After countless e-mails and telephone calls, Michelle Grise, the president of the Loudoun County Coalition on Recruitment Issues, received good news from the public schools system. There will be a military services opt-out form in the Student Rights and Responsibility Handbook at the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year.
"That was our first priority," Grise said. "We see this as a big victory."
When Grise asked parents around the county if they knew about the recruitment policy in place, she said they were unaware their children’s information was being released to the armed services.
"They also had no idea that in order to prevent this from happening that they needed write a letter within 14 days of the start of school explaining they did not want their information released to the military," she said. "And the reason they didn’t know that is because that information appeared on the short paragraph on page 23 of the handbook. An opt-out form at the beginning of the handbook would most likely prevent this from happening."
While Grise has not seen the opt-out form yet, she said the coalition plans to meet with schools staff over the summer.
"We don’t want students’ names released because they did not know about it," Grise said, "and we don’t want students to sign up for the military because they think that’s there only option."
THE COALITION’S second priority is the amount of access recruiters have to high-school students.
Under No Child Left Behind, military recruiters are permitted to stand outside of high-school cafeterias and recruit students to the military.
"We do not allow colleges or businesses access to our students in a classroom, nor should we allow military recruiters," Grise said. "Our students' time is for learning, it is not for making our recruiters job easier."
While college recruiters meet with students in a supervised setting, Grise said military recruiters are permitted to talk to students one-on-one in the halls.
Grise received an e-mail last week from School Board member Mark Nuzacco (Catoctin), chairman of the legislative policy committee, stating Superintendent Edgar B. Hatrick and his staff were working on standardizing how recruiters meet with students.
"We don’t know what that means yet," Grise said, "but we feel like there needs to be a policy."
EVENTUALLY, THE COALITION would like to have a presence in the schools.
"We are not antimilitary, we want students to have as much information as possible," Grise said. "We want students, especially those who don’t have the means to go to college, to know the military is not the only option. There are other options out there."
<1b>— Kim Centazzo