Years of pressure finally get some results... CPS finally tweaks military recruiting policy
The Chicago Board of Education approved a more restrictive policy governing military recruitment in the schools at its monthly meeting on Wednesday January 23, 2008.
The CPS legal department was pushed to adopt the new rules because of ongoing protests by teachers, students and peace activist groups.
Representatives from these groups gave repeated testimony at Board meetings describing how military recruiters were granted unrestricted access to many area high schools without any oversight. Despite effectively lobbying for a policy change, many critics of excessive military access to the schools argued that the new policy was not restrictive enough.
Jeffery Frank attorney for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) said that in order to negotiate a fair recruiter policy with the Chicago Public Schools, they studied six other school districts, three small (including Seattle, San Francisco) and three large (Chicago, Los Angeles and New York).
According to Frank, the recruiter “policy of CPS is fairly conservative, not cutting edge not even mainstream with districts of equal size or even smaller sized districts. “This coalition against militarization of the schools believes that we should further limit the frequency of visits by military recruiters through restricting them to career fairs and career days, thereby putting them on equal footing with colleges and employers.”
In contrast to college and employment recruiters, Frank noted that “the military with its almost unlimited budget, is able to send full time employees as often as they want as often as they can, that’s not a fair playing field that’s an unequal playing filed giving the military superior rights, if they want equal rights that’s one thing.”
In New York City military recruiters are limited to career fairs and career days, in Seattle recruiters have access to students only twice per year, and San Francisco has no ROTC programs and limits recruiters to one visit a year.
Frank was one of several speakers at a press conference held before the January 23 Board of Education meeting.
The new policy culminates more than a year of organizing by individual teachers, students and student groups, and a growing coalition of anti-war organizations led by Iraq Veterans against War (IVAW), Vietnam Veterans against the War (VVAW), and the American Friends Service Committee, the Quaker service organization. For nearly four years, the Save Senn Coalition has been regularly addressing the Board about the expansion of the military high schools in Chicago.
Representatives of the groups have spoken out during the past years at Board of Education meetings, with an increasing focus on ending unlimited recruiter access to the schools and curtailing the expansion of military high schools and Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp (JROTC) programs in Chicago’s elementary and high schools. The Board of Education held public hearings on December 10, 2007, one of the few times it has held hearings on a proposed policy before the policy was finally sent to the Board. [By contrast, the new policy on school consolidations and closings was put on a Board agenda without any preliminary hearings.]
Although a growing number of teachers have been involved in the organizing, few have been able to participate in the Board of Education meetings, which are held during the school day.
One who has devoted years to the issue is Kelly High School teacher Bill Lamme.
“We continue to be disturbed by military recruiters’ access to high schools, specifically the lack of fixed limitations on the number of visits,” Bill Lamme told Substance. “Persistent recruiters can use repeated visits to wear down resistance and persuade the easily influenced. Recruiters should be limited to dispensing information and not be allowed repeated contact with the same students.”
Lamme also pointed out the fallacy of the Board’s argument that military recruiters are the same as college and professional recruiters. “Because of having greater financial resources, the Armed Forces can flood the schools with recruiters while other groups with post secondary information strain to visit Chicago’s 100 public high schools once a year. This imbalance of presence undermines the level playing field that other provisions of this recruitment policy appear to support,” Lamme said.
“Presence of military recruiters in Chicago Public Schools amounts to a tacit endorsement of recruiters and an acceptance of their methods. This is a betrayal of Chicago Public Schools’ obligation to act to protect students from unscrupulous adults while in their care. Armed Forces recruiters disseminate misleading materials containing half truths. They practice a conscious and calculated downplaying of the personal risks of military service. They avoid any discussion of the questionable role currently assigned the US military in world affairs.
“Military recruiters should be limited to one or two visits to a high school per year. A student considering military service would be better served to discuss their thoughts with a high school counselor who is trained to aid the student in making these decisions and who does not have something to gain from persuading the student in a certain direction. Counselors are equipped with the military recruitment brochures and can help the students read between the lines.”
Some highlights include of the new policy include:
— In no event may a Recruiter request a recruiting visit less than 48 hours prior to the date they wish to appear at school.
The principal shall determine the frequency of Recruiter visits, may identify a limit on the number of Recruiter visits per school year, and shall assign public locations for Recruiters to provide career information to students.
The principal or designee shall maintain a building usage schedule and a log to record the name of the Recruiter and the date and time the Recruiter visited the school.
A Recruiter must register with the school principal or designee immediately upon arrival
Recruiters shall not:
1. interfere with the educational process or create a nuisance that interferes with students’ peaceful enjoyment of school activities;
2. interact with students on school grounds or at school-sponsored events outside the area designated by the principal, and may provide materials only to those students who approach them to ask for information;
3. utilize or distribute interactive video games on school grounds;
4. require students to take predictive tests or career suitability assessments on school property;
5. sponsor drawings, lotteries or other chance activities, or provide gifts or prizes to students unless they are of nominal value not to exceed $5.00 (e.g. pens, pencils, key chains and water bottles);
6. move about the building unaccompanied by school staff;
7. engage in recruiting activities where students are not free to leave the Recruiter’s presence;
8. conduct recruiting activities at non-recruiting events such as health fairs and athletic contests; or
9. deviate from any other restriction imposed by the principal or OHSP.
B. Test Participation: No CPS employee or school shall require a student to participate in any examination of career suitability that is offered or administered by a Recruiter. All such participation shall be voluntary.
C. Recruiter Identification: When visiting a school building or attending a district-wide or area-wide recruiting event, agents of a Recruiter shall at all times display on their person the following:
1. the visitor or event badge/pass issued to the Recruiter by the school or event manager; and
2. the official identification badge issued by the Recruiter.
V. Violations
A. Any violation of this Policy shall be reported to the principal or OHSP.
B. Any employee who violates this Policy will be subject to discipline in accordance with the Employee Discipline and Due Process Policy.
C. If a principal finds that a Recruiter has violated this Policy, he or she shall deliver written notice of the violation to the Recruiter, explaining that additional violations may result in the Recruiter’s exclusion from the school. In the event of repeated violations of this policy, the Principal may exclude the Recruiter, or any individual agent thereof, for the remainder of the school year.
D. If the principal determines that a Recruiter is interfering with the educational process or creating a nuisance that interferes with students’ peaceful enjoyment of school activities, the principal may withdraw permission for the Recruiter to access school facilities and/or direct the Recruiter to leave the premises. After taking either action, the principal shall notify the Recruiter and OHSP, in writing, of the reason for the action.
This article originally appeared in the print edition of Substance for February 2008.
