JROTC Scandal In San Diego

[Rich Gibson <rgibson@pipeline.com>]

> http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2008/jun/04/city-light-2/
>
>
> and a classic "Abolish Rotc" Poster 
> http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~rgibson/abolishROTC.jpg
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>
> A Cool Elective You Can't Get Out Of
>
>
>
> By 
> <http://www.sandiegoreader.com/staff/dorian-hargrove/>Dorian 
> Hargrove | Published Wednesday, June 4, 2008
>
> Text size: 
> <http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2008/jun/04/city-light-2/#>A | A | A
>
> Eduardo Ochoa teaches social justice at Lincoln 
> High School in Chollas View. Ochoa is also a 
> coordinator for the Advancement Via Individual 
> Determination program, or AVID, as everyone 
> calls it, a high school elective designed to 
> help midlevel students prepare for college and 
> meet college eligibility requirements.
>
> During this school year, six of Ochoa?s students 
> dropped the program in favor of the military 
> science program, the Junior Reserve Officers? 
> Training Corps, or JROTC. According to Ochoa, 
> military science instructors told the students 
> that their class was easier and would also help students get into college.
>
> Across town, at Mission Bay High School in 
> Pacific Beach, 11th-grader Anay Barajas was 
> placed into the newly offered Marines JROTC 
> class at the beginning of the school year. She 
> says she had no idea what the class was about, 
> but when she saw it involved drills and 
> marching, she wanted out and into the AVID and 
> Spanish classes that she had picked as her 
> electives. ?I went to my counselor,? Barajas 
> says, ?and she told me, ?Yeah, we?ll call you 
> in,? but they never did. So after two weeks I 
> had to get my dad to call, and they finally changed me.?
>
> It wasn?t the end of Barajas?s experience with 
> the military program, as was first reported in 
> online publication Voice of San Diego. ?So the 
> second term, we got all-new classes and 
> everything, and they put me in the class again! 
> I was, like, ?Wow, I already got out of the 
> class once. Why would they put me in it again?? ?
>
> Ochoa and Barajas weren?t the only ones in San 
> Diego?s public high schools who found the 
> military science program disturbing this year. 
> Other students and teachers have objected to the 
> course and its policies. The complaints have led 
> community activist groups like Encinitas-based 
> Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities, 
> known as Project YANO, to form the Education Not 
> Arms Coalition. According to Rick Jahnkow, a 
> founder of both the coalition and Project YANO, 
> support has grown, and over 150 people showed up 
> at a San Diego Unified School District board 
> meeting in early May to show their opposition to the military science course.
>
> JROTC has been a staple in San Diego Unified?s 
> high schools for almost 90 years. San Diego 
> High, the city?s first high school, adopted the 
> program in 1919. Of the district?s 16 high 
> schools, only 3 ­ La Jolla, Clairemont, and 
> University City ­ do not offer the program as part of their curriculum.
>
> The class claims to teach students leadership 
> skills, self-reliance, and self-discipline, as 
> well as how to set life goals. Master Chief Rik 
> Alberto is a military science instructor at Mar 
> Vista High, an Imperial Beach school in the 
> Sweetwater Union High School District. ?The 
> great thing about this program, sir, is that it 
> teaches a kid to act like an adult after high 
> school,? Alberto says. ?We teach basic 
> leadership concepts, public speaking. We build 
> self-confidence. We teach job-interview 
> techniques, good manners, and self-conduct, 
> pretty much which knife and fork to use. We 
> basically prepare them for the adult world, sir.?
>
> The Education Not Arms Coalition has rallied 
> behind three points in its opposition to the military science program.
>
> The coalition?s first concern is marksmanship 
> training on public school grounds. Each JROTC 
> program represents a branch of the armed forces. 
> In San Diego Unified schools, 7 of the 13 
> programs are Army, 3 are Navy, 2 are Air Force, 
> and 1 is Marines. Every program has a rifle 
> range except for the two Air Force programs, at 
> Scripps Ranch High and Mira Mesa High (at 
> Crawford the range is not in use). The rifle 
> ranges typically are in an old classroom where 
> students, supervised by instructors, practice 
> shooting .17-caliber air rifles at targets. Jack 
> Brandais of the district?s Media Relations 
> Department explains, ?This is a controlled, very 
> specific type of program. At one time it was a 
> CIF [California Interscholastic Federation] 
> sport. It?s still an NCAA [National Collegiate 
> Athletic Association] sport and an Olympic 
> sport, so it?s taught under very tight control, 
> in tight conditions, in a specific area of the campuses.?
>
> Lincoln High School?s Ochoa says his students 
> questioned the mixed message the school was 
> sending. ?We teach our kids to think 
> critically,? Ochoa says, ?so as soon as my kids 
> became conscious about a gun range on campus and 
> other students being trained to shoot weapons, 
> they started asking questions about the 
> zero-tolerance policy. Since day one at this 
> school, they?ve been told about there being no 
> exception to having any weapons on campus, so 
> they started making petitions and getting 
> signatures from other students and staff members.?
>
> Cristabel A., who graduated from San Diego High 
> last year, was a member of the school?s Army 
> JROTC marksmanship team. In 2007, the team won 
> the California Junior Olympics. She recalls the 
> experience of being on a shooting team. ?For one 
> thing, it is the one sport that needs the most 
> teamwork,? she says. ?It takes a team to win. It 
> helps with concentration, good health, and 
> dedication. It teaches a group of people how to 
> be a team. Through that, the team becomes family, like my team did.?
>
> The second concern of the Education Not Arms 
> Coalition is that students are being placed in 
> JROTC who have not chosen it as an elective. 
> Once they are enrolled, it is difficult for them 
> to transfer out. The allegations come despite a 
> districtwide policy requiring that parents 
> provide written consent to their child?s 
> enrollment in the class. The instructors pass 
> out the consent forms at the beginning of the 
> term. However, the program?s own manager, 
> Lieutenant Colonel Jan Janus, has reported missing forms at some schools.
>
> Barajas, the Mission Bay High student, is aware 
> of several classmates who had a difficult time 
> transferring out of the class. ?During the few 
> weeks that I was in the class, some kids signed 
> up because they thought it was going to be an 
> easy class,? she says, ?and there were others 
> who were just placed in it without them knowing 
> what it was. Another boy said that he was in 
> there even though he didn?t want to be, so he 
> told the instructor, and the instructor just 
> told him that he was going to have to figure it out.?
>
> However, according to Brandais, the district?s 
> media representative, the school district has 
> not received any formal complaints concerning 
> students in the program who do not want to be 
> there. ?We require all of our students to return 
> a consent form for the class,? he says. ?Our 
> assistant superintendent has never received an 
> appeal call from a parent about their child in 
> Junior ROTC. Now, if the parent wants their 
> child to be in the program, but the student 
> doesn?t want to be there, then that?s a matter 
> the student must resolve with the parent.?
>
> Jorge Mariscal, professor of literature at UCSD 
> and a Vietnam War veteran, feels that it is a 
> common occurrence for students who have not 
> chosen the elective to be placed in the class. 
> ?The most troubling development in some Los 
> Angeles and San Diego schools is the placement 
> of students in JROTC programs without student or 
> parent consent,? he says. ?This is an 
> infringement on students? rights, and any school 
> official that condones this practice should be reprimanded.?
>
> The coalition?s final objection to the military 
> science program stems from allegations that 
> JROTC instructors are recruiting cadets by 
> stating that the course meets college 
> eligibility requirements. Jahnkow, of Project 
> YANO, says, ?Even those who choose to go into 
> the program are often doing it based on 
> misinformation given to them to hype the program 
> and make them believe that it provides benefits 
> it really doesn?t. Specifically, students have 
> been told this will help them qualify for 
> college, when, in fact, the credits that 
> students get for this elective aren?t even 
> counted by colleges, and the grades aren?t even 
> counted for eligibility for financial aid.?
>
> Brandais disagrees. ?It does help them on the 
> college applications, for a couple of reasons,? 
> he says. ?One is the shooting program is an NCAA 
> sport, so there are scholarships available for 
> that, and if they decide to go into the military 
> science field and enter the college ROTC 
> program, it helps to get in. The final one is 
> that it qualifies as a leadership skill, and 
> that is one of the things they judge you on on college applications.?
>
> Captain Gladimiro Vasquez, professor of military 
> science and a recruiting officer for San Diego 
> State?s ROTC program, acknowledges that the high 
> school program does not meet any college 
> eligibility requirements. ?It is considered a 
> leadership quality, though,? he says, ?and 
> that?s equivalent?kind of like ASB president or 
> something like that. They ask for 
> extracurricular activities, and JROTC would be 
> something you put down for that.?
>
> In recent months, there have been accusations of 
> intimidation by school administrators. Mission 
> Bay High students said that in April during a 
> school walkout protesting the program, school 
> faculty followed them with a video recorder. 
> Students also reported that a school 
> administrator confiscated an anti-JROTC button a 
> student was wearing and never returned it.
>
> More serious allegations surfaced from Mission 
> Bay High students claiming that during an open 
> house on February 20, principal Cheryl Seelos 
> prevented them from passing out leaflets. The 
> action prompted the American Civil Liberties 
> Union to send a formal letter of complaint nine 
> days later to the principal and to the 
> district?s general counsel requesting no further 
> infringement on the students? right to free speech.
>
> In late April, matters got even worse for 
> Seelos, according to a May 2 Voice of San Diego 
> story, when she released a student protester?s 
> confidential medical records to the publication 
> in an attempt to defend the school?s program. 
> Assistant superintendent Nellie Meyer told the 
> Voice that the action led to an unspecified 
> disciplinary action by the school board. 
> According to Brandais, the situation has also 
> resulted in a districtwide ban on JROTC 
> instructors and school administrators from commenting on the program.
>
> Brandais says the gag order will remain until 
> completion of the school district?s independent 
> investigation on the policies of the military 
> science program as well as the actions taken by 
> school administrators in response to the 
> mounting opposition. ?We?re hoping to have the 
> review completed by the end of the school year,? 
> he says. ?If it goes beyond the end of the 
> school year, we have telephone numbers to 
> contact parents and students. If parents want to 
> contact the staff, they can call the office of 
> Nellie Meyer, assistant superintendent for high schools.?
>
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> Comments
>
>
>
>    * #1.
>    * Minorities should embrace JROTC. Afterall, 
> it's this country's great Military that allows 
> the freedom that so many flock here to find. 
> Maybe they should start protesting wrestling 
> next-- since it trains students in the art of grappling and submission.
>
>    * By 
> <http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/a_girl_in_oceanside/>a_girl_in_oceanside 
> 3:01 p.m., Jun 4, 2008 
> <http://www.sandiegoreader.com/comments/flag/5992/>> Report it
>    * #2.
>    * Hi Girl in Oceanside, I served in the 
> military, completing two cruises with squadrons 
> at Miramar. I was Sailor of the Month for my 
> squadron and recommended for the academy by my commanding officer.
>    * Since that time I've lived and worked not 
> only here, but in Europe and Asia, interacting 
> with people from around the world and learning a few languages along the way.
>    * So I can completely disagree with you with total confidence.
>    * Our military is NOT what makes us great. 
> Quite the contrary. The military is a necessary 
> evil in an unjust world. Our founding fathers 
> didn't even want a standing military, prefering 
> to only call up soldiers as the need arose.
>    * The world admires us (or used to admire 
> us) for our freedom, our creativity, our 
> ability to advance from poverty to wealth.
>    * The world admires our music, our films, 
> our open spaces and natural places. Only a few 
> isolated nuts are gung ho about our advanced weaponry.
>    * The military doesn't allow freedom. In 
> fact, when you sign that contract you sign away 
> a number of constitutional rights for the 
> duration. And if the military chooses, they can 
> unilaterally extend that contract as long as 
> they like. It's like indentured servitude, the close-cousin to slavery.
>    * Recruiters lie. I know it. Everyone who's 
> ever been in the military knows it. They take 
> the gullible young and tell them whatever they 
> want to hear. The truth is you sign your life 
> away when you sign that contract.
>    * The fact that minorities are 
> over-represented in the military is because for 
> many it's the only choice they have left. There 
> is often no other path to getting out of the 
> ghetto. So they believe the promises, only to 
> find themselves chipping paint in the sun, all 
> the offers of job training long forgotten.
>    * I was one of the fortunate few who got 
> real world training that served me well in 
> later life. The overwhelming majority of my 
> shipmates were taught skills relevant solely to 
> the military. There isn't a lot of demand for 
> bomb loaders in the civilian world, my friend.
>    * The truth is that the schools have so 
> abdicated their responsibilities to teach basic 
> academic skills like research and writing that 
> we are falling far behind as a nation. The 
> proliferation of JROTC and the shanghaiing of 
> students into the programs against their will is a bad sign.
>    * I do support JROTC, but only as a 
> conscious choice. Not as a place to warehouse 
> students until they are graduated and left with 
> few alternatives but enlistment.
>    * Best,
>    * Fred
>
>    * By 
> <http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/Fred_Williams/>Fred_Williams 
> 3:23 p.m., Jun 4, 2008 
> <http://www.sandiegoreader.com/comments/flag/5994/>> Report it
>    * #3.
>    * JROTC is good. By 
> <http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/Ponzi/>Ponz 
> i 3:59 p.m., Jun 4, 2008 
> <http://www.sandiegoreader.com/comments/flag/5995/>> Report it
>    * #4.
>    * Thank you, Fred Williams, for your great 
> comments. You should contact Project YANO and 
> volunteer to speak in high school classrooms. 
> Students need to hear your perspective. Paula, 
> teacher Education Not Arms Coalition
>
>    * By 
> <http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/Peace_Is_Patriotic/>Peace_Is_Patriotic 
> 8:24 p.m., Jun 4, 2008 
> <http://www.sandiegoreader.com/comments/flag/6001/>> Report it
>    * #5.
>    * Thank you, Paula, for your kind words. I 
> do support JROTC, but only as a choice, not a default.
>    * For me, enlisting turned out okay. It got 
> me out of a trailer trash environment, and 
> because I was careful to get my rating and 
> training as part of the enlistment agreement 
> (NEVER go in unrated!) I learned some valuable skills.
>    * I found out when I attended college that 
> the paltry sum I got each month (the stingy 
> VEAP program, replaced by the much better GI 
> Bill that I wasn't eligible for) was 
> automatically deducted from any student aid. So 
> I gave four years of my life for educational 
> benefits I would have gotten without my 
> enlistment. I hope this is no longer the case. 
> I just recently finished paying off student 
> loans. So the Navy did NOT pay for my education 
> afterall. And taking classes at Miramar College 
> while enlisted was NOT encouraged, but made 
> very difficult by the squadron and frequent work up deployments.
>    * Just because I was considered to be very 
> responsible, I was put in charge of the ready 
> room during the night check. This meant that 
> when we finally got into port I was too tired 
> during the day to enjoy it much. Yes, I 
> traveled the world, but ended up falling asleep 
> while sightseeing, and then laying awake all night.
>    * I lost about 20 percent of my hearing in 
> the Navy, sleeping under the Kitty Hawk's 
> arresting gear, and then right between the Carl Vinson's forward catapults.
>    * I found out that some fighter pilots are 
> dumb as rocks. I think about half of my 
> squadron's pilots were PE majors...football 
> players who weren't good enough for the pros. 
> It's more important to have a lot of muscle 
> mass and withstand a lot of G's than to be 
> smart. In fact, I was told that too much brains 
> is a disadvantage in the cockpit, since second 
> guessing is worse than quick reactions and 
> instantaneous obedience to oral commands. 
> (Former fighter pilots, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)
>    * So I'd probably have been just as well off 
> working at McDonalds and going to community college as enlisting in the Navy.
>    * But there were other reasons to enlist. I 
> sincerely love this country and felt obligated 
> to serve. The cold war was still on, and 
> fighting against tyrany and oppression, on the 
> side of freedom, was and is important to me.
>    * Unfortunately, this country seems to have 
> lost its mind in recent years. Now WE are 
> torturing prisoners, and our leaders are taking 
> away our freedoms. We've become a surveilance 
> society. Instead of being admired, we are loathed around the world.
>    * This is a tragedy that will haunt us for decades to come.
>    * So joining the military now is probably 
> not a good move. Instead, I urge young people 
> to join a political campaign, help elect new 
> leadership in this country, and fight for peace 
> rather than Halliburton, KBR, and Blackwater.
>    * Best,
>    * Fred
>
>    * By 
> <http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/Fred_Williams/>Fred_Williams 
> 7:42 a.m., Jun 5, 2008 
> <http://www.sandiegoreader.com/comments/flag/6006/>> Report it
>    * #6.
>    * How did this turn into a debate about the 
> philosphy of war and whether or not it's 
> "right"? JROTC is not war, it is an elective 
> and students CAN decide to take it or not. 
> Also, who cares if they are trained to shoot an 
> AIR gun?!? Wrestlers learn how to submit people 
> on school grounds, too. Besides all of that, 
> this is a porrly written article with little to no substance. It's propoganda.
>
>    * By 
> <http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/a_girl_in_oceanside/>a_girl_in_oceanside 
> 2:27 p.m., Jun 5, 2008 
> <http://www.sandiegoreader.com/comments/flag/6030/>> Report it
>
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