My Turn: Reading, writing, and recruiting

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http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060925/OPINION/60925022/1006

My Turn: Reading, writing, and recruiting

Published: Monday, September 25, 2006
By David Goodman

MY DAUGHTER started high school last week. This milestone was marked by the arrival in our home of a ream of paperwork. Along with the usual bureaucratic permissions, I found tucked into this package a seemingly innocuous form that carries extraordinary consequences: failing to fill it out might result in my daughter being harassed, assaulted, or being fast-tracked to fight in Iraq.

This form asks us whether we want to opt-out of having our daughter’s contact information sent to the U.S. military. If we overlooked this form, or did not opt-out , our high school is required to forward her information to military recruiters. This is thanks to a stealth provision of the No Child Left Behind law. It turns out that President Bush’s supposed signature education law also happens to be the most aggressive military recruitment tool enacted since the draft ended in 1973.

The military recruiting requirement of No Child Left Behind law has forced many schools to overturn longstanding policies on protecting student records from prying eyes. My local high school, like most in the country, care fully guards its student directory information from the countless organizations, businesses, and special-interest groups that are itching to tempt impressionable teens. Now, parents and schools are being shoved aside, and the military is being given carte blanche access to our children.

Not surprisingly, abuse has followed closely behind.Last month, an Associated Press investigation revealed that “more than 100 young women who expressed interest in joining the military in the past year were preyed upon sexually by their recruiters. Women were raped on recruiting office couches, assaulted in government cars, and groped en route to entrance exams. . . . One out of 200 frontline recruiters — the ones who deal directly with young people — was disciplined for sexual misconduct last year.“Take the case of Indiana National Guard Sergeant Eric P. Vetesy, who is accused of sexually assaulting six female high school recruits in 2002 and 2003. According to the Indianapolis Star, Vetesy “picked out teens and young women with backgrounds that made them vulnerable to authority. As a military recruiter, he had access to personal information, making the quest easier.“


The rest is informative and worth reading