Earlier this school year, Mission Bay High School students reported that they were required to attend an assembly sponsored by the Army. It was part of the Army's "All-American Bowl" program that uses an outstanding football player award ceremony as a recruiting pretext. Read this Army Web site description:
WELCOME TO THE 2010 U.S ARMY ALL-AMERICAN SELECTION TOUR
The Selection Tour for the tenth anniversary of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl kicks off on September 29. This year's Selection Tour will recognize 187 high school football and marching band All-Americans from across the United States. The All-Americans will be honored by a local Army representative at a special ceremony in front of classmates, family, and media. The Selection Tour annually reaches over one million people, and has grown every year since its inception. For more information regarding locations and dates please contact Liz Meltzer at ...
Before the assembly at MBHS, the principal told one teacher that it would not be a recruiting event, but other than spending a short five minutes honoring one of the school's star football players (the stated reason for the assembly), the overall event was an Army promotion.
While at the assembly, students encountered Army representatives asking them to fill out the form embedded below (or attached to this), allegedly to enter a drawing for an i-pod. Notice that the form requests all sorts of confidential, profiling information, including the student's citizenship status. In a footnote, the form says it's optional to provide some pieces of information which will be used for recruiting purposes, but the form does not promise that the rest of the info will not be used for recruiting. One student reported that she told the Army representative she didn't need the i-pod, but the soldier kept aggressively arguing that she should fill it out anyway.
A video clip of the assembly can be seen here:
The sound doesn't seem to work (so much for Army technical skills), but you can see how the assembly was staged to promote Army enlistment (e.g., goarmy.com is plastered everywhere).
If anyone is aware of similar military events held at other schools, including elementary and middle, please let us know. Documentation of these will help the Education Not Arms Coalition pursue a policy requiring balanced military, college and employment recruiting.
Rick Jahnkow
Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities
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