Tommy Franks polluted the Logan Street Elem. School

[donsu]

in his quest for bodies.

http://counterpunch.org/salasin08252005.html

Tommy Franks Invades Logan Street Elementary School
The Militarization of Our Children


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On April 19, 2005 Tommy Franks visited Logan Street Elementary school in Los Angeles to do what was billed as a "motivational presentation" for the school's students. The "non-profit, pro-military" organization that sponsored Franks' secret (without family consent or knowledge) presentation to the school's fifth graders was actually U.S. Trust, a private investment firm with $102 billion dollars in assets. Logan Street school is 89% Latino, and 93% of the students receive free or reduced lunch. This is exactly the population that is heavily targeted by NCLB-related recruitment efforts. I suppose that US Trust and Franks were there to encourage the students to be all they can be?

We don't know what actually went on during Franks' performance/presentation for the fifth grade students, because apparently the video of the event has been destroyed by the school district. However, one parent speculated: "Rumor is that he took pictures with our community youth to be used in a future run for office bid on the republican ticket."

Or, perhaps, Franks was priming these ten year old students for the military programs that they may soon encounter in their middle schools: Middle School Cadet Corps, or Junior Officer Reserves Training Corps.

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So there you have it --affluent schools get art and music. Schools lower on the socio-economic ladder get military training (and top-secret visits from Tommy Franks). Countering the overt and more insidious recruitment tactics sanctioned by NCLB is certainly necessary. However, as both educators and humans, we must also be honest and upfront about ways in which our structures of schooling, and the system's unmarked (default) language of control, also contribute to our militarized culture.
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may Tommy Franks suffer continous boils