Rural Organizing Project
PO Box 1350,
Scappoose, OR 97056
(503) 543-8417
Fax: (503) 543-8419
office@rop.org |
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OPT-OUT BASICS
Looking around our communities these days when
school is starting, you can't help but notice the excitement buzzing
around returning students. The ROP office in small town Scappoose is
located next to the middle school and our afternoons are filled with the
sounds of football and soccer practice. Young folks, in their back to
school gear, are excited to see one another, compare summer notes, check
out what a difference three months has made in one another's lives.
After graduation that excitement can fade. Young adults in rural areas
are less able to secure a foothold in the economy. Among employed young
adults (age 18 to 24) only 24 percent of those in rural areas are
working full-time year-round. Very likely it is this lack of economic
opportunity that leads to the higher rate of enlistment of young adults
from rural America which in turn leads to the high death rate for
soldiers from rural areas. Rural areas have suffered 27 percent of US
casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, while making up only 19 percent of
the population (www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/documents/RuralDead_fact_revised.pdf).
Hundreds of thousands of young people are now returning from war to
these very communities without adequate healthcare, counseling or
vocational training.
Within the ROP community, youth and adult allies alike are working both
to end the war and support rural youth through truth in recruitment and
counter recruitment efforts. The easiest and most basic way to
reduce military recruitment of rural youth from your community is to
limit access of military recruiters to high schoolers. Through
Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, military recruiters are given access to
student contact information unless students or their parents exercise
their "opt out" option. The parent/student choice to “opt out”
prevents student information from being given automatically to military
recruiters. Every school provide opt out forms at registration.
The deadline for getting the opt out form turned in is the end of
September.
Take the time now to make sure that schools in your area are
providing opt out forms as well as ways to encourage parents and
students to exercise their opt out option. Here are a couple of
ways that ROP member groups are doing this around the state with more
details, examples, and resources below.
1. Research your school: Columbia County Citizens for Human
Dignity started by finding out whether or not each of the schools in the
county provided the opt out form as they are required by law to do.
They did a quick google search and found most of the schools had a form
on their webpage already. If your school has not developed an opt-out
procedure and form, you can try using the generic
form (en
español) available at
www.afsc.org/youthmil/militarism-in-schools/default.htm#opt. They
are following up with a letter to the district and the local papers
thanking the schools for being in compliance and encouraging students
and parents to opt out.
2. Meet with school administration: Corvallis Counter-recruitment
Committee visited Corvallis High School to meet the new principal and
shared a counter recruitment information with her. As CCC member
Aleita Hass-Holcombe writes, "We have been vigilant to make sure the
school district has these forms available to students. Until yesterday,
the district was providing the forms and information to only junior and
senior students and their parents. However, after making a significant
call to the Oregon Dept. of Education to verify that Susan Castillo's
memo from last year referring to "secondary students" was inclusive of
freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors, the district seems ready to
fix what we have been urging them to do...which is make sure all
secondary students (freshmen through seniors) be given the Opt Out
materials. Hopefully the freshmen and sophomores will be receiving this
material shortly!"
3. Inform the community through Letters to the Editor (sample LTE below):
Project Full Disclosure, an affinity group of Columbia River Fellowship
for Peace in Hood River, does training for students and parents
interested setting up a Conscientious Objector File, receiving
information about registering for the Draft (Selective Service), and the
Opt Out option. Below is a sample letter to the editor that explains
Opt Out and encourages parents and students to use it. Feel free to
edit this letter and send it to your local papers.
4. Connect directly with students: Making sure that the Opt Out
form is available is only the beginning. As ROP Board Member and college
student Jess Campbell of Cottage Grove writes, "Ask the School District
FOR the letter and have a conversation with them about making it
available to students. If they DON'T have a letter (which has been true
for a couple counties so far), they NEED one under law and it is the
perfect opportunity for the local group to actively shape what the form
will be like.
"Ideally, the process would be an Opt-In rather than an Opt-Out (the
Seattle area accomplished this a few years ago, Boston and NYC have
similar systems). If that can't happen, any situation where students are
given the power to decide what is done with their private information
(not just their parents) is the best compromise.
"Aaron and I just got done handing them out at registration. We had to
wrestle with the school administration before they released the forms
(claimed that the principal needed to "approve" it, even though it's a
district document). I think this is the best bet to get large numbers to
opt-out. Beyond handing them out at registration, having them available
in the main office, the counseling office, and people tabling to hand
them out at lunch all work well, too. It's doubly-awesome because it
could be the beginning of a CR group."
5. Maintain a presence in the school: CCC in Corvallis follows up to
their initial Opt Out work with visits to the school twice a month to be
available for students interested in having a balanced conversation
about joining the military. They schedule their visits in the same
space that is made available to visiting college recruiters and to the
military. As Aleita says, "We do not come at the same time ...we don't
want to set up anything that would appear confrontational. We are there
to provide a balance to what is in general an increased and aggressive
presence by the military in our country's public schools."
Reducing the money available to fight war is one powerful strategy for
ending the war. Reducing the already limited number of soldiers with
whose lifeblood this war is fought is an equally important way to end
the war. Thanks for staying strong and active in your work to end the
war at home and abroad.
Keep the ROP office informed of what you are
doing in your community! And for more materials, email
cara@rop.org.
Sample Letter to the Editor:
To the Editor:
It 1s back to school time and an important time for parents and
students to consider opting out from the school passing out their
private information to the Pentagon for Military recruitment. The school
should provide opt out forms at registration. The deadline for getting
the opt out form turned in is the end of September.
The “No Child Left Behind Act” passed into law in 2001 received
heavy criticism from educators across the political spectrum for its
requirement that schools introduce rigid standardized testing in order
to receive federal funds. At the time, few noticed the included
requirement forcing schools to “share” student information with military
recruiters. The parent/student choice to “opt out” prevents student
information from being given automatically to military recruiters.
The pressure for young people continues to increase with new
programs like the DREAM ACT (Development, Relief, and Education for
Alien Minors Act), which allows undocumented immigrants to receive
citizenship through military service. It would allow a person who was
younger than 16 when they come to the U.S., who has been here for five
years, graduated from high school, to be given citizenship if they serve
two years in the military. Also, a blatant poverty draft program called
“Quick Ship” offers a $20,000 bonus to any desperate recruit willing to
ship out within 30 days. Of course the soldier won’t be able to collect
the cash until they’ve reached their first permanent duty station, and
after they have advanced to individual training school. Then they
receive only half the money, the rest to be paid out in annual
installments over the lifetime of the soldier1s contract, however long
that will be. Buyers beware!
As was pointed out by an earlier writer, the soldiers being sacrificed
in Iraq and Afghanistan now were in middle school when this debacle
started. If the saber-rattling for Iran comes to fruition, will it be
children now in kindergarten who will fight in that war?
There are many ways to serve one’s community, country without being
put into harm’s way, without sacrificing one’s morality, life, limb, and
family.
Let’s really support our youth (and our troops), not sacrifice them
to the political whims, be they a Democrat or Republican. OPT OUT!
Linda Short
Project Full Disclosure
Hood River |