But YOU as a parent can opt-out, that is -- remove your child's name & telephone number, address, so the military recruiters do not have direct access to your child.Even your child's cell phone #
Its all for the military at your child's school records.
When your child lists his/her cell number for school records-
the military gets it too.
SO, EVEN If your child has already been contacted, and your child turned down the recruiters, the recruiters will continue to try to get your child to sign up months & years later. SO opt-out anyway.
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http://www.sunspot.net/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.recruiting29sep29,0,3322006.story Covertly recruiting kids
By David Goodman
Originally published September 29, 2003
A WEEK before school started this year, I noticed a small advertisement in my local newspaper. It was from my school district, and buried in the ad's fine print was an announcement that the local high school would be sending the names and phone numbers for all juniors and seniors to U.S. military recruiters.
This is more than a back-door assault on student privacy. It may have life-or-death consequences for unwitting kids who are contacted by recruiters.
This student information give-away was mandated in a little-known provision of the No Child Left Behind Act, President Bush's sweeping education law. The law went into effect in 2002, but many schools only became aware of the obscure military recruiting provision in the last year. Schools risk losing all federal aid if they fail to provide military recruiters full access to their students; the aid is contingent on complying with federal law.
This recruiting access provision is different from draft registration. Military conscription ended in 1973, but starting in 1980, 18-year-old males have been required to register for possible military call-up.
What does military recruiting have to do with education? Nothing. But it has everything to do with eliminating a community's ability to decide how it guards student privacy.
The military recruiting requirement has forced many schools to overturn longstanding policies on protecting student records from prying eyes. My local high school, like most in the country, carefully guards its student directory information from the countless organizations, businesses and special-interest groups that are itching to tempt impressionable teens.
No other parent who I asked noticed my school's ad. That's just what the Bush administration wants. This provision relies on stealth. If students and parents are alerted that military recruiters will come knocking, they might be tempted to take advantage of the law's opt-out clause: parents can notify the school in writing to withhold their child's name from recruiters.
Schools are given wide leeway in how they inform parents and students about this provision. In Bennington, Vt., the high school principal sent home a letter explaining the new military recruitment provision and included a simple opt-out check-off for parents and students to sign and return. The result: One-sixth of the student body opted out
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