Military Recruiting: Issues

Here are two brochures you can view and/or print:

Conscientious Objection

Draft Questions and Answers

Interested in legislation, legal issues, or the fight to de-fund the Selective Service System? Visit the Center on Conscience and War's website.

There are two court cases that provide legal precedent for a balancing viewpoint to the military, as it is a "controversial" institution:

San Diego Committee v. Governing Board of Grossmont Union High School District - http://www.objector.org/moos/cardvgrossmont.html

and

Searcey v. Crim - http://www.objector.org/moos/searcyvcrim.html

Frequently Asked Questions

Relevant text from the NCLB Act:

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001

From: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c107:1:./temp/~c10768iUvJ:e1789764: (you will need to re-search for this result at the home page of http://thomas.loc.gov)

SEC. 901. GENERAL PROVISIONS.
Title IX (20 U.S.C. 7801 et seq.) is amended to read as follows:
SEC. 9528. ARMED FORCES RECRUITER ACCESS TO STUDENTS AND STUDENT RECRUITING INFORMATION.

`(a) POLICY-

`(1) ACCESS TO STUDENT RECRUITING INFORMATION- Notwithstanding section 444(a)(5)(B) of the General Education Provisions Act and except as provided in paragraph (2), each local educational agency receiving assistance under this Act shall provide, on a request made by military recruiters or an institution of higher education, access to secondary school students names, addresses, and telephone listings.

`(2) CONSENT- A secondary school student or the parent of the student may request that the student's name, address, and telephone listing described in paragraph (1) not be released without prior written parental consent, and the local educational agency or private school shall notify parents of the option to make a request and shall comply with any request.

`(3) SAME ACCESS TO STUDENTS- Each local educational agency receiving assistance under this Act shall provide military recruiters the same access to secondary school students as is provided generally to post secondary educational institutions or to prospective employers of those students.

`(b) NOTIFICATION- The Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, shall, not later than 120 days after the date of enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, notify principals, school administrators, and other educators about the requirements of this section.

`(c) EXCEPTION- The requirements of this section do not apply to a private secondary school that maintains a religious objection to service in the Armed Forces if the objection is verifiable through the corporate or other organizational documents or materials of that school.

`(d) SPECIAL RULE- A local educational agency prohibited by Connecticut State law (either explicitly by statute or through statutory interpretation by the State Supreme Court or State Attorney General) from providing military recruiters with information or access as required by this section shall have until May 31, 2002, to comply with that requirement.

http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/parents.htm Opt-Out Forms from the Madison School District! For anyone who has an 8th-12th grader in the house. Be sure NOT to sign the bottom, so you can keep getting college info.

This is the flyer we're using this year for leafletting at high school registration days - the text is from a flyer created by the YAYA (Youth Activists - Youth Allies) Network in the New York area: Opt Out Flyer

This is the MilitaryRecruitTools page, which contains the text of the cover letter we used in compiling a packet of educational information for the Madison Metropolitan School District. Feel free to use it as is, or adapt it for your group's use. (I realize there are some formatting problems on this page - I am trying to fix! Please be patient! Thank you!)

Some folks (including the New York Civil Liberties Union) have suggested that an opt-IN policy would better serve students' and parents' interests. Although there are quite a few schools throughout the nation that are challenging the NCLB Act in various ways, the government has "cracked down" on California school districts that tried to go to opt-in.

You can read more about it at the Resource Center for Nonviolence's website: www.rcnv.org.