No Child Left Unrecruited: Army Recruiters Target High Schools

Democracy Now! speaks with Michael Cervantes, an Army
veteran with Veterans for Peace who is campaigning
against Bush’s policy to target high school students
for military recruitment.

The U.S. occupation of Iraq has descended into chaos.
Over 700 U.S. troops have now been killed in Iraq since
the beginning of the invasion, 100 of them in April
alone. The past 14 days have reportedly been the
deadliest two-week span for US troops since October
1971 during the Vietnam War. In the face of
overwhelming Iraqi resistance, the Pentagon has been
forced to extend the stay of some 20,000 soldiers who
were scheduled to leave soon for home. Over 130,000
U.S. soldiers remain stationed in Iraq.

But the American military empire stretches far beyond
the Middle East. The U.S. maintains a vast network of
bases on every continent except Antarctica spanning
some 130 countries around the world and the government
is continually looking for ways to replenish its
overstretched military.

One place it is focusing its attention, is American
high schools. Since 2001, the Bush administration has
been requiring high schools to disclose student records
to military recruiters or risk losing federal aid.

Under a mandate authorized by the Bush administration’s
No Child Left Behind Act, recruiters are entitled to
get the names, addresses and phone numbers of high
school juniors and seniors, unless parents or students
sign a form requesting that the data be withheld.
Districts that don’t comply stand to lose millions in
federal funding. As one Pentagon spokeswoman told the
Los Angeles Times, the policy ’Allows the Department of
Defense to recruit from a much broader, diverse and
more representative group of the youth of America."

Yesterday in Santa Barbara I spoke with Michael
Cervantes, an Army veteran with Veterans for Peace who
is campaigning against Bush’s policy to target high
school students for military recruitment. Cervantes
fought in the Vietnam war after being drafted out of
high school. I asked him what actions he had taken
against the policy.

Michael Cervantes, an Army veteran with Veterans for
Peace who is campaign against a Bush administration
policy that requires high schools to disclose student
records to military recruiters or risk losing federal
aid. He fought in the Vietnam War after being drafted
out of high school.

AMY GOODMAN: Yesterday in Santa Barbara, I spoke with
Michael Cervantes. He is an Army veteran who is now
with Veterans for Peace, who is campaigning against
Bush’s policy to target high school students for
military recruitment. Michael Cervantes fought in the
Vietnam War after being recruited right after high
school. I asked him what actions he has taken against
the policy?

MICHAEL CERVANTES: We started with P.T.A. meetings, and
they were real polite and they told us thanks for
visiting with us, and letting us know your concerns.
This was about the names, addresses and phone numbers
being released to the military now. But they said
nothing more. So, I made an appointment to talk with
the Board trustees at the Oxnard Junior High School
District, with two other organizations, the Citizens
for Peaceful Resolutions and the ACLU. We asked the
Ventura Chapter President to be there. So, we presented
for about 20 minutes to the Board, and they were real
quiet with us. They really didn’t even respond, and it
was like — next. They had someone else to present
after us.

AMY GOODMAN: What were you trying to tell them? What
were you asking?

MICHAEL CERVANTES: Well, we wanted them to notify the
parents, actually. I knew by intuition that the school
district had not been notifying the students, and it
turns out that I was correct. We had been working with
a district staffer, and we found — I found out through
her. She said yes — the big question is, are you
releasing the entire student body of the 11th and 12th
grade students out to the military, and the answer to
that is yes. So, you have a school district who is
doing that and not notifying parents, which is a
requirement of the law. So, little by little, we’re
doing it step by step, trying to maybe even educate the
Board. We came back to the Board a second time and
presented, and still no — no one opening their mouths
on the Board to us. The best we could get from them was
that we have a public administrator that you can talk
to about your questions, and — that’s been about it.
The most publicity that I can get so far is from the —
can I say the names of these magazines? V.C. Reporter
did us real well. They published a two-page letter of
mine in their weekly, and then the Ventura County Star
published an article from me, and then now the "LA.
Times" article just Sunday.

AMY GOODMAN: You did, though, succeed in getting the
school to send letters home to parents?

MICHAEL CERVANTES: Right. Now, we have been successful.
They have told us that they would attach to the front
of a — of the parent-student handbook that’s made up
every year, and sent out in the summertime. It’s a 63-
page booklet. Now, attached to the front of the booklet
will be an information page informing the parents that
release can be made to the military, and that if you
want to prevent that, if you want to block that
release, you have to sign a consent form. That consent
form is found in the parent-student handbook.
Unfortunately, it’s the very last page, and it’s not
perforated. It doesn’t look like something you want to
separate from -

AMY GOODMAN: The parent is opting out, then, for the
kids, saying, I don’t want my kid’s name to be sent to
the military, and if they don’t do it, it is
automatically sent, boy or girl, high school or — high
school student, young woman or young man?

MICHAEL CERVANTES: That is correct.

AMY GOODMAN: Why did you feel so strongly about this?
Why are you concerned about kids’ names being sent to
the Pentagon?

MICHAEL CERVANTES: Well, it’s a matter, actually of
students’ rights. It’s privacy rights. We want
students’ names to stay at the district, and also I’m
concerned about the war, Amy. I don’t — you know, we
don’t need to have the students think that, you know,
they have to go out and participate in this foreign
policy. They’re going to be pressured by recruiters,
and it’s not necessary for them to be pressured like
that right now. They should think about getting their
education. They should not have to be bothered at the
high school level.

AMY GOODMAN: You’re also doing an interesting action at
the beach on Sundays. You can describe that?

MICHAEL CERVANTES: Yes. I’m really happy with that.
It’s a special action. For me, I view it as a memorial.
It’s an innocent hologram. I like to describe it that
way, because you can take it away with you since you
have seen that. We are placing one cross for each
killed Iraqi soldier — I’m sorry not Iraqi soldier,
American soldier in the Iraq war. When the project
started, I believe it started with 275 crosses back in
November, and this past Sunday, we placed 691 crosses
out at the beach, and we have had very close relations,
memorialized fallen soldiers in the past several weeks.

AMY GOODMAN: How many of you do this?

MICHAEL CERVANTES: We have a core of about 9 to 12 town
hall activists and Veterans for Peace members
participating.

AMY GOODMAN: What kind of reaction to you get?

MICHAEL CERVANTES: It’s varied. It is really varied.
Most of it is approval. For me, personally, people will
ask what it is out there, and then after having
explained, as I just explained, they’ll walk away
saying, what a waste, the war is stupid. For me, that’s
the majority of the — of what’s been communicated to
me. People are positive. They think we’re doing good
work by doing that. And we’ll get an occasional person
who will not think it’s a good idea to be using the
dead as a promotion to political thoughts.

AMY GOODMAN: What is your response to that?

MICHAEL CERVANTES: Well, actually, we try not to give
that type of a person a stage at the wharf. It’s a very
busy wharf. There are a lot of tourists out there. And
I usually — I usually don’t stay and speak to a person
too very long. I’ll tell them that I have been at a
war, and to me, that this is what our project
represents, something good, and through seeing such a
tragedy as all of that, you just have got to think that
it’s not right, but why are we having our sons and
daughters perish like that, for what?

AMY GOODMAN: Michael Cervantes. Vietnam Veteran, who is
taking on the Pentagon and trying to make sure that
parents of high school students know that their kid’s
information is given to the Pentagon unless they
proactively tell the high school not to pass on that
information.

AMY GOODMAN: Yesterday in Santa Barbara, I spoke with
Michael Cervantes. He is an Army veteran who is now
with Veterans for Peace, who is campaigning against
Bush’s policy to target high school students for
military recruitment. Michael Cervantes fought in the
Vietnam War after being recruited right after high
school. I asked him what actions he has taken against
the policy?

MICHAEL CERVANTES: We started with P.T.A. meetings, and
they were real polite and they told us thanks for
visiting with us, and letting us know your concerns.
This was about the names, addresses and phone numbers
being released to the military now. But they said
nothing more. So, I made an appointment to talk with
the Board trustees at the Oxnard Junior High School
District, with two other organizations, the Citizens
for Peaceful Resolutions and the ACLU. We asked the
Ventura Chapter President to be there. So, we presented
for about 20 minutes to the Board, and they were real
quiet with us. They really didn’t even respond, and it
was like — next. They had someone else to present
after us.

AMY GOODMAN: What were you trying to tell them? What
were you asking?

MICHAEL CERVANTES: Well, we wanted them to notify the
parents, actually. I knew by intuition that the school
district had not been notifying the students, and it
turns out that I was correct. We had been working with
a district staffer, and we found — I found out through
her. She said yes — the big question is, are you
releasing the entire student body of the 11th and 12th
grade students out to the military, and the answer to
that is yes. So, you have a school district who is
doing that and not notifying parents, which is a
requirement of the law. So, little by little, we’re
doing it step by step, trying to maybe even educate the
Board. We came back to the Board a second time and
presented, and still no — no one opening their mouths
on the Board to us. The best we could get from them was
that we have a public administrator that you can talk
to about your questions, and — that’s been about it.
The most publicity that I can get so far is from the —
can I say the names of these magazines? V.C. Reporter
did us real well. They published a two-page letter of
mine in their weekly, and then the Ventura County Star
published an article from me, and then now the "LA.
Times" article just Sunday.

AMY GOODMAN: You did, though, succeed in getting the
school to send letters home to parents?

MICHAEL CERVANTES: Right. Now, we have been successful.
They have told us that they would attach to the front
of a — of the parent-student handbook that’s made up
every year, and sent out in the summertime. It’s a 63-
page booklet. Now, attached to the front of the booklet
will be an information page informing the parents that
release can be made to the military, and that if you
want to prevent that, if you want to block that
release, you have to sign a consent form. That consent
form is found in the parent-student handbook.
Unfortunately, it’s the very last page, and it’s not
perforated. It doesn’t look like something you want to
separate from -

AMY GOODMAN: The parent is opting out, then, for the
kids, saying, I don’t want my kid’s name to be sent to
the military, and if they don’t do it, it is
automatically sent, boy or girl, high school or — high
school student, young woman or young man?

MICHAEL CERVANTES: That is correct.

AMY GOODMAN: Why did you feel so strongly about this?
Why are you concerned about kids’ names being sent to
the Pentagon?

MICHAEL CERVANTES: Well, it’s a matter, actually of
students’ rights. It’s privacy rights. We want
students’ names to stay at the district, and also I’m
concerned about the war, Amy. I don’t — you know, we
don’t need to have the students think that, you know,
they have to go out and participate in this foreign
policy. They’re going to be pressured by recruiters,
and it’s not necessary for them to be pressured like
that right now. They should think about getting their
education. They should not have to be bothered at the
high school level.

AMY GOODMAN: You’re also doing an interesting action at
the beach on Sundays. You can describe that?

MICHAEL CERVANTES: Yes. I’m really happy with that.
It’s a special action. For me, I view it as a memorial.
It’s an innocent hologram. I like to describe it that
way, because you can take it away with you since you
have seen that. We are placing one cross for each
killed Iraqi soldier — I’m sorry not Iraqi soldier,
American soldier in the Iraq war. When the project
started, I believe it started with 275 crosses back in
November, and this past Sunday, we placed 691 crosses
out at the beach, and we have had very close relations,
memorialized fallen soldiers in the past several weeks.

AMY GOODMAN: How many of you do this?

MICHAEL CERVANTES: We have a core of about 9 to 12 town
hall activists and Veterans for Peace members
participating.

AMY GOODMAN: What kind of reaction to you get?

MICHAEL CERVANTES: It’s varied. It is really varied.
Most of it is approval. For me, personally, people will
ask what it is out there, and then after having
explained, as I just explained, they’ll walk away
saying, what a waste, the war is stupid. For me, that’s
the majority of the — of what’s been communicated to
me. People are positive. They think we’re doing good
work by doing that. And we’ll get an occasional person
who will not think it’s a good idea to be using the
dead as a promotion to political thoughts.

AMY GOODMAN: What is your response to that?

MICHAEL CERVANTES: Well, actually, we try not to give
that type of a person a stage at the wharf. It’s a very
busy wharf. There are a lot of tourists out there. And
I usually — I usually don’t stay and speak to a person
too very long. I’ll tell them that I have been at a
war, and to me, that this is what our project
represents, something good, and through seeing such a
tragedy as all of that, you just have got to think that
it’s not right, but why are we having our sons and
daughters perish like that, for what?

AMY GOODMAN: Michael Cervantes. Vietnam Veteran, who is
taking on the Pentagon and trying to make sure that
parents of high school students know that their kid’s
information is given to the Pentagon unless they
proactively tell the high school not to pass on that
information.

===

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