The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY)

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March 1, 2006 / Sonia Nettnin / Media Monitors Network - The militarization of America’s youth is the U.S. military’s strategic device for recruitment into the armed forces.

Through authorization by the Supreme Court the military engages youth in middle schools and high schools through the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC). A spokesperson for the Committee Against the Militarization of Youth (CAMY) reports that the Middle School Cadet Corps program proliferates a culture of militarization because it “…indoctrinates boys and girls (ages 11 –” 14) to use rifles and play video games.” As a result, the program is a discipline of teaching kids violence.

When youth learn about militarism through systematic instruction, then military principles mold their attitudes and thoughts about the armed forces. They become inspired to enlist after high school gradation. Therefore the program influences their decision to sign up for military service.

According to the American Friends Service Committee, 45 per cent of graduates from the cadet program join some branch of military service. However, the number of youth participating in the counter-recruitment movement is growing. Youth have integral, leadership roles in these social organizations. Through public forums and informational events youth talk with youth about how the military recruits them — especially in minority communities (African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latino-Americans, Native-Americans, women, etc.). Young women and men share their beliefs about the military and their experiences with recruitment in schools.

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Nov. 6, 2005 / Kate Stone Lombardi / New York Times / Yonkers - CAPT. CHE AROSEMENA oversees Army recruiting for 92 public high schools in Westchester and the Bronx. The 2001 No Child Left Behind Act guarantees him and his staff entry to public schools, which would risk losing their federal financing if they barred recruiters. But accomplishing his mission has serious challenges nonetheless.

"It's tough," Captain Arosemena said, adding: "If the school really doesn't want us to have access, they will have unique ways for us not to talk to students. If it doesn't fit into their schedule, suddenly half the year has gone by and you haven't had an assembly."

Yet the captain knows that if he must cede recruiting ground in Westchester's resistant districts -- like Scarsdale and Armonk, with their affluent college-oriented students -- he can make up for it elsewhere.

"We have the most success in schools that have low college placement and low graduation rates," he said. "That's just a fact." He pointed out that students from schools in this category -- typically, in places like Yonkers and Mount Vernon -- rarely go on to take advantage of the Army's college funds anyway.

"College wasn't in their plans," he said. "They just want a good-paying job with upward mobility, and that's what the Army offers them."

No Child Left Behind also requires schools to turn over students' home phone numbers and addresses to the military unless a parent has notified the district not to in writing. And here, too, socioeconomics seems to play a role in determining which parents respond.

John Klemme, principal of Scarsdale High, says that each year 80 to 90 percent of its parents exercise their right to "opt out" -- in other words, they demand to have personal information about their children kept from the military. In contrast, at Mount Vernon High, only 2 percent of parents wrote such letters last year, said Dr. Arnold Jaeger, the assistant superintendent of the Mount Vernon school district.