As parents and educators we work to instill this value in our children. At the same time, our youth depend upon us for guidance when making life choices. This is a responsibility we do not take lightly.
The federal “No Child Left Behind Act” mandates school access for military recruiters. We do not dispute this.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in a 1986 decision stated that the question of military service is a controversial political issue, and if a school establishes a forum for one side to present its views, the school must give opponents equal access to the forum.
When we tried to present our viewpoints on military service in the forum of the Homer High School Commons with a military recruiter present, we were told to leave, and were eventually forced to leave under arrest.
Based on the First Amendment and the 9th Circuit ruling, our demand is for equal access to students during forums in public schools that address military service.
Schools are for education. Students are conditioned by years of learning to expect that teachers do not misrepresent the facts. There is ample evidence that — and good reason why — military recruiters do not always present all the facts when it comes to military service. In the absence of opposing viewpoints, our concern is that students may think that the school itself endorses what a recruiter says.
And what do recruiters say? Master Sgt. Michael Williams, the supervisor of the recruiters at Homer High School when we were arrested, is quoted by one newspaper about the incident that day: “I’ll tell you now, the bases in Iraq are safer than Homer, Alaska. If you were to go there, you’d have Internet, cell phone, a college campus and soft-serve ice cream.”
Is this the appropriate information — and only side of the story — students should hear when they are considering such a formative decision to join the military?
This is precisely why we want to be in the school when military recruiters are present.
The television show “60 Minutes” recently reported on new research that found the area of the brain where decision-making is located is not yet fully developed in teenagers. These are the very same people who are being recruited to take up arms and represent America across the world. Vulnerable young minds are studied, focused on and lured with material promises.
Recruiters aren’t part of the educational process and yet here they are in a school-setting, pressured with recruitment quotas for their own career advancement, supported with finely tuned marketing research and glossy brochures and videos, presenting one side of a very complicated issue in a publicly supported forum, and we’re excluded, and then arrested. Does something seem out of balance here?
One of us has a 17-year-old son at Homer High School; another one of us is a decorated Vietnam veteran; the other one of us has two young daughters asking her why we are at war.
Much to its credit, the Kenai Peninsula school board has been responsive in the past to our concerns with the “No Child Left Behind Act” related to making the military opt-out form more accessible for students and families. Then in November and December some of us met with the local site council and administration of Homer High School to express our concerns and request equal access to the students when military recruiters were present. We were told that the equal access law did not pertain to Homer High School.
The next time we became aware that military recruiters were at the high school, we went there to participate in the forum and exercise our rights to free speech and equal access as proscribed by law.
We did not and will not tell students to join or not to join the military. It is their decision to make. But that decision should be based on complete information.
Shouldn’t this principle of full disclosure and equal access apply to one of the most important decisions a young American can make: The decision to put one’s life on the line in service to their country?
Thomas Jefferson, widely credited with drafting the U.S. Declaration of Independence stated, “For God’s sake, let us freely hear both sides!” We will not shrink from our duty to ensure that our children hear as much of the facts as possible, not just some of the facts when deciding on a military commitment. We will not shrink from our inviolable rights.
Use them or lose them.
Hope Finklestein, Michael LeMay and Debbie Poore are the “Homer Three.”
Finklestein, mother of two school-age daughters, earned her master’s degree in American studies. She has coordinated community-based education initiatives across the nation for more than 20 years. She lives in Fritz Creek.
LeMay is the owner-operator of the Good Karma Inn in Fritz Creek. He is a Vietnam veteran who served his U.S. Army tour in the Mekong Delta in 1970. He was a nominee for Homer’s 2005 Citizen of the Year Award.
Poore has lived in Homer for 30 years. She is a retired elementary school teacher. She and her husband have two sons. One is 17 years old and attends Homer High School.
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