AISD meeting!
On Monday August 8th, YAA attended/spoke during the citizen communications portion of the AISD board meeting. Two members from YAA, a teacher, and a parent spoke to the board about military recruitment. The two students where Will Martin and Ross Blair, who made the following statements to the board.
"Hi, I'm Will Martin, with the Youth Activists of Austin and I will be attending Garza this fall. I have many concerns with military in our high schools. One being military recruiters have been known to deceive students regarding college benefits as well as about the currents situation in Iraq. My second concern is the that military recruiters are taking advantage of our educational system for their own agenda. I find this completely unacceptable. The military should not be in our schools pressuring students into joining up. We shouldn't have the military using our High Schools as a medium for recruiting. If there is a student out there wanting to join the military, that a student out there wanting to join the military, that student can go to the military without the military coming to them. I feel that if we want to promote a culture of nonviolence in our schools and communities, we should severely restrict military access or work for a solution to make our schools completely demilitarized. Thank you for you time and I hope the board take this into serious consideration."
-Will Martin, YAA
"Hi, I'm Ross Blair with the Youth Activists of Austin and I have two points about military recruitment in our schools that i would like to make. There have been numerous reports in schools locally and nationally about military recruiters harassing students such incidents could be reduced by limiting the number of days the military recruiters our schools. The second point I would like to bring to the attention f the board is that the military recruiters are disproportionately targeting targeting minorities in "economically distressed" areas in what has been labeled a poverty draft. Such actions are unacceptable and must be stopped. I believe the only acceptable solution for the problem of military recruitment in our schools is the complete removal of the military from our schools. thanks your for hearing my concerns."
-Ross Blair, YAA
"Hi, I'm Will Martin, with the Youth Activists of Austin and I will be attending Garza this fall. I have many concerns with military in our high schools. One being military recruiters have been known to deceive students regarding college benefits as well as about the currents situation in Iraq. My second concern is the that military recruiters are taking advantage of our educational system for their own agenda. I find this completely unacceptable. The military should not be in our schools pressuring students into joining up. We shouldn't have the military using our High Schools as a medium for recruiting. If there is a student out there wanting to join the military, that a student out there wanting to join the military, that student can go to the military without the military coming to them. I feel that if we want to promote a culture of nonviolence in our schools and communities, we should severely restrict military access or work for a solution to make our schools completely demilitarized. Thank you for you time and I hope the board take this into serious consideration."
-Will Martin, YAA
"Hi, I'm Ross Blair with the Youth Activists of Austin and I have two points about military recruitment in our schools that i would like to make. There have been numerous reports in schools locally and nationally about military recruiters harassing students such incidents could be reduced by limiting the number of days the military recruiters our schools. The second point I would like to bring to the attention f the board is that the military recruiters are disproportionately targeting targeting minorities in "economically distressed" areas in what has been labeled a poverty draft. Such actions are unacceptable and must be stopped. I believe the only acceptable solution for the problem of military recruitment in our schools is the complete removal of the military from our schools. thanks your for hearing my concerns."
-Ross Blair, YAA
posted by Nathan at 1:13 PM -
