Educators offer way to avoid recruiters

Local school districts are distributing forms that allow parents to prevent personal information about their teenage children from being released to military recruiters.

An obscure provision in the federal No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to turn over the names, addresses and phone numbers of all juniors and seniors to recruiters or risk losing funding. The same information can't be released to universities, potential employers or retailers, all of which also try to attract high school students.

While local military recruiters say most Cape Girardeau-area schools have been compliant, some parents and students feel releasing that information is an infringement on their privacy.

"There are some schools that are resistant to giving that information out because they say they want to protect the privacy of students," said Capt. Jason Brown, executive officer of the Marine Corps recruiting offices in St. Louis. He declined to name the schools.

Pentagon officials say the provision is a reaction to an anti-military attitude demonstrated by schools across the country. Officials claim military recruiters were denied access to schools on 19,228 occasions in 1999 and say the new provision could hold down the rising cost of recruitment.

Cheryl Fortner, who has two sons enrolled in Jackson High School, said the new tactics aren't necessary.

"Recruiters have enough access without getting information from schools about kids who haven't expressed an interest in joining the military," she said.

Local school officials echo the same sentiment about the provision, but say there is an opt-out form that parents may complete to prevent information from being released.

Central, Jackson and Scott City high school officials all said they regularly grant recruiters access to their schools, either on career days or by appointment with specific students.

"The way they've recruited in the past was adequate," said Vince Powell, assistant principal at Jackson High School. "They came to the school, and if students wanted personal information given out, they had to sign a release."

Seventeen-year-old Corey Thompson of Jackson, who recently joined the Army National Guard, said teens interested in joining the military will contact recruiters on their own.

"If I wasn't going to be in the military, I wouldn't want to be hounded all the time," Thompson said.

Other students say they don't think such basic information as name, address and phone number is worth losing funding over.

"So, basically, they're just opening up a phone book," said 18-year-old Melissa Shinn of Jackson. "It's not that big of a deal."

Letter to parents

Dr. Mike Cowan, principal of Central High School in Cape Girardeau, said a newsletter will be sent to parents in February explaining the new law and asking them to sign an opt-out form if they don't want information about a son or daughter released.

Scott City High School principal Fred Graham said his school is currently developing an opt-out form to send home with students, and he's had several parents request that the school not give out information.

"Some military recruiters are really bugging students. It seems to be quite a problem," Graham said. "But we will do what we have to do."

Jackson school officials said they sent home opt-out forms at the beginning of this school year.

The No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law by President Bush in January of 2001, impacts public education on numerous levels -- everything from standardized testing to special education requirements.

While NCLB was signed more than a year ago, Capt. Brown said some schools are just now learning about the new requirement, and some aren't giving students the choice of signing an opt-out form before turning the personal information over to recruiters.

Men are already required through federal law to register with the Selective Service within 30 days of turning 18, but the NCLB provision allows the military to reach potential male or female recruits when they are 15 or 16.

"The new law is definitely a help to us," said Sgt. Raymond Bugg with the Army recruiting office in Cape Girardeau. "A lot of times, young men and women are too scared to take that initial step of talking to a recruiter, so the benefits of joining the military are passed up."

But to students who receive letter after letter, and phone calls during dinner several times a week, the new law is simply a hassle.

Fortner said her sons, a junior and a senior, usually receive more than 10 letters a month from recruiters. "We get lots and lots of mail. I think my boys are to the point where they don't even open the letters anymore, they just throw them away."

cclark@semissourian.com

335-6611, ext. 128