As the saying goes, "When something is too good to be true, it usually is." So when President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act, activist Margaret Prescod knew something was up. She knew that the act, which is supposed to prevent children from failing school, was just too good to be true. "I knew something wasn't right with it," she said. She was right. Not many people are aware that included in the No Child Left Behind Act is a clause that gives the military recruiters permission to obtain personal information of school kids for future recruitment purposes. Unfortunately, too few parents, especially those who are poor or non-white, know there is also a form that can be filed that will prevent military recruiters from getting that information. That's what jolted Prescod into action. The form is called the "opt out" option, and Prescod, a California native, started a national Opt Out campaign here in Philadelphia that she plans to take nationwide, into urban schools and to parents of Blacks and Latinos. "There is no way that anybody can convince me that the Bush administration has the best interest of the African-American community at heart or any low-income community at heart," she said. "When I heard that included in this bill is this clause, I was absolutely outraged." Prescod said that suburban schools are more likely to inform families about the opt-out clause. In Montclair, N.J., a suburban school performed an opt-out awareness lecture and 85 percent of the student body did opt out, but inner-city schools are rarely aware of the option. A member of a group called Women of Color, Prescod said a survey given at Edison High School in Philadelphia revealed 98 percent of the student body knew nothing about opting out. "We're finding that most of the students know nothing about it," Prescod said of the situation with urban schools. "What is happening is names are being passed on to the military without families having a say-so as to whether or not that want that to happen. "So we want to raise awareness to as many people as possible especially, but not only, in Black communities, that they have the choice to opt out or not." The campaign, which is set to make stops in southern and northern California, Cleveland, Utah, Milwaukee and other large population centers, is targeted at inner-city schools. "My brother was in Vietnam and has been there
ever since, with no help, by the way, from the U.S. government for his various ailments,"
Prescod said. "Our family has suffered firsthand and I really don't African-American communities are the main communities targeted by military recruiters, she said. When schools hold career day, or any type of career lecture for students, military recruiters are usually around. Prescod said options for many African-American youth are already limited, and it is unfair for military recruiters to target young Blacks. "They tell us that there is no money for quality education," she said. "There is no money for after-school activities for our kids when our families don't have the money, there is no money for the young people, there is no money for the caregivers and elderly in our community. "But yet every day in Iraq, that war cost millions of dollars, in fact it cost millions of dollars per hour in Iraq. The money is there, it is just a question of where the priorities lie." Prescod said that military recruiters often influence students with propaganda. For example, when the military says it will pay for college education when recruits sign up, the money actually comes out of the young soldier's paychecks during his tour of duty. Prescod, who has a daughter, said that she would not want her daughter go into the military because of the incidents of sexual harassment that have been reported over the last several years. She believes many more incidents have gone unreported. Recruiters also have a sales pitch about how the military prepares people for work as civilians. "They tell you, 'Oh, you have all these skills and when you come out that you can apply to in real life.' Well, excuse me. How many demolition experts are needed in civilian life? How many snipers and sharpshooters are needed in civilian life? We don't want our children trained to kill," Prescod said. "We want our children to know about caring for themselves, each other, for our communities and respecting the environment. That is the type of world we want - we don't want all this killing, and all this money coming out of our communities and into war." She said she does not want students to be recruited unless they seek out information themselves, along with their parents. But she is completely against recruitment on school grounds. "We want to stop it entirely," she said. "We don't need the military in the lunch rooms, during breaks snatching kids. That is not what schools are supposed to be about. So we want to stop it entirely. We don't want our schools militarized, we don't want our communities militarized." Prescod sees this roundabout approach by the military as sinister, a plot to continue the Vietnam-era legacy of having the poor and dark-skinned spill their blood for the comfort of the wealthy. "People don't know that they have a choice," she said. "People don't even know that the names of their children are being given to the military. Then you have the military calling the students at home. A lot of poor people don't even know that the military are getting that type of personal information, much less that they can opt out. "(The military) knows exactly where to go to get their hands on our children. This is absolutely vital to us, because this is about saving our children lives. So we have to say no; we have to say 'Enough is enough, and George Bush, no, you are not going to get your hands on our children.'" [We have asked the Tribune to print our contact information and the correct name of Margaret's organisaiton (Women of Color in the Global Women's Strike) in their next edition] |
