Posted on 08/07/2009 7:39:06 AM PDT by stan_sipple
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska wants to make sure parents know they can keep their high school students' records from military recruiters - if they wish.
A portion of the federal No Child Left Behind law requires that schools provide the names, addresses and phone numbers of juniors and seniors to all branches of the military, although it allows parents to "opt out."
"Consent is assumed unless a parent takes affirmative steps," said Amy Miller. legal director of ACLU Nebraska.
The problem: Some parents say they didn't realize they had the option to refuse release of the information.
In one instance at Lincoln Public Schools, a parent did opt out but still got the recruiting calls, Miller said.
That situation appears to be an honest mistake by the school district, and typically districts are following the letter of the law. But some should be going a little further, she said.
LPS, for instance, includes the information at the back of an "important information" handbook mailed at the beginning of the year.
That can easily be overlooked in the flurry of start-of-school paperwork parents receive, Miller said.
It would be better, she said, if LPS officials sent it as a separate form so parents would be more likely to see it. Some schools already do that, she said.
Marilyn Moore, LPS associate superintendent of instruction, said the handbook tells parents to call their child's school if they don't want the military to get the information.
LPS could send a separate form, but it could send out separate information for much of the material in the handbook, she said.
"Separate mailings tend to get lost on the kitchen counter," Moore said.
Debbie Cannon, public affairs chief for the Denver Army Recruiting Battalion that includes Lincoln, said recruiters call every high school student on the lists they get from the schools.
But the depressed economy tends to draw more enlistees and allows recruiters to be more selective, she said.
The number of Army recruits from the Lincoln area has increased from 100 in 2005 to 122 last year, she said.
Over the past few years, the ACLU has gotten about a dozen complaints from parents statewide, four or five of those from LPS parents, Miller said.
The ACLU had been handling them individually but decided to send a letter clarifying the rules to schools because it's an important issue, Miller said.
As long as students are living at home, parents should have the issue placed in front of them so they can decide, Miller said.
"This is a federal law that allows the military to bypass parents," she said.
“This is a federal law that allows the military to bypass parents,” she said.
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Lady, if your kid is 18 and you’re whining about protecting him or her from talking to a recruiter, we probably wouldn’t want ‘em. OR it’d be the best decision they’d ever made.
Colonel, USAFR
“A portion of the federal No Child Left Behind law requires that schools...”
Another reason to dislike No Child Left Behind and the infiltration of federal authority intoe very aspect of our lives.
The ACLU will fight to the end to keep American youth from the clutches of the American Military, yet will fight to the end to reap the uncounted benefits of the military’s sacrifices.
The ACLU will do NOTHING to fight a “rat on your neighbor policy” pitting the Federal Government against American’s who are foolish enough to think the First Amendment applies to them.
Wasn’t there a man with a mustache in Germany who set up a program quite similar. Also a mustached guy in Russia. Also a man in Cuba, but he had a beard instead.
I ratted myself out two days ago.
I’m unsympathetic for the most part BUT I do believe that data sharing programs of any sort should always be opt-in. Unless people are choose to opt-in they may not even know that information is being shared or that they have a right to not have it shared.
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