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: Danielle Corcione; 02 March 2019; 02 March 2019; Hits: 698

The Military Targets Youth for Recruitment, Especially at Poor Schools

“As students were coming out of classrooms, [recruiters] would be by the door waiting for them."

Danielle Corcione - Teen Vogue

A Joint JROTC Honor Guard prepares to post the colors Since its inception, the United States military has recruited teenagers to enlist. During the Revolutionary War, when the military was formally established, young men were encouraged to fight for their country voluntarily. During the Civil War, conscription — essentially mandatory military enrollment for men of a certain age — was implemented, initially targeting men age 21 to 30. The draft was later expanded to include men as young as 18, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, and continued over centuries as a way to maintain a base of military servicepeople. In a statement to Teen Vogue, Lisa M. Ferguson, media relations chief for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, said, “The Army seeks qualified individuals 17 [to] 34 years old.”

Since the draft ended in 1973, the military has relied on an all-volunteer service and has targeted young people, using strategies that include placing recruiters in schools. This is allowed because the No Child Left Behind Act, signed by President George W. Bush in 2002, requires military recruiters be granted the same access in schools as college recruiters.

The military markets to teenagers, particularly those in poorer school districts, because the armed services need a large population, and the sooner young people join, the more likely they are to stay and build a career. (According to the government, “184,000 personnel must be recruited into the Armed Forces each year to replace those who complete their commitment or retire.”) Modern-day recruiters sell the idea of an experience that often resonates more with poorer students because, for many, service with an honorable discharge can mean a free ride to college, or potentially a path to citizenship. (Only the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Dept. can grant citizenship, but the military can only accelerate the process. If a person doesn't qualify for citizenship, they would still have to complete their service years in the military.)

Report from the National Counter-recruitment and School Demilitarization Strategy Summit

Rick Jahnkow - The Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft

During the weekend of June 23-24, 2018, a group of 28 activists gathered in Chicago to share the knowledge and lessons they have learned from organizing to counter the militarization of schools and military recruitment of young people. They came from various regions of the U.S. and met at the Cenacle Retreat and Conference Center.

Sponsored by the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (www.nnomy.org), the gathering provided an opportunity for organizers to assess the context for their work under the Trump/Pence administration, identify individual and collective challenges they face, and evaluate possible strategies and best practices for increasing their impact.

JROTC Shooting Ranges Removed from Two Schools

Marshall Blesofsky - From Draft NOtices, January-March 2019

On February 14, 2018, the unthinkable but all-too-common happened. A mass shooting occurred at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Rumors about the identity of the shooter were that he was a former student who had been in JROTC. One week later, on Democracy Now, Amy Goodman's guest was Pat Elder, the director of the National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy. This organization works to counter the access that the military has to students in high schools. Mr. Elder went on to state that the shooter was trained in the marksmanship program at the same high school. On the day of the murders, the shooter wore his JROTC shirt. Also, among the killed were three JROTC students.

Long Beach Recruitment Awareness Project (LB RAP) is an organization that has been working to safeguard the privacy of students through what we call truth-in-recruitment. Military recruiters in our school district can visit the schools almost any time they wish. They collect student contact information and use it to pursue them. We have documented cases of students who have been hounded by recruiters without their parents' consent and lured by false promises to join the military.