No Child Left Unrecruited?
Is your or your child's personal information being released to the recruiting
office of US military without your knowledge or consent in violation of your
right to privacy? You may be aware that under a newly enacted provision of
the No Child Left Behind Act, high schools across the nation must
provide the Defense Department a directory with the name, address and telephone
of all juniors and seniors or risk losing federal funding. Prior to this
provision, one-third of the nation's high schools refused recruiters' requests
for students' names or access to campus because they believed it was inappropriate.
Now all high schools must aid the Pentagon in targeting minors to coerce
them into entering a dangerous and violent profession.
Here at the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, we are
actively encouraging high school students, their parents and teachers to
educate their colleagues about these new policies and to distribute form
letters to enable parents and students to opt out of recruitment process.
Given our collective commitment in various areas to young people and peacemaking
through active nonviolence, we thought you would be interested in participating
in the campaign, possibly by: distributing information about the campaign
to your members and supporters, utilizing your contacts within local, regional
or national student and educational agencies or organizations, or actively
organizing in your local schools and communities.
More information on this campaign including downloadable form letters to
principals, selected text from the relevant legislation, a fact sheet on
the recruitment policies and other organizing tools are available through
Waging Peace’s wonderful web site (to which we are grateful for the
information in this flyer). Visit them at: http://www.wagingpeace.org/new/getinvolved/index.htm.
Take Immediate Action -- Write to your school's administration and
request that you or your child’s information not be released for military
recruitment purposes. Here are sample letters for parents and students.
Parent Letter
Dear Administrator of __________ High School:
I, _____, am writing on behalf of my child ________ to request that you do
not make my childís name, address or telephone listing available for
military recruitment purposes as is provided for under Paragraph 2, Subsection
(a) of Section 9528 of Public Law 107-110. I look forward to your prompt
response to this letter.
Sincerely, (Sign with signature, your name typed or printed, and the date)
Student Letter
Dear Administrator of __________ High School:
I, _____, am writing to request that you do not make my name, address or
telephone listing available for military recruitment purposes as is provided
for under Paragraph 2, Subsection (a) of Section 9528 of Public Law 107-110. I
look forward to your prompt response to this letter.
Sincerely, (Sign with signature, your name typed or printed, and the date)
For more info, visit http://create.ucsb.edu/COS
or call (805) 696-6986.