Youth Activists of Austin

Stand Up For Better Schools Rally

2006-09-05T15:42:00.000-07:00

Stand Up For Better Schools Rally!

Come Alive: Saturday, September 9th, 4:30-7:30 p.m.
Saltillo Plaza (401 Comal St. 78702)

-A Free Event for All Youth from All Schools In Austin!!!
-Performing
-Arts & Skits
-Snacks!!

Artists speak out through Hip Hop, Spoken Word, Theater and Video on
1/3 of all students dropping out of school.

Rally funded by the United Way Capital Area and United Ways of Texas.

For More Information Call:
Austin Voices for Education and Youth

3710 Cedar Street
Suite 229, Box 21
Austin, Texas-78705

Phone: (512) 450-1880
Fax: (512) 451-3110

YAA and military recruitment in the press

2006-08-12T16:18:00.000-07:00

Youth Activists of Austin hasn't been especially active this summer, but YAA and military recruitment have come up recently in the local and national media, respectively. Here are some links and choice excerpts:

AISD: Students Rein in Military Recruiters, Austin Chronicle July 7
The phrase "No Child Left Behind" takes on a particularly Orwellian undertone when you consider that the sweeping education law requires schools to allow the military to recruit on campus. Uniformed visitors are a regular sight at all 11 AISD high schools, where they try to sell students on a career that can bring college tuition dollars and an early retirement – or (generally left unmentioned) an early death... She and her fellow concerned students, known collectively as Youth Activists of Austin, contacted the elder peaceniks at Nonmilitary Options for Youth, and together they pressured AISD into passing an official military recruiting policy. The policy, adopted by the board on June 12, is so tame that it's actually a bit alarming that students considered it necessary. It essentially requires that recruiters will act like any other school visitors. They must check in at the front office, get a visitor's badge, and recruit in a designated area. And they will leave students alone who make it clear they aren't interested.
SERGANT, GET A HALL PERMIT, Texas Observer June 30
When Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act, it added a particularly onerous, little-known provision that requires high schools to release student names to the military. The Pentagon has used such sensitive information as grades, ethnicity, Social Security numbers, cell phone numbers, and e-mail addresses to create a database of 30 million young people. Although they can’t change federal law, a group of activist students has managed to convince the Austin Independent School District to place limits on military recruiting at AISD campuses. The new guidelines, which take effect in the fall, will establish uniform (so to speak) rules for on-campus recruiting. From now on, recruiters will have to check in at the principal’s office, pick up a visitor’s badge, and limit their recruiting to designated areas. Overzealous military recruiters (and the principals who have been happy to accommodate them) are not to contact students who have made it clear that they don’t want to be contacted. Parents will be notified of their right to ask the school not to release their children’s names. School district trustees have also called for information about alternatives to the military to be readily available to students.

And, turmoil in the messy, discriminatory world of military recruitment:

[Increase in] Misconduct by Military Recruiters Cited, Associated Press
Military recruiters have increasingly resorted to overly aggressive tactics and even criminal activity to attract young troops to the battlefield, congressional investigators say.

Grueling combat conditions in Iraq, a decent commercial job market and tough monthly recruiting goals have made recruiters' jobs more difficult, the Government Accountability Office said Monday. This has probably prompted more recruiters to resort to strong-arm tactics, including harassment or criminal means such as falsifying documents, to satisfy demands, GAO states.

The report was done at the behest of lawmakers who were concerned that not enough was being done to curb aggressive recruitment practices.

"Even one incident of recruiter wrongdoing can erode public confidence in the recruiting process," the GAO warned.

According to service data provided to the GAO, substantiated cases of wrongdoing jumped by more than a third, from about 400 cases in 2004 to almost 630 in 2005. Meanwhile, criminal cases — such as sexual harassment or falsifying medical records — more than doubled in those years, jumping from 30 incidents to 70.

There are some 22,000 personnel working for the military's recruiting program, which cost more than $1.5 billion this year. On staff are some 14,000 "frontline" recruiters who must enlist two applicants per month.

"Given the large numbers of service members DOD must recruit every year, there is ample opportunity for recruiter irregularities to occur," the report said, using the acronym for the Department of Defense.
Military's Discharges for Being Gay Rose in '05, New York Times
The Defense Department discharged 726 service members last year for being gay, up about 10 percent from 2004, figures released by a gay rights group show.

The group, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, obtained the information through a Freedom of Information Act request. A spokeswoman for the Defense Department, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, confirmed that it had released the information.

On Monday, the legal group released a breakdown of discharges by installation. A sharp increase occurred at Fort Campbell, Ky., where in 1999 a soldier was bludgeoned to death in his barracks by fellow soldiers who thought he was homosexual. In 2004, 19 service members from the base were discharged, a number that climbed to 49 last year.

Fort Sill, Okla., had 27 dismissals last year, up from 8 in 2004. Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., had 60 dismissals, up from 40 in 2004, and the Marine base at Parris Island, S.C., discharged 22, up from 12.

The Army, by far the largest branch of the military, discharged more gay personnel last year than the other branches with 386, the figures show, followed by the Navy with 177, the Air Force with 88 and the Marines, the smallest force, with 75.

The overall number of men and women dismissed because they were found to be gay or because they disclosed their sexuality fell in the three years from 2002 to 2004. From Sept. 11, 2001, through last year, the discharge rate dropped 40 percent.

The total of such discharges in 2004 was 653. That compares with 770 in 2003, 885 in 2002 and 1,227 in 2001.

Under a policy introduced by the Clinton administration known as “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the military cannot inquire into service members’ sex lives unless there is evidence of homosexual conduct.

Those who volunteer the information have to be discharged. More than 11,000 members have been discharged for that reason, the legal group said.

AISD trustees approve limits on recruitment

2006-06-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

Austin trustees approve limits on recruitment
District will restrict military's access to high school students starting in the fall.

By Virgil Dickson
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, June 13, 2006

After months of protests from groups of students and parents, Austin school district trustees voted Monday to put policies in place to limit military recruiters' access to high school students while on campus.

The policy, effective in the fall, is a modification of a recruitment policy proposal that student groups Nonmilitary Options for Youth and Youth Activists of Austin brought before the school board during the past school year.

"It was important that we made sure students got their education before being encouraged to go off and fight war," said Kate Kelly, a member of the Youth Activists of Austin who will be an LBJ High School sophomore in the fall.

Public high schools must provide the military with students' contact information unless parents request otherwise in writing, according to the federal No Child Left Behind law. And recruiters often have broad access to students at school.

Throughout Central Texas, principals have discretion in granting access, including deciding whether recruiters are limited to specific areas of the school, such as counselor offices, or whether they can approach students in the hallways during lunch.

They also decide whether recruiters are limited to certain times of the year, such as college and career events, or whether they can make more frequent trips to schools.

The new policy would, among other things, require principals throughout the district to require recruiters to register when they come on campus and to limit where recruiters may contact students.

"I think it is a reasonable policy, and I am not aware that there is anything about this proposal that one would consider unreasonable," Mel Waxler, the school district's attorney, said before Monday's meeting. "I think the policy pretty much speaks" for itself, he said.

Military officials weren't available for comment Monday but have said that it has been difficult to recruit in some schools but that administrators in general have been supportive.

vdickson@statesman.com; 445-3629

Recruiting rules

•Recruiters will be required to get a visitor badge every time they go on school property.

•Recruiters will be limited to specific areas designated by principals on each campus.

•Recruiters will be barred from contacting students who have indicated that such contact is unwelcome.

•The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test shall be administered pursuant to the same terms and conditions as other aptitude tests.

•Recruiting should not disrupt classes. Recruiting in a classroom or other designated space is acceptable if it's invited by authorized school personnel and part of a school-approved program.

•Information about recruitment and alternatives to the military will be made available in an equivalent manner and location.

AISD news, Invisible Children and Darfur rallies

2006-04-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

YAA members and Nonmilitary Options for Youth volunteers met with the AISD legal counsel again this past Wednesday to discuss what kind of policy on military recruiters the district should have. You can compare the district draft policy to our original proposal here. We would like to hear as much student feedback as possible before we proceed - please e-mail us with your thoughts, preferrably this weekend.

A few events this weekend you might like to know about:

Youth Benefit Concert:
The Youth Media Collective of Austin, a project of YAA and Austin Indymedia, is having a benefit concert tonight at Quack's Bakery. Bands performing include: Misspent Youth, Offisaurs, Toejammers, and Crystal Bedford. Funds raised will go to the purchasing of equipment that youth can use to document their lives and local activism.
When: Tonight, 6pm
Where: Quack's Bakery 1400 E. 38th 1/2 St
For more information, contact Kate Kelly at riot.kate@gmail.com.

Invisible Children Night Commute:
Every night in northern Uganda, thousands of child refugees walk for miles from their homes into camps to avoid abduction and abuse by the so-called Lord's Resistance Army. A recent study found that the death rate in Uganda is three times what it is in Iraq. Students will be meeting at UT on Saturday to walk to the Capitol in solidarity with the children and raise awareness of their struggle. Many will even spend the night outside on the Capitol steps.
When: Saturday (4/29), beginning at 6pm
Where: UT Tower, proceeding to the Capitol steps
For more information, contact Timothy Bray at timothycbray@gmail.com. To learn more see the UgandaCAN blog.

Rally to Save Darfur:
400,000 people have been killed. 3.5 million displaced from their homes. The UN has just cut food rations in half for the refugees, who are spilling into neighboring Chad. A slow genocide has been occuring over the past four years in the western Darfur region of Sudan. Rallies are being held across the country on Sunday to raise awareness of their plight and call for action to end the genocide.
When: Sunday, 1-3pm
Where: South Capitol steps, 11th St.
For more information, contact Ansel at ansel@riseup.net To learn more check out the Genocide Intervention Network.

"Texas Youth Fight the War Aimed At Them"

2006-04-24T17:53:00.000-07:00

http://www.alternet.org/wiretap/35144/
By Jordan Buckley

A suburban packed full of high school students barreled south toward the Mexican border Tuesday, and while several of the same gaggle of youth had missed classes the week before -- then marching nearly nine miles through the Texas heat from their campus to the state capitol in protest of proposed immigration reforms -- this time around, their absence is excused.
Today, they will present on their dynamic involvement within the so-called "counter-recruitment movement" at the Women and War Conference hosted by South Texas College in McAllen, situated six hours from their home in Austin.
Seldom are teenagers invited to speak at collegiate academic conferences, but the Youth Activists of Austin (YAA!) are growing accustomed to blazing new trails. YAA! -- a citywide coalition of mostly high school-aged social justice enthusiasts -- have drawn broad attention to what they argue are the unacceptable practices of military recruiters within their schools.
Indeed, the pervasive misconduct of military recruiters on a national scale spurred the U.S. Army Recruiting Command to declare a one-day abstention from pursuing enlistments last May, instead allowing them to "refocus on their values."
In January, YAA! unleashed a new campaign to urge the Austin Independent School District (AISD) to follow the lead of other school districts across the country by placing reasonable restrictions on the on-campus activities of military recruiters.
Recently, grassroots campaigns in a number of towns have resulted in policy changes. In Tucson, Ariz., students must initiate interactions with recruiters and not the reverse; in Princeton, N.J., recruiters can only meet with students in the presence of guidance counselors; in Madison, Wis., recruiters are limited to three high school visits a year, and guidance counselors are required to provide information to students on alternatives to military service.
Spurred by these reforms and abuses they had witnessed firsthand, YAA! members drafted a ten-point platform outlining policy changes that they determined fair and necessary to ensuring healthily maintained schools. They began by attending AISD board meetings and relaying their concerns to administrators en masse.
One plank of their proposed platform -- banning military hardware from campuses -- stems from recruiters' attempts to seduce enlistees through the use of spectacular technical equipment, which functions as aggressive advertising for military service and the war rather than examples of technological achievement with academic merit, YAA! argues.
Recently, Travis High School, a predominantly lower-income and nonwhite school located in southern Austin, was visited by one of the Army's Cinema Vans -- a multimillion-dollar 18-wheeler containing highly sophisticated war simulation video games. Educators there informed students that they had to "sign up" for the van to get credit for P.E. class -- a move which put the students' personal information in recruiters' hands, thereby better enabling them to contact these students individually and convince them to enlist.
Other components of YAA!'s proposed platform include: requiring recruiters to check-in at the front office and wear a name tag upon every campus visit, requiring parental consent for administration of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test, allowing students to "opt-out" of releasing their personal information to recruiters while remaining eligible for contact from universities, and forbidding recruiters from classroom and school assembly presentations unless the content of their speech is directly applicable to class curriculum.
For YAA! member Timothy Bray, a senior at Westlake High School, the latter plank responds to an episode at his school where administrators afforded a military recruiter a gymnasium filled with captive audience members to mark Veterans Day.
But in addition to navigating the traditional channels for institutional change, YAA! also operates on a number of different fronts to raise consciousness about (and to consequently interrupt) recruiters' quest for youthful enlistees.
After recruiters plotted a visit to Austin Community College in December, YAA! members hung a banner from the roof of one of the schools' buildings that read "Homophobic War Recruiters Off ACC!" -- the recruiters relocated to another campus only to be confronted there by dozens of quickly mobilized counter-recruitment activists.
YAA! has elicited media attention for staging "read-in" protests outside of the AISD headquarters. The "Better Well-Read Than Dead" vigils alert passersby to YAA!'s opposition to unduly aggressive campus recruitment while reinforcing the group's top priority -- fair access to education.
Likewise, later this month YAA! will launch the "Enlightenment not Enlistment Program" whereby students may trade in military recruitment literature mailed to their houses at local participating bookstores to receive a 10 percent discount on purchases.
On Saturday, YAA! will reveal their newest tactic to combat those trying to put them in a war zone -- Protest-in-a-can. The ready-to-go kit easily fits in a locker and contains all necessary materials to demonstrate against recruiters' sudden presence on a campus: a banner, tape recorder, chant list, media call list and counter-recruitment literature. The cans will be piloted in two high schools before possibly being amended and reproduced for further use throughout Austin, says LBJ High School freshman Kate Kelly.
Already, YAA! appears to have made real advances in their campaign with AISD. The school district's attorney, Mel Waxler, has disseminated YAA!'s platform to the principals at all of AISD's 12 high schools and will soon make a recommendation of reforms to the board of trustees based on YAA!'s proposal.
Until then, YAA! remains poised to continue countering the government's efforts to shuttle youth abroad for war-making -- whether it takes them to the school district headquarters, their schools' hallways, the city streets or the riverbanks of the Rio Grande.

Jordan Buckley is a writer based in Austin, Texas, who also works as a guest teacher for the Austin Independent School District.

Hey AISD, limit the military!

2006-03-24T21:26:00.000-08:00

YAA students staged another successful event outside AISD headquarters today to promote education over warfare. We quietly read books, finished up some homework, and engaged in a discussion about military recruiter access in our schools. FOX 7 News devoted several minutes of coverage to the event in its nightly news program. Low-quality recorded video is below (turn up your volume, click the gray play button). As soon as FOX publishes a full transcript of the segment we'll quote that here as well.

You can read the new policy we are proposing to AISD in full here. Let us know in the comment section or at yaaustin@gmail.com what you think. YAA will be meeting again next Friday on the southwest Capitol lawn, as usual, to continue our resistance to military recruiters on behalf of the students they seek to send to war. Anyone is welcome to attend.

We give FOX 7 a big thumbs-up for their coverage of today's protest - however, a small correction. At the beginning of the segment the news anchor says that "two student groups" want to limit recruiter access in AISD schools. In fact, YAA is the only youth/student group actively working on this specific issue (while having the support of other student groups in the Austin area). The group that we have had the privilege to partner with in this AISD campaign is Nonmilitary Options for Youth, a group of concerned parents and veterans who go into schools to raise student awareness of non-violent alternatives to military service.

Also, for the record, today's protest was utterly and completely peaceful, like all YAA events.

No meeting today

2006-02-17T09:03:00.000-08:00

Late announcement: This week's (2/17) YAA meeting has been rescheduled because of the Historians Against War conference. Instead we'll be meeting on Sunday at about 4 pm. If you'd like to attend let us know in the comments and we can forward you more information.

And a quick update about our campaign to limit military recruiter access in AISD schools: YAA members and Nonmilitary Options for Youth met with AISD general counsel Mel Waxler on Wednesday to discuss the legal implications of our proposed limitations (see below). Mr. Waxler informed us that our proposal was being taken into consideration and he would make a recommendation to the board at some point in the near future. He also confirmed, to our surprise and delight, that AISD is already moving towards a modified version of the SR-290 opt-out form that makes clear military recruiters' access to student information. The new form may even provide students and parents the opportunity to separately and exclusively opt-out from sharing their information with military recruiters - who would use such information, for instance, to call you on your birthday telling you to join the military, an unpleasant experience that interrupted a YAA member's birthday party just last year.

The struggle continues, even though there's no meeting today.

Draft of military recruiter policy at AISD

2006-02-06T08:28:00.000-08:00

In the interest of openness and providing the public the opportunity to give us feedback, we decided at the last YAA meeting to publish our draft list of proposals for military recruiter limitations at AISD. We'd like to emphasize that this is our draft and is subject to revision as negotiations with AISD continue. It's likely that this list would be substantially altered before being implemented as AISD policy. Stay tuned for updates, and in the meantime, please let us know what you think in the comment section.

Here is the draft:

Prepared by Youth Activists of Austin and Nonmilitary Options for Youth for discussion with members of AISD school board - January 2006

Military recruiters will check in at the schoolÂs administrative office and get a visitor badge every time they go onto school property.
Military recruiters will be restricted to designated areas in the schools, such as career centers. One-on-one visits will be monitored by a counselor or another school staff person.
Military recruiters will not approach students in hallways, and the student will be the one to initiate discussion with a military recruiter.
The SR-290 form will be revised to clearly state that military recruiters are among the organizations that request student directoryinformation, and we would prefer that there be a military-only opt-outprovision (that is, a way for students to withhold their directory information from military recruiters while allowing it to be given to college and job recruiters).
All guidance counselors will be made aware that students who sign up for the military through the Delayed Entry Program (DEP) are legally allowed to separate from the program if they change their minds prior to their report dates for basic training, and counselors will be able to guide students through the separation process.
The ASVAB test (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) will not be administered during class time or without parental approval to students under 18.
There will be no military hardware, military vehicles or military recreational equipment on school campuses (eg. Army Cinema Vans, humvees, helicopters, video game systems or rock-climbing equipment), and no recruitment posters featuring weapons will be displayed in schools.
Military recruiters will not speak in classrooms or school assemblies unless their presentations correspond to class curriculum.
Schools will continue to allow information about alternatives to the military to be made available to students in a manner and location similar to recruiting information.
Military recruiters who violate these policies will be disallowed from visiting schools within the district for a determined length of time.

Campaign to limit military recruiters at AISD

2006-01-31T11:28:00.000-08:00

YAA has been working with coalition of parents, teachers, and veterans, and the group Nonmilitary Options for Youth over the past few months to develop a policy proposal for Austin Independent School District (AISD) that would lay down some rules regarding what military recruiters can and cannot do in Austin-area schools. For example, we've proposed a provision that would direct military recruiters to confine their activities to the career center, like most other college or job recruiters, and prevent them from roaming the hallways to harass students. The Austin-American Statesman had an article in yesterday's local section that does a good job of summarizing some of our efforts so far, most recently a meeting we had with two AISD school board members. The article is quoted in full below:

Austin students seek to limit military's recruiting access
Youth group working with local activists to set rules on where contact can take place.

By Raven L. Hill
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Monday, January 30, 2006

Garza High School senior Will Martin does not have a problem with students who want to join the military.

But he does think there should be limits on recruiters' access to students.

Martin and a small group of about a dozen other students in the Austin school district are working with two local groups, Nonmilitary Options for Youth and Youth Activists of Austin, in support of a proposed districtwide policy on recruiting tactics.

"We're not trying to take away the option of joining the military, but I do feel that students should be educated about decisions before they join," Martin said.

Recruiters' access to students has become a contentious issue, particularly as the U.S. military's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan continues and the government falls short of its recruitment goals. Though significant support remains for the military's efforts overseas, a small but growing number of Austin parents and students are voicing their displeasure about recruiter tactics they say are aggressive.

Public high schools must provide the military with students' contact information unless parents request otherwise in writing under the federal No Child Left Behind law. And recruiters often have broad access to students at school.

Throughout Central Texas, principals have discretion in granting access to school grounds. They decide whether recruiters are limited to specific areas of the school, such as counselor offices, or whether they can approach students in the hallways during lunch. They decide whether recruiters are limited to certain times of the year, such as college and career events, or whether they can make monthly trips to the school.

In San Marcos, for example, recruiters are allowed to take students off campus for lunch with parental consent.

Nonmilitary Options for Youth and Youth Activists of Austin have submitted proposals to Austin district officials that call for limiting recruiters to campus career centers, prohibiting them from bringing military hardware into schools and ensuring that counselors are informed about procedures for release from military contracts.

They also would like to make sure that parents are aware of the opt-out provision in the federal law that requires schools to share student contact information. The district's current policy is "all or nothing": Parents cannot specify which organizations they want to have their child's information.

The inconsistencies across campuses are troublesome, Martin said, adding that in some instances, military recruiters have more access to students than colleges or local companies.

"We think the military should have the same access as other recruiters," he said. "They shouldn't have the special right to roam the halls when other recruiters don't."

The groups' proposals are based on policies in other school systems across the country.

In Madison, Wis., recruiters are allowed in high schools only three days a year, and guidance counselors must provide information about alternatives to military service. The Tucson, Ariz., district requires students to initiate appointments with recruiters. Students in Princeton, N.J., can meet with recruiters only if a guidance counselor is present.

Lt. Col. Ronald McLaurin, commander of the Texas Army National Guard Recruiting Battalion, said that it has been difficult to recruit in some schools but that administrators have been mostly supportive.

"I can empathize with the position that principals are put in," McLaurin said. "No school has ever said flat out 'no' to us. We appreciate the access we get."

San Marcos officials - and those in some other area school districts -say they have not heard complaints about military access at their schools.

Austin district officials are exploring changes for next year that would make it clearer to parents that they have the option to withhold information and that would allow parents to specifically opt out of giving the military information, said Mel Waxler, the school district's attorney.

Waxler said that he has never received a complaint from a parent about unauthorized access from military recruiters and that the district tries to provide groups with equal access.

"If the military has a brochure that is featured in one part of the campus, then Nonmilitary Options for Youth would have the same access and same right," Waxler said. "If there are career days and the military has one of the booths, then Nonmilitary Options for Youth has a booth."

McLaurin said he would offer an alternative perspective to those seeking to limit access.

"If access to National Guard recruiters is limited, you are limiting the opportunity for some students to have a great way of life and to be part of something bigger than themselves," he said. "You are limiting opportunities for citizens to serve their communities."

YAA's next meeting is this Friday at 6:30 at a new, more central location: Little City on Congress in downtown Austin. Look for us at the back. All are welcome to attend!

Still going strong!

2005-12-07T18:49:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the lack of website updates during the past several weeks. We're happy to report that the counter-recruitment movement is still going strong nationwide, and especially here in Austin. Below is a snapshot of a Daily Texan story about our joint protest with CAMEO, IVAW, and several other local groups of a recruitment fair that was held at the ACC Eastview campus yesterday. (The story was featured prominently on the front page in today's issue of the Texan.)

Some of you might have also seen a lengthy news segment that the local KVUE station aired last night about the Solomon amendment and the protest. I didn't see the segment myself, but I understand that KVUE might have portrayed us youth activists as being disorganized in some way. Here's the full story:

101X DJs, whose station was sponsoring the recruiters, repeatedly said on air in the days prior that their staff and the recruiters would be setting up at the ACC Rio Grande campus. A group of YAA members, other protesters, and the media all showed up on schedule outside the Rio Grande campus, but the recruiters were nowhere to be found. We got word that the recruiters had instead gone to the ACC Eastview campus, about a fifteen minute drive (or bike ride) away. After dropping a banner that read "Homophobic War Recruiters Off ACC" from the roof of a building opposite the campus, we all headed over to the Eastview campus.

There we found a 101X tent with military propaganda and two recruiters in the middle of a largely empty courtyard. As we held signs, engaged the 101X representatives in discussion, and chanted in protest, the recruiters stood off to the side talking with one another and doing nothing. A young guy working for 101X told me that they were told at the last second to switch locations from Rio Grande to Eastview - presumably by the recruiters. Sounds to me like the recruiters noticed the press release we sent out about our protest the night before and changed sites in a sad attempt to avoid us.

The protest was a success, then. We executed a targeted protest with extensive media coverage and the recruiters were denied the level of access to students that they've come to expect.

Here's a choice snippet of the Texan article:

The protest was in response to a campus recruitment fair that included two military recruiters and the radio station 101X. Protestors also targeted the station because of its involvement in the recruitment fair.

"If [101X] is going to affiliate themselves with the war, then they are part of the problem," said Will Martin, a Garza High School senior and a member of Youth Activist of Austin, one of the protesting groups.

"I think it is hypocritical of 101X to support the government's wars when they call themselves the 'alternative.' They aren't promoting the alternative, they are promoting the American ideal of war. We are supporting the alternative, peace."

Representatives of 101X would not comment.

The students protested that the Solomon Amendment supports the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" discriminatory policy. Students were also concerned with recruitment officers who promise recruits specific jobs or opportunities to avoid combat.

The next YAA meeting is in two days! We have several campaigns planned for the coming year - we'd love to see some new members come out.

Wrap-up of Saturday's march and rally

2005-10-03T18:59:00.000-07:00

Updated Wednesday, October 5

A mostly-complete list of those who spoke at the open-mic session at Republic Sq. Park and also at City Hall is at the bottom of this post.

Austin Indymedia has some excellent coverage of last Saturday's event, with great pictures. Also, here is the rough text of another speech, this time given by YAA member and high school student Ross Blair. It does a good job of summing up the reasons for the protest and continuing counter-recruitment activities.

I'm Ross Blair from the Youth Activists of Austin. As everyone here is aware there is an extremely disturbing trend in America today concerning its youth and military recruiters in our schools. YAA organized this protest because we are outraged that the millitary thinks of students as untrained soldiers instead of tomorrow'ss scientists, enginneers, and writers. They act as if schools exist for the express purpose of helping meet their recrutment quotas. As we have seen in the past few months recruiters are relying on increasingly unethical and socialy destructive methods of recruiting students. Such actions are unacceptable! We must protect our students, by demilitarizing our schools! We're here to demand that AISD and other schools serve the best intrests of their students and stop such aggressive millitary recruitment. We want schools to fight the No Child Left Behind Act's pro-recruitment agenda by limiting recruiter access to schools and protecting students contact information.

Though there is some debate in the counter-recruitment movement about whether recruiters should be given equal access or thrown out completely, but we shouldn't have to fight ourselves before we fight them. I hope this is only the beginning of a campaign that will successfully and quickly demilitarize our schools.

The Students Not Soldiers: Demilitarize Our Schools event was a modest success. By our count, one hundred people showed up to protest the lies that military recruiters are telling students here in Austin and all over the country, and their unreasonable access to students and their personal information.

At Republic Square Park under the shade of a big tree, the group gathered for an open-mic speak out, during which everyone from high-school students to elderly men and women shared their experiences with recruiters. A veteran of the Gulf War warned of false promises of benefits and the true horrors of war, a young high school student talked about the implicit racism of recruiters against poor Latinos and blacks, and a professor from UT expressed her outrage over the military's discrimination against homosexuals, and several more students got up to speak as well.

From the park we began our march down sixth street, looping down to Cesar Chavez and Austin City Hall, where the rally resumed. We chanted slogans like "College Not Combat" and "1234, We don't want your dirty war, 5678, Organize and Stop the Hate," and took up an entire lane.

Once at City Hall, we had several speakers, including Susan Van Haitsma from Non Military Options for Youth and Dave Bills of Iraq Veterans Against the War, and we closed out the event with some music. The local news station KXAN incorporated a lengthy segment on recruitment examining different sides of the issue into their coverage of the event.

The full transcript of the speech I gave, about recruiters and their deceptive marketing strategies, is here. An excerpt from the beginning:

The title of this event is Students Not Soldiers: Demilitarize Our Schools. We say that schools should be places where young people can go to learn, make friends, and figure out what they want to do with their lives, without being badgered by military recruiters who roam the halls and interrupt classes.

But even beyond that, we say that schools should places for truth. Not half-truths, not deceptions, and not lies (no intelligent design either).

Yet, the very presence of recruiters on the school grounds transforms schools into a marketing playground, where military service is sold by whatever means necessary. And recruiters are both compelled and unofficially encouraged to lie, cheat, and falsify documents in order to get students through the enlistment process.

Even setting aside all the lying and cheating, we're still left with basic recruiting techniques that are fundamentally dishonest. These techniques are, in essence, marketing strategies, and service in the military treated as a mere product that must be sold.

This was a good beginning of what could be a powerful counter-recruitment movement here in Austin. We at YAA will continue to attend AISD public meetings and to call for change. Our meetings are every Friday at the Maplewood Elementary School at 6:30, and you can always find Timothy or myself at the weekly anti-war vigil in front of the Capitol just before that on the same day.

Some of the speakers:

Andy Peterson - Garza student
Charlie Rose - Garza student and a mother
Cindy Beringer - High school teacher at Manor ISD and a member of ISO
Dave Bills - Gulf War veteran, Iraq Veterans Against the War
Alberto Gonzalez - parent of two students in AISD
Susan Van Haitsma - Nonmilitary Options for Youth
David Morris - Vietnam veteran, Austin Agsinst War
Tomas Heikkala - Vietnam veteran, Nonmilitary Options for Youth
Ross Blair - Waldorf student, YAA member
Ansel Herz - UT student, YAA and CAMEO member

Students Not Soldiers - Demilitarize Our Schools

2005-09-02T19:03:00.000-07:00

Update: See the Austin Chronicle's latest piece: Youth Activists: Demilitarize Our Schools!

Do you wish college and job recruiters would replace military recruiters in our schools? You're not alone, so join us...

WHEN: 4-7 PM on October 1
WHERE: Republic Square Park (4th and Guadalupe), march to and rally at Austin City Hall

The rally begins at 4 PM at Republic Square Park - we will gather there with fellow students, teachers, parents, and concerned citizens to call for the demilitarization of schools and protest the deceitful practices and false promises of military recruiters.

Several speakers and booths will have information on how to pay for college or secure a job after high school, without joining the military and being sent off to fight wars for corrupt leaders.

The event has been endorsed by: Austin Against War, Austin ISO, CAMEO, Educators for Change, Issue Magazine, Non-Military Options for Youth, Texans for Peace, UT Watch, UT Student Labor Action, and more!

Fresh and fruity drinks will provided by Daily Juice, and we'll have live music from David Rovics and local bands.

Download and distribute flyers!
Flyer 1
Flyer 2 (PDF)
Flyer 3

Prior notes:

As you can see, I've posted our preliminary flyer for the event to the right. For the past several weeks YAA has been busily organizing a major march and rally scheduled to take place on October 1. The primary purpose of the event is to spotlight the harmful and deceptive practices of the military in America's schools, and to demonstrate local support among youth and adults alike for the growing counter-recruitment movement. We will gather initially at Republic Square Park at 4:00 pm, from which we will march across the downtown to the City Hall, where students and activists will rally and hear from assorted speakers, including students, parents, teachers, and veterans. Not only that, but there will also be live music from, among others, David Rovics, who performed here in Austin just two days ago at the Cindy Sheehan event.

Endorsements for the rally already include Texans for Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against War, with many more official endorsements to be announced in the coming weeks. I'll continue to update the site here with more details about the event as they become available.

This will be Austin's first massive counter-recruitment event. Be there.

No Nonsense in November

2005-09-02T14:41:00.000-07:00

Youth Activists of Austin has officially endorsed the "No Nonsense in November" campaign to defeat the Texas gay marriage amendment that is up for voter approval this November. This is a major effort in which volunteers are greatly needed. Even if we are unlikely to defeat the amendment, a strong campaign will help set the groundwork for victory on this issue in the future.

To pledge to volunteer, go to the volunteer webpage on the website. You can volunteer, among other ways, by working at the office, blockwalking either through the office organized times or by adopting your precinct, or doing data entry at home.

More information can be found by emailing info@NoNonsenseInNovember.com or calling (512) 443-2019.

AISD meeting!

2005-08-13T13:13:00.000-07:00

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

Meetings at Maplewood School

2005-08-05T22:04:00.000-07:00

Just to let everyone know, YAA is now meeting outside of the Maplewood School down the street from the Quacks bakery on East 38 1/2 Street. We'll meet there until Quacks finishes some construction. Maplewood School is just East past the rail road tracks, on the left. We meet at the South entrance.

See you there!

AISD meeting!

2005-08-05T21:12:00.000-07:00

AISD is holding a board meeting this Monday(8th) at 7pm. The Youth Activists of Austin will be meeting at 4pm at the AISD HQ(located: Board Auditorium of the Carruth Administration Center on 1111 West 6th Street). Sign up begins at 4pm, and is limited to the first 25 people. YAA members will be signing up to attempt to bring light to and have as many students as possible talk about military recruitment issues.

Try to get as many students as possible to come, lets make a real impact!

Students to planning counter-recruitment march

2005-07-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

Friday, July 29, 6:30pm

Youth Activists of Austin is opening up the July 29 meeting to the community to help plan a march calling for the demilitarization of high schools (can extend to colleges as well) on Sept. 17 (date open for discussion). Come help plan and/or lend your organizational name in endorsement.

Where: Maplewood School - outside near the side entrance steps (on E. 38 1/2 St., 5 blocks east of I-35, at the railroad tracks)
Info: Contact yaaustin[at]gmail.com.

See you there!

Ignoring Iraqi casualties

2005-07-13T19:45:00.000-07:00

Their have been many of letters in the Austin American Statesman about the war in Iraq, and many if not most of those mention the American casualties. However, even among the anti-war letters, very few mention the thousands of civilians that have died. The same is true of all of the mainstream news sources I have seen and most of the left wing news and commentary as well. Why is it that we for the most part ignore their suffering?

Is it because we as a people are selfish? We are concerned about war, but only because of its effect on ourselves. For most people, civilian casualties have little influence on their opinion of the war, while American casualties do have a major effect. Right-wingers often argue that both in Vietnam and Iraq we are fighting them "there" because we don’t want to fight them "here." This is not true. The war in Iraq has does absolutely nothing to stop terrorists from attacking the US (or other Western countries, as was demonstrated last week). The war has, rather, alienated huge numbers of Muslims around the globe, helping not hampering terrorist recruitment efforts. Not only that, it shows that we don’t care about the peoples country that we do turn into a war zone. Why is that they should live in constant fear and terror just to make us feel safer? I guarantee that if the war was going on in America, our troops would not have bombed an American city like they did Fallujah, would not be as trigger happy as they are now, and would not use depleted uranium for ammunition. 2 2838- 25689 civilians have reportedly died in Iraq. That is about 8 times more deaths then on September 11th, and about 500 more then the recent terrorist attacks in London.

This girl deserved to live just as much as any of us. She deserved to live in peace just as much as any of us.

PA Teen goes AWOL

2005-07-09T11:52:00.000-07:00

About 6 weeks ago, a young woman in Norhtampton, PA, made public allegations of recruiter fraud regarding her enlistment (when she was 17) in the PA Army National Guard delayed training program.Northampton is one of the high schools that has refused to permit counter-recruitment....

Yesterday, the Guard issued a warrant for her as AWOL and sent to several local police forces and the state police, requesting her apprehension and return to military control. Reportedly, she is not in the state at this time.

These shallow actions committed by the US military demonstrate that no child is to be left behind for war, even if it takes bringing a teen into custody.

Northampton Area teen in recruiting dispute goes AWOL
Warrant issued for AWOL teen in recruiting dispute

Well, not really.

2005-06-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

The Washington Post, and the mainstream media in general, aren't looking closely enough at the numbers, as usual. The media has reported that the Army and Army reserves met their recruiting goals in June. The reality, however, is that they simply lowered their recruiting goals month before--by over 1300 recruits. A short paragraph in a recent New York Times article notes,

"Early last month, the Army, with no public notice, lowered its long-stated May goal to 6,700 recruits from 8,050. Compared with the original target, the Army achieved only 62.6 percent of its goal for the month."

Even with that lower goal, the Army still didn't reach their goals in May. Now, they're declaring that 6,150 June recruits is a success. As alluded to in the article in Will's post but not spelled out,

"the Army is at barely 50 percent of its goal. Recruiters would have to land more than 9,760 young men and women a month, on average, to reach the 80,000 target by the end of September."

They're still way behind, and the recruiting in June didn't get them much closer. The military recruitment establishment layers the deception on so thick sometimes, it's easy to get the wrong impression. That's where we activists come in. For more information about the real story on June recruitment, see DailyKos and Needlenose.

By the way, whatever promises military recruiters make about benefits, bonuses, and now, even post-war healthcare for veterans, really can't be trusted. Over the past few months, the Bush administration and Republican House leadership have been busy screwing over veterans (including the wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan):

By now, it should be obvious that the "pro-defense" party doesn't give a damn about our troops, least of all veterans.

House Republicans ousted fellow conservative Chris Smith as chairman of the Committee on Veterans Affairs for his tireless advocacy of veterans rights. Current Chairman Steve Buyer was promoted, in the words of one Republican aide, "to tell the veterans groups, 'Enough is enough.'"

Senate Republicans have repeatedly voted down funding increases for vets to keep pace with inflation and meet rising needs.

The Bush Administration tried to add an enrollment fee and double the prescription co-payment for VA health care.

And now the VA admits it is $1 billion short on health care funding for this year alone.
After months of dodging Congressional questioning, VA undersecretary for health Jonathan Perlin finally gave the House VA Committee an unexpectedly honest answer last week. It turns out the $1.6 billion spending increase promised last year has been a matter of accounting trickery, achieved by shifting money from one account to another, and cutting almost $1 billion for medical administration, facilities and prosthetic research.

That's part of the problem with the military service in this country. When you sign that contract with the military, what happens to you not only depends on the decisions and practices of your immediate superior officers, but even more so on the civilian political leadership in Washington. The point was made many times during last season's election campaign that General Shinseki recommended many more troops in Iraq to better pacify the country after the invasion; he was ignored and forced out by Donald Rumsfeld. The President, who at the moment happens to have been a draft-dodger during Vietnam and has no military experience whatsoever, is the 'commander-in-chief,' of course. If he and his advisers happen to decide (whether on the basis of politics of supposed national security) that the military needs to begin an unprecedented stop-loss deployment policy in order to maintain an open-ended occupation in a foreign country full of guerillas, there's virtually nothing a soldier can do to determine the course of his or her life in the following months or years. Once you're in the military, your life is, to a disturbingly large extent, not in your own hands any more.

So, let's really support the troops: bring 'em home, and stop recruiting people through deception and invasions of privacy. YAA has a meeting tomorrow at 6:30 at Quack's. Come get involved if you're not already!

New meeting time!

2005-06-24T18:13:00.000-07:00

We've decided to move back our weekly meeting time one hour so that people who wish to attend the meeting can also participate in Austin Against War's anti-war vigil in front of the Capitol building every Friday from 5-6. I'll be at the vigil regularly (I usually get there at about 5:15 depending on the buses).

Afterwards, I'll bike over to the YAA meeting, which is now every Friday at the area around Quack's Bakery in Maplewood at 6:30 PM. You can stay as long as you like. The bakery itself has been closing early lately, so if we're not there, walk east past the railroad tracks and look up at the school playground area on your left. We meet at the school when the bakery closes. (A map of the area is here.)

We're planning multiple events for this summer and fall, so please come join us and be a part of the action.

Pentagon Creating Student Database To Help Recruiters

2005-06-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

By Jonathan Krim, Washington Post Staff Writer Thu Jun 23, 1:00 AM ET

The Defense Department began working yesterday with a private marketing firm to create a database of high school students ages 16 to 18 and all college students to help the military identify potential recruits in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches.

The program is provoking a furor among privacy advocates. The new database will include personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade-point averages, ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying.

The data will be managed by BeNow Inc. of Wakefield, Mass., one of many marketing firms that use computers to analyze large amounts of data to target potential customers based on their personal profiles and habits.

"The purpose of the system . . . is to provide a single central facility within the Department of Defense to compile, process and distribute files of individuals who meet age and minimum school requirements for military service," according to the official notice of the program.

Privacy advocates said the plan appeared to be an effort to circumvent laws that restrict the government's right to collect or hold citizen information by turning to private firms to do the work.

Some information on high school students already is given to military recruiters in a separate program under provisions of the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act. Recruiters have been using the information to contact students at home, angering some parents and school districts around the country.

School systems that fail to provide that information risk losing federal funds, although individual parents or students can withhold information that would be transferred to the military by their districts. John Moriarty, president of the PTA at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, said the issue has "generated a great deal of angst" among many parents participating in an e-mail discussion group.

Under the new system, additional data will be collected from commercial data brokers, state drivers' license records and other sources, including information already held by the military.

"Using multiple sources allows the compilation of a more complete list of eligible candidates to join the military," according to written statements provided by
Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke in response to questions. "This program is important because it helps bolster the effectiveness of all the services' recruiting and retention efforts."

The Pentagon's statements added that anyone can "opt out" of the system by providing detailed personal information that will be kept in a separate "suppression file." That file will be matched with the full database regularly to ensure that those who do not wish to be contacted are not, according to the Pentagon.

But privacy advocates said using database marketers for military recruitment is inappropriate.

"We support the U.S. armed forces, and understand that DoD faces serious challenges in recruiting for the military," a coalition of privacy groups wrote to the Pentagon after notice of the program was published in the Federal Register a month ago. "But . . . the collection of this information is not consistent with the Privacy Act, which was passed by Congress to reduce the government's collection of personal information on Americans."

Chris Jay Hoofnagle, West Coast director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, called the system "an audacious plan to target-market kids, as young as 16, for military solicitation."

He added that collecting Social Security numbers was not only unnecessary but posed a needless risk of identity fraud. Theft of Social Security numbers and other personal information from data brokers, government agencies, financial institutions and other companies is rampant.

"What's ironic is that the private sector has ways of uniquely identifying individuals without using Social Security numbers for marketing," he said.

The Pentagon statements said the military is "acutely aware of the substantial security required to protect personal data," and that Social Security numbers will be used only to "provide a higher degree of accuracy in matching duplicate data records."

The Pentagon said it routinely monitors its vendors to ensure compliance with its security standards.

Krenke said she did not know how much the contract with BeNow was worth, or whether it was bid competitively.

Officials at BeNow did not return several messages seeking comment. The company's Web site does not have a published privacy policy, nor does it list either a chief privacy officer or security officer on its executive team.

According to the Federal Register notice, the data will be open to "those who require the records in the performance of their official duties." It said the data would be protected by passwords.

The system also gives the Pentagon the right, without notifying citizens, to share the data for numerous uses outside the military, including with law enforcement, state tax authorities and Congress.

Some see the program as part of a growing encroachment of government into private lives, particularly since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"It's just typical of how voracious government is when it comes to personal information," said James W. Harper, a privacy expert with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. "Defense is an area where government has a legitimate responsibility . . . but there are a lot of data fields they don't need and shouldn't be keeping. Ethnicity strikes me as particularly inappropriate."

Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the Social Security Administration relaxed its privacy policies and provided data on citizens to the FBI in connection with terrorism investigations.

General Cites Influencers as Part of Recruiting Challenge

2005-06-21T15:22:00.000-07:00

Here's an article that shows counter-recruitment efforts are working. It also says more and more corporations are getting on the recruiting bandwagon. Even Austin-based Dell, whose only charity is supporting children, are now into recruiting them for the imperial war machine...

General Cites Influencers as Part of Recruiting Challenge
By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample, USA
American Forces Press Service

FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md., June 17, 2005 – The greatest challenge facing recruiters is the people who influence young men and women of the "Millennium Generation" not to serve, the commander of the Army Recruiting Command said here today.

Maj. Gen. Michael D. Rochelle, commander of the Army Recruiting Command, speaks with reporters at Fort George G. Meade, Md., June 17. He said people who are the key influencers of young people today pose the biggest challenge to recruiting. "Influencers are clearly having an impact right now on our ability to successfully recruit -- unquestionably so," said Maj. Gen. Michael D. Rochelle, who was here to take part in a change-of-command ceremony for the 1st Recruiting Brigade.

He said about 100 companies have signed on with the Army in the "Partnership for Youth Success," including the Dell Corp., Southwest Airlines and Sears Logistics.

"What these companies realize is that these young soldiers, after completion of military service, bring a quality that's frankly irreplaceable," Rochelle said.

Skepticism is a good thing.

2005-06-20T09:26:00.000-07:00

Rachel Rogers, a single mother of four in upstate New York, did not worry about the presence of National Guard recruiters at her son's high school until she learned that they taught students how to throw hand grenades, using baseballs as stand-ins. For the last month she has been insisting that administrators limit recruiters' access to children.

Orlando Terrazas, a former truck river in Southern California, said he was struck when his son told him that recruiters were promising students jobs as musicians. Mr. Terrazas has been trying since September to hang posters at his son's public school to counter the military's message.

So begins a long Times article entitled "Growing Problem for Military Recruiters: Parents." It documents how many local PTA/PTSA groups are passing resolutions to protest the unreasonable amount of access recruiters to have to schools-- and some of the recruiters' more questionable tactics. Stories like those described above, in which recruiters make empty promises to students (jobs as musicians?) or try to seduce them with flashy demonstrations (throwing grenades?) are becoming more and more frequent as the military continues to miss its recruiting goals. YAA has learned from speaking with Nonmilitary Options for Youth that recruiters will often purposely manipulate the facts to hide from recruits the possibility that they might be sent to war, as shown in this exchange between war resister Ryan Johnson and 'Democracy Now!' host Amy Goodman:

AMY GOODMAN: And what did they tell you?

RYAN JOHNSON: Well, they, you know, they promised everything. They said that, you know, I could get a big bonus for joining, and they have non-combat jobs, so, you know, there's no -- there's a less likely chance of going to Iraq or anything like that. And --

AMY GOODMAN: Did they say you would go to Iraq?

RYAN JOHNSON: Well, actually my father is deceased, and I told them that, and they said, “Oh, well, you know, since your father's deceased, you won't have to go, because there is a clause that says that if you have a family member that is deceased, you won't have to go.” But that’s only if it’s after you join the military they died and they had to have died in combat. They didn't tell me that. So I was under the impression that I wouldn't go.

AMY GOODMAN: And what did you think you would be doing?

RYAN JOHNSON: Well, the job that I was signed up for was warehouse worker, so being a warehouse worker I figured I wouldn't really be seeing combat in Iraq anyway. That’s how they made it sound.

Later on in the interview, Johnson says that the main reason he joined the military was to get the $40,000 bonus for to help pay for college tuition. However, he was denied permission to go to college because of the deployment to Iraq that the Army sprung on him. "And your commander has to okay for you to go to college. But no one was being okayed to go to college because we were just so busy with the deployment."

As the military continues to become more desperate in its search for new recruits, students should be seriously skeptical of whatever claims a recruiter may make. The Army recruiters' handbook (PDF) specifically directs recruiters to go after students who cannot afford to go to college, and to become involved with those who play sports, including football, track, baseball, and basketball. Of the "college recruitment market" itself, the handbook says, "This market is an excellent source of potential Army enlistments due to the high percentage of students who drop out of college, particularly during the first 2 years." Recruiters are instructed to hone in on each student's vulnerabilites and inclinations and exploit them to their advantage, making the military appear to be the best possible option for the future.

This is never the case, of course. There are always other paths to take. For more information, check out Nonmiliary Options for Youth.

2005-06-15T17:07:00.000-07:00

This Friday, June 17, YAA will participate in a peace vigil at the Capitol (11th & Congress) from 5-6 pm, and will have a meeting shortly after. The location will be determined at the Capitol. The following week, the meetings will return to their usual place. We'll keep you posted via the list serve or site if any changes occur.

Weekly Peace Vigil at the Capitol, Every Friday, 5:00-6:00pm
After two years of war in Iraq, the situation continues to deteriorate, and it is just as important now to be in front of the Capitol as ever! Protest the US "war without end" and costly militarism by holding signs and banners calling for an end to war. No group is a sponsor, however, long-time attendees encourage nonviolence and respect for one another, as well as the public. A series of posters and signs will emphasize the military escalation and oppression in Iraq.