Counter-recruitment

February 07, 2026 / NNOMY staff / National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth - In the early 2000s, when Portland Public Schools briefly stood as a national symbol of resistance to military recruitment, the political terrain was almost unrecognizable compared to what counter‑recruiters face in 2026. Back then, the struggle centered on a school board’s authority to keep recruiters out of hallways and cafeterias, and activists found solid footing in the discriminatory logic of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The military’s exclusion of LGBTQ+ people gave school districts a clear legal and moral basis to say: if you discriminate, you don’t get access to our students. It was a time when local policy still had teeth, when a determined school board could draw a line and expect it to hold, and when recruiters relied almost entirely on physical presence to reach young people.