesday would end the city's relationship with JROTC by
the 2007-2008 academic year. It argues that the military's ban on openly
gay soldiers violates the district's equal rights policy for gays.
''If the military said, 'You can't be openly Jewish or you can't be openly
Catholic,' I don't think we would have stood for it,'' said Mark Sanchez, the
measure's author and the board's only gay member.
Some 1,625 students participate in Junior ROTC at seven San Francisco public
high schools.
Under the proposal, which calls the military policy on gays a ''state-sanctioned
act of homophobia,'' a school board committee would develop a program with
similar physical fitness aims, but without military ties.
Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, a Pentagon spokesman, said he didn't know of any school
district that has barred JROTC from its campuses.
The resolution will come up for a final vote next month.
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