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Peace Group Counters Military Recruiters

Posted on: Wednesday, 2 November 2005, 18:01 CST

By Julia Scott, CORRESPONDENT

In his four years at Mills High School, Alex Hill said military recruiters were often close at hand.

"They were everywhere," he said. "Holding push-up competitions outside the cafeteria, handing out posters and pencils, talking to students in the yard."

Hill said some students would approach them with interest. In other cases, however, he saw recruiters "nag at" friends who said they weren't interested.

"I was raised to think [their presence-- was just a part of life," said Hill, who graduated from Mills in June. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, schools must give military recruiters access to the student body at job fairs and a list of students' contact information or risk losing their funding.

Don Havis is a military "counter-recruiter" who educates local high school students about ways to get out of the military. He belongs to a new breed of anti-war activists who have their own message for students: recruiters lie. He is concerned that high school students like Hill are targeted with pro-military messages without ever hearing the other side of the story.

"The Army targets kids who aren't too well-informed in the hopes of recruiting them," Havis said.

Seven students reported for active duty in the 2004-2005 school year, according to the two recruitment stations that account for the majority of high schools in the county. John Heil, a spokesman for the U.S. Army recruiting office, said those numbers were lower than they'd hoped.

"Those guys need to step it up," he said, referring to local recruiters.

Nationally, the Army has increasingly struggled to meet its enlistment quotas.

Havis said the Army has used false promises of a subsidized education or career training to "lure" students into the service; in the end, however, all the young recruit sees is combat.

A ponytailed, 71-year-old former special education teacher, Havis wears a sweatshirt festooned with anti-war buttons. He and members of his group, PeaceAction of San Mateo County, often stand outside high schools with flyers warning students away from militaryservice.

Havis talks with them about alternative ways to pay for college, how to become a conscientious objector and how to avoid registering with the mandatory federal Selective Service System, which keeps a list of combat-age American men.

Controversial materials

PeaceAction also distributes an informational brochure with details about how to avoid active duty if the draft were reinstated. It is entitled "Dealing with the Selective Service System."

Havis said the brochure is educational, and simply gives students an alternative to enlistment. Some high schools in the South San Francisco and Jefferson Union districts carry the brochures in their career centers, where the Army, Navy and Marines advertise. But Havis said he was denied similar access to the San Mateo Union high schools by the District Superintendent's office.

At the urging of a Hillsdale High School student, Havis met with school Principal Donald Leydig in March to ask for permission to set up a table on campus with his counter-recruitment materials. Leydig referred the query to the superintendent's office, and it was denied. Havis withdrew his request for a table on campus and asked instead that the brochure be placed in career centers, but it was a no-go.

"They haven't responded with a sound reason why they're opposing this," said Havis, who suspected officials found the materials too contrary.

Superintendent Samuel Johnson, Jr. said his office's decision was a matter of policy, not politics. He pointed out that students had founded anti-war groups on campus without restriction. But allowing outside groups to have a presence on campus, even in the form of a brochure, he said, would set a dangerous precedent.

"How do we make the distinction between this group and the next, more radical group allowed on campus?" Asked Johnson. "Once you open that door, it's difficult to close."

The superintendent said the school district does not allow materials from any interest group on campus unless it is mandated by a law such as No Child Left Behind. "They do not have the same rights [of access-- as the military does," he said.

Free speech issue

Julia Harumi Mass, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, said Havis could make a case for viewpoint discrimination under the First Amendment. Military recruiters have a legal right to attend school career fairs, but any "extra access" given to recruiters should be applied equally to other groups, said Mass.

"If a career center has outside materials from the military, they should allow materials from other viewpoints, as long as it's relevant to the subject matter," she said.

For his part, Alex Hill said he wished he and his friends at Mills High had known that there were counter-recruiters in town. "I think there should be another voice on campus," he said. "It's a very one-sided situation."

Correspondent Julia Scott can be reached at 348-4340 or by e- mail at jscott@sanmateocountytimes.com.

Source: Oakland Tribune

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