Today is another Blog Action Day over at Green Change. The theme for today is War and Peace. This is a timely connection to the 7th anniversary of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq by Coalition Forces and the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have chosen to focus my war and peace report on military recruiting in schools. The militarization of our youth is big business and it starts in our public schools.
To begin, here is a 2007 video made by Working Assets and Mainstreet Moms called Leave My Child Alone.
I first learned about the clause in the No Child Left Behind Act (incarnation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act) about giving student information to recruiters when my son was still in high school. I wrote this piece on Chlorophyll back in 2006:
No Child Left Unrecruited
Many folks may not be aware that there is a tiny clause buried in the "No Child Left Behind" Act (NCLB) that requires schools to give military recruiters access to high school student records upon request…..or face losing funding. Here is the section in the NCLB:
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 