NY civil liberties group tackles Army recruiters

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N22566920.htm

NEW YORK, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The New York Civil Liberties Union launched a campaign on Thursday to help high school students remove their names from lists given to the U.S. military in an effort aimed at ending what the group called aggressive and abusive tactics to recruit for the Iraq war.

The civil rights group said it will hand out leaflets titled "No Student Left Unrecruited?" outside schools. The leaflets list students' rights on military recruitment and include a form students can submit to their schools to remove their contact information from lists sent to the military.

Military recruiters have solicited students in lunchrooms and phoned them at home to take advantage of a provision in the "No Child Left Behind" law, which gives the military access to student information, the NYCLU said. The law requires schools receiving federal funds to give student contact lists to the military and gives recruiters access to campuses.

The campaign comes amid growing concern nationwide among civil rights groups over military recruiting tactics as the military struggles to fill its ranks for the war in Iraq, where over 1,900 U.S. soldiers have already been killed.

[Missy M]

1. Thank you NY Civil Liberties Union - recruiting young people just...

starting out in life to fight in a distant war, that never should have been, is criminal in my opinion.

[Ian David]

2. Here's More

About the Project

The NYCLU's military recruitment project seeks to give students, families, educators, and advocates the tools to defend students' rights against abusive military recruiting in schools.

Why is this necessary? The military has launched an aggressive campaign to recruit students to fill the ranks of the armed services. Lawmakers have made this possible by passing two laws that give recruiters information about young people and allow recruiters into schools. And since those laws have gone into effect, many educators, students and parents have complained that recruiters are using heavy-handed tactics to harass students, violate students’ privacy rights, and target poor students and students of color.

But students and parents DO have the right to limit the information the military has about them. Schools MUST inform students and parents of their right to withhold their information from recruiters.

This site is intended to provide resources for students, parents and teachers to ensure that their schools have an established and user-friendly system for allowing students to opt out of having their information handed over to the military. It also provides information on the laws, students' privacy rights, recruiter tactics, and ways that students can go beyond opting out to protect their rights.


http://www.milrec.nyclu.org/


On edit: It looks like this is where you can download the flier in .PDF format...
http://milrec.nyclu.org/1a.html

Front:
http://milrec.nyclu.org/bustcardfront.pdf

Back:
http://milrec.nyclu.org/bustcardback.pdf