June 14th, 2005 3:47 pm
Parents aim to shield teens from recruiters

By Shirley Dang / Contra Costa Times

As bombs continue to explode in the Middle East, and U.S. armed forces search for fresh recruits, one source of young servicemen and women has become increasingly difficult to tap.

Some high schools, emboldened by parents and legislators, are raising their own defenses against the military.

The Albany school board is expected to set restrictions for military recruiters this summer.

The Alameda County Board of Education recently considered a resolution urging parents to keep their children's information from military recruiters. And Castro Valley High School parents are fighting to put Quaker brochures next to Marines pamphlets in the career center.

Resistance to campus recruiting has cropped up around the nation, including in Seattle, where a parent-teacher group voted last month to ban the military from schools.

In the Bay Area, opposition is fueled by news of questionable recruitment tactics as well as anti-war sentiment.

"I don't want the kids I've taught to go to Iraq and get killed for a worthless war," said Albany High teacher David De Hart, organizer of a district committee to limit campus recruiting.

Not all parents or teachers share that view.

Kip Biagi, father of a Pinole Valley High School sophomore, said he sees no problem with boots and berets on school grounds if it means replenishing the nation's stock of defenders.

"You need soldiers," Biagi said. "What's going to happen if we run out? Then we'll be in big trouble."

The debate heated up four years ago. The federal No Child Left Behind Act passed by Congress in 2001 requires districts, at the risk of losing federal money, to provide student information to the military, unless parents opt out. Schools also must offer the military access to students equal to that given to corporate or university recruiters.

U.S. Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, is pushing a bill that would require school districts to keep student information from the military unless parents sign an authorization form.

The Berkeley school district already employs an opt-in form though it is not legally recognized, said spokesman Mark Coplan. The district years ago banned recruiters of all kinds, Coplan said, including those in uniform.

The West Contra Costa school board voted in 2002 to comply with federal guidelines to avoid losing federal dollars.

In Castro Valley, parents say that military recruiters are abusing their right on campus, straying from their allotted spot in the career center during Friday visits.

"They were out the other day signing yearbooks," said Sheryl Lipari, the mother of a Castro Valley High sophomore. "I don't think that most parents are aware."

After a recruiter approached Lipari's 16-year-old son, she asked to put her own pamphlets on campus, including one by the pacifist Quaker group American Friends Service Committee. The school refused, according to Sheila Jordan, superintendent of the Alameda County Board of Education.

Lipari and other like-minded parents then formed Support Truth in Recruitment, or STIR. The group stamped their fliers "banned at Castro Valley High School" and passed them out near school. Last week, they hit the local farmers market.

"I'm not necessarily against the military. I'm not really against recruiting," said STIR member Dave Siegel. "I want it to be fair."

Albany school board member Miriam Walden said her district will consider more stringent rules for visiting recruiters. Currently, recruiters may appear on career day and can also speak in classes.

"Maybe that's better because kids can ask questions," Walden said. "Or maybe the best way is to really restrict that kind of access."

Like STIR, one of the Albany committee's main gripes is that recruiters scrambling to meet quotas fail to touch on the harsher aspects of service while glorifying the perks, such as college tuition through the GI Bill.

"They don't talk about sexual harassment and death," Walden said.

An Army spokesman rejected the assertion that recruiters hide the hazards of military duty.

"We expect our recruiters to be as upfront and honest with the public as possible about what service in the Army entails, both the benefits and the risks," said spokesman Douglas Smith of the Army's recruiting command in Fort Knox, Ky.

Recruiting opponents point to recent incidents that call into question recruiter integrity.

In January, touring Army marksmen rattled College Park High School students and staff in Pleasant Hill by setting up a fake shooting range complete with gun replicas outfitted to simulate recoil.

In Ukiah, two Marine recruiters are accused of sexual misconduct with a high school student.

In Colorado, a high school journalism student working under cover accused recruiters in March of accepting his fake diploma and helping him hide drug use. This claim remains under investigation, Smith said.

"We take any allegation of recruiter impropriety very seriously," Smith said. "It's hurtful when we have people who violate ... our standards."

Ethical recruitment is vital to maintaining the ranks of well-trained soldiers, said Randall Allen of Hercules, the father of a 19-year-old Army infantryman.

"We have to have men who are willing to go out there and do that job," Allen said.

His son Shawn flew to boot camp right after graduating last June from Freedom High School in Oakley.

Parents must be involved in the decision, Allen said. He checked out his son's recruiter, scrutinized the contract and clarified its terms before allowing his son to join. He also talked to a friend who joined the Navy in his youth.

"He wound up scrubbing toilets for his entire career," Allen said. "I wanted to make sure that didn't happen to my son."