Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)

Articles Archive
Hits: 4414

From Draft NOtices, May-June 2000


- Glen Milner, Seattle Draft and Military Counseling Center

Four years of involvement with counter-recruiting issues in the Shoreline School District has uncovered a number of sexual harassment cases involving U.S. Army recruiters and female high school students. If not for the close scrutiny recruiters were receiving from activists and the media, it is doubtful the incidents of sexual harassment would have been made public. The question remains — how common is the sexual harassment of female students in our schools by military recruiters?

Shoreline School District has two high schools and is located immediately north of Seattle. The neighborhoods in the district are middle to upper-middle class. Generally, military service is viewed as not the best choice here, but an acceptable choice for some.

In 1995, parents of students at Shorecrest High School asked for equal access for activists with an alternative view to military service. We had discovered that military recruiters had no restrictions on access to students in the district. Recruiters could be seen in the gym after school and uniformed soldiers even instructed some of the class periods, but the schools would not allow leaflets with an opposing view to military service in the career centers. Eventually, the media became interested in our efforts and began carrying articles about military recruitment in public schools. Finally, in June 1997, Shorecrest High School agreed to allow us to display four different leaflets in its career center.

Articles Archive
Hits: 4947

From Draft NOtices, May - June 2000
    

- Ken Larsen, Friends Committee on Legislation of Calif.

Most Californians probably don’t know that our state has an agency called the "Military Department" and that it is slated for a 58% budget increase in these times of peace and prosperity. Traditionally, the Military Department’s job has been to manage the California Army and Air National Guard, the state’s reserve forces for times of war, insurrection and disaster.

But Governor Gray Davis has come up with a new mission for the state’s military. He wants the National Guard not only to prepare for catastrophe, but also to take over the education of difficult young people.

The governor’s 2000-2001 fiscal year budget asks the legislature to approve $10.5 million in funding for two new paramilitary training institutions. Both the Turning Point Academy and the Oakland Military Academy set dangerous and wasteful policy precedents.

Subscribe to...

Click HERE

 

Ninth CIRCUIT COURT RULING: CONFRONTING MILITARISM BY USING EQUAL ACCESS TO HIGH SCHOOLS

When the military comes to your local high school, you have a legal right to give students an opposing view. This has been the position taken by federal district courts in Florida, Pennsylvania and Illinois and two federal appellate courts. The most broadly-worded decision came from a case that COMD took to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the 1980s. Here is the background:

Find Out More | Download PDF