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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us April 2, 2005 Peace groups take on recruitment By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings A group of parents, students and community members from Jackson, Josephine and Klamath counties would like to see alternatives to military service get equal play in public schools, although recruiters are given the same access to students at Ashland High School as representatives from public, private and vocational schools, according to school administration. Sgt. 1st Class Konrad Wilson, station commander of the local U.S. Army Recruiting Station, right, gives Nick Vandendriesche, left, last instructions before letting him climb the rock wall today at the Jackson County Expo Center. Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings "We look at military recruiters as a type of post-high school plan," said Ashland High principal Jeff Schlecht, explaining he's pleased students have so many options to consider as they near graduation. However, a small faction of people in Southern Oregon are concerned that the presence of military recruiters in public schools pushes students to sign up, sometimes without understanding the realities of military life or their obligations. They would like access to hand-out antimilitarism brochures at public schools as well. Presenting youth with alternatives to enlisting in the military while downplaying the benefits of joining up is the crux of the materials, which are published and distributed by antimilitarism groups from California to Philadelphia. "Military recruiters are counting on the fact that there aren't a lot of jobs, that some people are poor," said Grady Boyd, a program assistant at Peace House who helped organize a community counter-military training. "The military is trying its utmost to make enlistment as sexy as possible." However, military recruiters in the area say they don't glamorize military life to increase the number of people joining the armed forces. Although they have goals for the number of people they sign up, recruiters in this area are not paid per-enlistee nor are they reprimanded for failing to reach a quota. "Our recruiters go in there and provide information to the students," Ken Herert, the public affairs officer for Navy recruiting in the Northwest. "We don't need to lie. The truth is, you know, we're there for the student. We provide what the students want and the students need. It's not about the law or anything; it's just another option." The No Child Left Behind legislation, passed in 2002, included a provision that requires public schools to provide military recruiters with student directory information, unless the student has signed an opt-out form. Military recruiters also arrange on-campus visits at schools. The length and frequency of those visits are negotiated individually with schools, according to Army recruiters in Medford. At Ashland High School, representatives from all branches of the military visit the counseling center about twice a semester "but are not allowed to actively recruit on campus," Schlecht said. In Ashland, recruiters also visit Southern Oregon University once a month, where they pay a fee to rent table space in the student union. "We'd go there every day if the school said we could go or if there's something we could do at the school," Herert said, explaining the recruiters will set up information tables during lunch or speak to classes. "We kind of shy away from anything where the recruiter goes in and becomes too friendly with the students. From school to school, it's totally determined more by the school than the recruiter." At other schools, military recruiters spend time chaperoning school events and, at Ashland High, they used to supervise students playing basketball in the gymnasium during class. That practice has since ended because people were concerned recruiters had too much contact with students. "Military recruiters enjoy unparalleled access in public schools," said Stuart O'Neill, one of the two Peace House program assistants who led a training in countering military recruitment in public schools that drew about 20 people on March 24. "Military recruiters are professional, paid salesmen." The two-hour counter-military-recruitment lesson and discussion focused on how the military reaches out to young people and illustrated differences between what enlistees are promised and what they experience. The final 30 minutes wrapped up with a brainstorming session on what people can do to offer alternatives to youth and decrease the military presence in public schools. Through the training, Peace House representatives hoped to draw in an army of volunteers to share alternatives to military service with area youth. "I'm not going to tell someone to not join the military," Boyd said, explaining she simply wants people to understand what they're signing up for and realize they have options such as apprenticeships, scholarships for college and job opportunities. Wendy Reordan, whose daughter is a sophomore at Hidden Valley High School, and other concerned parents in the Williams area began that reaching-out process in October. The group wanted to staff a table at the high school once a month that offers education and employment alternatives to military service along with anti-enlistment information. The parents made their first phone call to the school in fall, asking for the same access to students military recruiters received. On March 7, the group made its first appearance reaching out to students at the high school. During the five-month process to create a school policy for their tabling, the parents met with the Three Rivers School District superintendent and with the military recruiters who are assigned to the school. "When we first walked in, [the recruiters] were scared of us," Reordan said, explaining the two groups "became friends" by the end of the conversation. In the future, the parents' group and the military recruiters will each make separate visits to campus once a month. "[The school] created a space for us, but we had to work for it. We had to jump through the hoops." However, according to Schlecht, students in Ashland already have access to a balanced package of post-high school opportunities. Aside from times when representatives from the military, college, universities or vocational schools are showing special multimedia presentations, all groups are regulated to the counseling center. The center is located on the second floor of a building, meaning students must voluntarily seek information about the military or any other post-high school opportunity. "Kids elect to go there or not," Schlecht said. Peace House is working to establish similar arrangements at all area high schools. So far, the Peace House counter-military-recruitment project, which began about 18 months ago, has obtained access at Ashland, Crater and North Medford high schools, although the group currently only has informational materials in the schools. The group would like to see the project extended to all Jackson County high schools and, through the efforts parents have made north in Josephine County and the four parent and student representatives from Klamath County at the training, extend the counter-recruiting effort across Southern Oregon. "Just the presence of a counter-recruiting table at a school can have a significant effect on a military recruiter," O'Neill said. "We're just getting started in Jackson County." Peace House will hold a second countering military recruitment training on April 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Southern Oregon University. For more information, call 482-9625 or e-mail [email protected]. The group is planning a large counter-recruitment event in late summer. Staff writer Jennifer Squires can be reached at 482-3456 ext. 3019 or [email protected]. 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