CR Activist Reports

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Marcy Winograd's Santa Barbara Report Goes to Job Fair

Marcy Winograd of Codepink interviews protesting UCSB students, Kate Connell of Truth in Recruitment , and Michael Cervantes of Ventura Veterans for Peace regarding protest on Thursday October 17, 2024 at a Military Industry Job Fair on campus. The following text is a transcription from the radio interview conducted by Marcy Winograd.

To listen to audio program, go to KPFK Archive, Type in Search "Rebel Alliance News" and click "play" for Friday, October 18, 2024 6:00 pm It Starts at: 31 minutes


KPFK's Rebel Alliance News: Military contractors Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon were not on hand Thursday at the career fair at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Perhaps they got the message, war profiteers are not welcome on campus. But four other lower-profile weapons contractors did show up, and KPFK's Marcy Winograd reports on the protests outside the UCSB career fair.

As students, many of them dressed professionally. Suits, ties, dresses, heels, waited in line to enter the UCSB career fair. Protesters handed them a flyer. UCSB career fair survival guide. We know you want a killer job, but do you want a job that kills?

Protesting UCSB students chanting: America where's the moral (undecipherable). Over your weapons of mass destruction.

Students chanting outside the career fair. Inside, weapons and surveillance contractors tried to recruit students. The list of military contractors included two with local offices within a few miles from campus.

Teledyne Flir, supplier of armed drones to Israel, surveillance systems to Border Patrol. Toyon Research, seller of A.I. technologies for electronic warfare. Also on hand were Redwire Space, recipient of almost a billion dollars in Department of Defense funding to "modernize decision-making processes for combat operations." And ITT Inc., supplier of parts for Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jets bombing Gaza.

Marcy Winograd: So you are one of the organizers of this protest at the UCSB career fair. Why are you here?

Student activist: We're here because several military contractors, as well as the military itself, is actively recruiting on our campus, actively recruiting the next generation to fight for American imperialism and greed and colonization abroad and we can't stand for it.

Marcy Winograd: What kind of reaction are you getting?

Student activist: It's been relatively quiet from the student side, those who are going into the building, where these companies are recruiting. But we are heartened to see community members here, faculty, grad students, undergrads coming together to put on a display so far. And then we're going to get started with the speeches and hopefully make some noise.

Marcy Winograd: When you think about it, the university inviting a company like Teledyne Flir, which provides Israel with armed drones and weapons for its genocide in Gaza.
It takes a lot of nerve, right? So bold in the face of this genocide to elevate a company like that. Your thoughts.

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SD Concilio regarding SDUSD JROTC enrollment

Below is the latest in our struggle with the San Diego school district over JROTC enrollment.  Basically, we were double crossed by district staff after we negotiated an agreement to make changes in the JROTC enrollment consent form. We don't know for certain, but I strongly suspect it was the JROTC program manager who was calling the shots and vetoed the changes that would have presented negative facts about the program. This is the consequence of allowing military programs in schools. - Project YANO


 

San Diego Chicano/Latino Concilio on Higher Education

San Diego, California

 

VIA EMAIL

 

May 24, 2024

 

TO: Board of Education, San Diego Unified School District

 

 

Concilio San DiegoThis correspondence reflects the analysis and advocacy of the San Diego Chicano/Latino Concilio on Higher Education that challenge the U.S. military's effort to maintain JROTC programs through the enrollment of working-class Chicano/Latino students. We are expressing our great disappointment in the San Diego Unified Schools' decision to support such enrollment, a practice that clearly undermines our community's efforts to increase college attendance and success among local Chicano/Latino students. We have attempted to work with the district to resolve this issue, but the district's recent actions have undermined our collaboration.

On May 10, 2023, our SD Concilio and other representatives of a broader, concerned coalition met with SDUSD board member Richard Barrera and the superintendent's chief of staff, Enrique Ruacho. Also present were Jennifer Roberson and one other administrative staff member. We discussed evidence that the San Diego Unified School district was "auto-enrolling" students into JROTC courses, often at schools with a significant enrollment of Chicano students. Such auto-enrollment of students in JROTC is a violation of the State of California's Education Code, Section 51750. At the meeting, there was a consensus among all present that auto-enrolling students in JROTC does indeed violate the state's education code.

 

We also had an extensive discussion of what constitutes student and parent "consent" that enables students to enroll in JROTC. It was and remains our contention that district schools currently utilize an enrollment permission form that does not constitute authentic, fully informed consent for students and parents.

 

On August 29, 2023, the SDCS Board of Education approved a resolution that included the following language (emphasis added):

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the fully informed consent of the student and the student's legal guardian shall be obtained via a signed consent form that is submitted to the high school before the student is enrolled in JROTC; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that any form used to obtain such consent shall acknowledge that the program is a voluntary, non-academic elective that cannot be required, and provide a method for the student and legal guardian to indicate whether or not JROTC is being chosen in place of regular physical education; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that any such consent form shall identify JROTC as a leadership program designed by the military and conducted by retired military officers, and present a complete and accurate description of the program's special requirements and expectations that are imposed on students, including the scope of voluntary activities and time commitments that may fall outside regular school hours.

After the board resolution was adopted, we became aware that the consent form that was used for the 2023-2024 school year was not consistent with the sections of the resolution quoted above, especially the highlighted elements. On January 2, 2024, we sent the board a letter requesting major revisions in the enrollment form as soon as possible, and we asked to be allowed to participate in that process. Instead of being invited to discuss what would be included in the next version of the consent form, we were notified on January 18 that it had already been revised by district staff and that it would be sent to schools for 2024-2025 enrollments. When we reviewed the revised form, we saw that it did not fully reflect the spirit or letter of the board's JROTC enrollment resolution.

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What I Discovered in the JROTC Curriculum

July-September 2022 / Lauren Reyna Morales / Draft NOtices - In the summer of 2020, I was recruited by the non-profit Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities (Project YANO) to review core textbooks used by the U.S. military in the high school Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) program. Project YANO organized a team of 15 reviewers that consisted of individuals with backgrounds in either classroom teaching or education activism, or with special knowledge of subjects that JROTC claims to address in its curriculum (e.g., U.S. and world history, geography, leadership methods, etc.).

In total, eleven Army, Navy, and Marine Corps JROTC texts were reviewed. The reviewers included current and retired teachers, military veterans, and several educators with post baccalaureate credentials. I myself have been a classroom teacher for five years. I’m credentialed to teach English and Social Sciences in the state of California, and I also earned an M.A. in education from the University of Colorado, Denver. I personally reviewed an Army JROTC textbook titled, Leadership Education and Training (LET 3). I was eager to investigate the kind of curriculum JROTC utilizes to influence over 550,000 students at approximately 3,400 high schools. What, I wondered, is the U.S. military teaching to youth in their places of learning?

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