NEWS: Ending "No Child Left Unharassed By Recruiters"

POLITICS: Ending "No Child Left Unharassed By Recruiters"

Not to toot my own horn, but in the mid-90s I graduated from a semi-private high school with exceptionally high test scores across the board. Upon my graduation, I immediately began receiving recruitment letters and pamphlets and was harrassed weekly on my home phone by an Air Force recruiter -- one of the same recruiters who'd stood behind a desk in the lounge area of my public high school for a few days a month all year. After politely refusing attention from the military for a month and a half, I finally said "Sir, you're calling the wrong person. I have terrible vision and asthma, have no interest in physical fitness, and very well might be a Communist and a lesbian. Please stop calling me." Okay, so I was lying about most of that, but hey, I never heard from the man again.

Since 2002, the Bush Administration's "No Child Left Behind" Act ensures that all children across the US will be harassed in a similar fashion by requiring high schools to turn over students' information and personal details to the military for recruitment purposes, even if the student in question is a minor. Parents are getting upset, and most importantly, they're getting involved.

If you're the parent of a school-aged child or if you're still in school and over the age of 18, you can sign an opt-out form to keep these personal details out of the military recruiter's hands. If you're not a parent of a child who would be affected by this policy, but still oppose the practice, you can become a citizen-co-sponsor of the Student Privacy Protection Act or get information on informing and working with your local school board.

When i have a child he/she is going into the army at age 5 so i don't have to feed, clothe, or worry about him/her. I would hold out until they gave me a free coffee mug or something for my kid though.

One time 2 recruiters were staring me down and talking to me as I was merchandising a display at the hardware store, and they kept asking me questions. I kept getting nervous having them watching me work, and they could tell. I really hated recruiters too, and I didn't want to tell them to fuck off because mt coworker was going into the air force after graduating, and one of them was his recruiter, but one of them said "this is a nerve racking task hanging all this stuff up, getting it straight, huh" And I said, "Not so much, but its also nerve racking having 2 rectuiters asking you a bunch of questions while you are doing it." The other recruiter jumps in and says in some asshole smart ass tone of voice, "I can see you've got a looong way to go", in a way that I could tell he was referring to my personal moral character or something. Damn recruiters.

yeah they used to call me too. one time in their call they mentioned a kid from my school that was signed up and they're talking about what a good leader he is and i go, "nobody likes him" in my best butthead voice, and the guy's like, "but he's really smart and gonna get a good job", so i say, "you don't matter" in my 2nd best butthead voice, then he's like "don't you want to matter?" and i said, "sorry, i'm not your man"

Maybe this is something new or they are just more aggressive in other areas but I never had this problem. They would all come to our high school once a year and setup a little booth like they have at conventions. We would have classes for half a day and then get released to walk around and talk to the recruiters. That was it, I never got a single call or visit.

That's despicable.

But, you know... par for the course. Thanks for pointing this out, Shalome

The military recruiters didn't have quite so much access to my school in the mid-eighties.

Upon running into some black classmates at a bar back home a few years ago I discovered that the guidance counselor had really stressed the military towards them, while with white kids like me he pushed college (and I was really an AWFUL student). The odd thing was that this was a very mixed-race inner-city magnet school where you'd assume the black kids there were more likely than most to be college-bound.

My friend and bandmate in a band I was in in college had been getting badgered by a recruiter he'd been foolish enough to give some info to during his Junior year in High School. He finally got rid of the guy by telling him "I'm a Shiite Muslim, it's against my religion to join the U.S. military." Keep in mind this was only about two or three years after the Marines had to flee Beiruit.

I made the mistake of telling a recruiter my ACT scores and the fucker keeps trying to recruit me to this day!

so, this one time a recruiter called me at 8 in the morning and said 'hi im sgt so and so how'd you like to join the army' i asked him if i could see him tomorrow at lunch and that was the first and last time a recruiter ever called me (i was in basic within 15 days) see you just have to know how to deal with these guys

I don't remember what I said to get the Marines to leave me alone. It wasn't 'I'm gay', but it was pretty close. Maybe 'I have ADD, I don't agree with the current administrations utilization of the military, I despise being told what to do, I'm lazy, I'm six three so I'll be too big for your equipment, and I don't want to join the Marines, Army, or anyone else, so stop calling.'

you know, some recruiters give the military a bad name. sometimes, it's the only face of a particular service people see, and it does get irritating.

in fairness tho, if my recruiter hadn't called me, i would have never known really there was an Air Force. (my ignorant idea of the military consisted of the Marine Corps and the Army, both of which were definitely not for me). Here I am, 6 years later and on the best assignment yet.

It's a love/hate situation with the military i guess.

It was called the ASVAB when I was in high school, the Armed Service Vocational Aptitude Battery, and I took the test ( I can't remember why) and scored in the 95% percentile. I had recruiters calling me too, day and night (this was during the first Gulf War) and the only time they stopped was when I asked them if the rules had changed, and they let homosexuals like me serve. That got my number off their list in one call, as opposed to the 30-40 times I told them I just wasn't interested in joining.

[Edited on Sep 04, 2005 11:59PM]

When I was home over Easter, a Marine came up to me in Oberlin and was about to launch into his spiel when I cut him off and told him I wasn't interested. I was a little amused, since Oberlin college is one of the most liberal campuses in the country and he was trying to recruit there.

I graduated over 5 years ago and my parents still get fucking recruitment letters from the Air Force addressed to me. It's slowed to a trickle, but they still come in from time to time.

The stuff that goes on in your country never seizes to amaze me. Can't believe they are allowed to do that.

The Australian government is currently considering a plan to allow the military to send text messages to phones owned by kiddies. Class.

hey wassup do u wanna join da army n go to iraq? msg me back thx

don't worry, one day we'll have all your kids. we'll do military experiments on them and soon we'll have an unstoppable army ready to expand our empire over the entire world!!! muahahahaha!!! yes yes yes!! the world will be ours!!!

lol.

That's a hideous abuse of a child's right to not be press ganged at an impressionable age. I hope the Opt-out gets widely circulated so people can't make sure their kids don't have to deal with this shit.

Really sorry, horray for the fact that other people don't have to get bugged by this crap.

When I had just graduated highschool, I started getting the calls too. Then, it was a highschool chum that had given them my number. That was one of the ways they operated. They offered bonuses to people who brought their friends in. I can only be angered at the person that divulged my number. The military wasn't in the wrong. But this is horrible. As far as i'm concerned, it violates our constitutional rights of privacy. Oh wait, I forgot, all those rights were dismantled quickly after 9/11. Bend over people, it's coming.

To me, the whole notion of actively recruiting people for military service is anathema. Certainly they need to be visible as an option, but I think that's easily enough accomplished with the recruiting days at schools, junk mail, and promotional gimmicks like America's Army. The key thing with all of those is that you don't have to pay any attention. You never have to go near those recruiting desks, you can toss the mail unopened, and they certainly don't force you to download anything.

On the other hand, I'd rather get annoying calls from recruiters than have a draft. It can get worse.

The milatary should pay me to recruit for them. I'd be so cool. I'd totally lie to kids. I'd tell em there's always free beer and naked lesbians and pot. That would rule!

Well, Lucy isn't in school yet and my local school board is underwater...

I don't have/want kids, so the opt-out laws have no meaning for me in my life. Sure, I think it's a great idea for parents to opt their kids out of the harrassment from the armed forces recruiters, but why, oh why, didn't anyone think of doing this while I was still "of age"?
I had army recruiters calling me into my senior year of college. One such fella, whom I remember very well, actually graduated from my high school the year before me, and I clearly remember my conversation with him, 7 years later.

Me: "Do you realize I'm about to graduate college? I'm a little old for you to be recruiting."

him: "You're not too old yet. What are you majoring in?"

Me: "I'm pre-med" (a total lie)

him: "Well you know you could join now and get your medical training paid for my the government. All you have to do is give us four years of your time."

Me: "Yeah, I understand that. But do you understand that I plan on making $200,000 a year AS SOON as I graduate from medical school?"

him: <silence>

Me: "Ok, now you have a great day, and good luck with your recruiting."
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