Parents, Students: Tell Recruiters NO on Oct. 26th

If you have a child in a public high school, this Thursday’s parent teacher meeting may provide you with an opportunity to protect your child and send a clear message to those who fight illegal and unpopular wars with children that are not their own.

After three years, three hundred billion dollars and nearly three thousand U.S. soldiers killed, there’s still no end in site to the war in Iraq. Osama bin Laden still hasn’t been found and the situation in the Middle East is getting worse by the day.

Yet, every single day, during the busy afternoon rush especially, commuters can witness the shameful spectacle of grown men in uniform preying on young, impressionable youth returning home from public high schools across the city.

These men, although they sometimes use women as well, are military recruiters and there is no honor in the trickery, lies and deception that they use to try and scam our young people into signing up for military service.

These vultures are trained to make all kinds of promises for signing away their lives: thousands of dollars in bonuses, a college education, and a chance to travel the world. They use hip hop lingo, go around in pimped out Hummers and play rap or popular music supportive of war and military culture.

One important fact they fail to mention however, is how Bush and his administration has repeatedly lied to the American people and the international community in order to invade and start a war with a country that did not have weapons of mass destruction or ties to bin Laden.
On top of the U.S. military casualties, recruiters also fail to mention that over 600,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the start of the U.S. invasion. Gunfire and bombs caused the majority of these deaths but thousands of people have died from worsening health and environmental conditions directly related to the conflict.

Recruiters avoid telling our children that after they sign on the dotted line, they may face the same fate or be injured and later ignored back in the U.S. if they survive.
These same recruiters have instant access to private information about your child thanks to a clause in Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act.”

However, the Act also states that “a secondary school student or the parent of the student may request that the student’s name, address and telephone number ... not be released without prior written parental consent.” And it requires that parents be informed of this option.
On Thursday evening, October 26, all the New York City high schools will have parent/teacher conferences. There are many parents who are not aware that their child’s name will be turned over to the military unless they fill out an “opt out” form.

Several organizations, including United for Peace and Justice and the YaYa Network, are sponsoring a coordinated day of action at many high schools, prioritizing schools with the most recruiter activity, mostly those with low income students, students of color and students from immigrant families.