October 2005

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Students Have the Right to Know Beginning to Counter Military Recruiters in Miami

Jeanette Smith is Program Director in the Miami office of AFSC, focusing especially on ending human rights violations against immigrant workers.

As an immigrant services program in a city that, according to the most recent United Nations Development Report, has the largest number of immigrants per capita of any city in the world, countering military recruitment is a new area for us. But youth of all backgrounds are targeted by military recruiters, and the military is accelerating its drive to recruit latinos in particular. As the title of a recent Los Angeles Times op ed (August 21, 2005) reported, Uncle Sam Really Wants Usted. From our experience working with the Haitian-American community, he also really wants "vous."

Seek Alternate Route. Nancy Kohn (at right) of Jamaica Plain, MA, knew Alex Arredondo, who was killed in Iraq. She held his portrait, and told of his involvement in AIDS prevention work, at a Watertown Square vigil on September 16, 2005. The vigil was part of the Bring Them Home Now Tour from Camp Casey to Washington DC. Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Military Families Speak out members shared their stories. Photo: © Ellen Shub

Through our involvement in Miami for Peace, an organization housed at the Miami Friends Meeting House, we were invited to a four-county coalition meeting in a neighboring county. As other groups seemed to automatically look to AFSC for resource materials, I had taken print-outs from the wonderful materials available on the AFSC website to the meeting. My learning curve was high as I listened to the speakers, which included members of Veterans for Peace, a Palm Beach County coalition called The Truth Project, an amazing Miami-Dade County mother, and an impressive Broward County high school student. At that point, I wasn't at all sure that I had much to offer to this work.

Initially, I thought that, with my already very full workload from our current program and no staff to spare, I could exist on the periphery of the Miami-Dade County Coalition by providing materials. The Cambridge AFSC office was very helpful with both guidance and materials. I found myself forwarding a number of Peacework articles dealing specifically with counter-recruitment to a few of the local coalition members. It seemed that the more materials and information I provided, the more others looked to me for involvement in the work.

As I attended more meetings and we strategized about next steps, I learned about Opt-Out forms, which needed to be returned to the administrative offices of the schools shortly after the academic year began in order to prevent the administration from sending the students' information to the military.

I also learned about school board policies that varied by both school and county, and about the struggle to obtain access equal to that given military recruiters. As a new coalition with members whose missions varied greatly -- one thing we could all agree on was that our children should not be preyed upon by recruiters -- I also learned about cooperating to craft a consensus message. One of our strongest allies in this work is the South Florida Chapter of Veterans for Peace. In deference to the many members who are proud of their military service, we don't use the term "counter-recruitment" but rather refer to our work as "truth in recruiting." It's important that, as a coalition, our message is not anti-military. While AFSC may have a position about the war in Iraq, I am careful not to mix our truth in recruiting work with our anti-war work -- although I do see both as being part of peace education or peace work.

The more we learned, the more shocked we became about the tactics used by recruiters and about how little the public, particularly parents, actually knew about what was happening with their children's private information. Our work became multi-pronged: we needed to reach out to both parents and students in multiple high schools in multiple languages before the opt-out period ended; we needed to gain access to the schools in order to continue providing truthful recruitment information; and we needed to inform the general public, again in multiple languages, of what was happening in the high schools and the forceful tactics being used.

Jimmy Massey, a twelve year Marine and former recruiter, came to South Florida as part of our efforts to educate the public. He shared stories of recruiters who would promise students anything in an effort to "sign 'em and ship 'em." If a youth said that he wanted to go to the Olympics, he'd be assured that the military was the best way to do that. No matter what the wish, the military was "the best way" to accomplish it. Video games, lunches at McDonald's, and other temptations are de rigueur. There is a very big difference between an adult decision to join the military and the false promises and enticing tactics used by recruiters to recruit high school students.

As we planned our opt-out work, we used the databases that Peacework had obtained from the military (see the June/July 2005 issue) to pick the schools from which the recruiters had enlisted the highest numbers of students in 2004. We compared those numbers to the information that we had obtained from the Miami-Dade County School System, through a local Freedom Of Information Act request, as to the number of opt-out forms that parents returned last year. The numbers were shocking.

Only two and three forms, respectively, had been returned by parents or students in the two heaviest recruited schools in the county. We prepared two-sided flyers in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole using materials from the AFSC website with an opt-out form and a form to be sent to the Pentagon regarding the database of students' information that is being compiled through non-school sources.

The next step was to find volunteers to visit the schools -- at 6:30 in the morning -- in order to give the materials to both parents and students. We had given up on finding volunteers to work a shift at 2:30 in the afternoon due to people's work schedules, but after the first enthusiastic week, 6:30 am became just as difficult. As the ability of volunteers to sustain the pace of leafleting at all the schools we initially reached dwindled, we focused more tightly on the schools and students that seemed to be in the most danger.

If I had one piece of advice regarding the opt-out forms, I'd suggest starting this work several months before school actually begins and reaching out to parents through community groups, churches, allies, and other sources. The other county coalitions limited their work to one or two target schools. Our approach in Miami-Dade County has been much broader. Miami is a complicated area with amazing diversity in its demographics, and is, per capita, one of the poorest cities in the US. Many students are undocumented and are desperate for opportunities for both themselves and their parents. As is often said, there already is a draft -- it's called poverty. The only thing that I might add is that it's also an "immigrant draft" and there's a lack of truthful information as to what can and can't be gained, in terms of immigration status, from enlistment.

As we've moved into the next phase of the process, we've sent letters to each of the high school principals in Miami-Dade County asking for equal access to the schools in order to present a more balanced portrait to the students. We expect this to be a difficult process but are encouraged by the recent results obtained by The Truth Project in Palm Beach County, who, after working on this issue for almost a year targeting a particular school, have just been granted equal access. The school's administrator, in an effort to avoid any potential conflict by having members of The Truth Project at the school on the same days as the military recruiters, which had been allowed access to campus four days a week, has now limited the recruiters to only one day per week, asking that The Truth Project come to the school on an alternate day each week.

In the meantime, I'm off to one of the two most highly recruited schools in the county tomorrow morning to hand out AFSC's "Do You Know Enough to Enlist" Brochure with a few other diehard volunteers. Prior to visiting any schools, we notified the School Police in order to avoid any conflicts and to assure them that we would not be on school grounds.

We'll be on the public sidewalk outside, as we don't yet have access, but I wonder if we'll encounter the Assistant Principal (AP) we encountered the last few times we were there with the opt-out forms.

Earlier in the month, the Assistant Principal came out and told us weren't allowed to be on the public sidewalk. Upon our next visit, he simply began with, "How do I know that you're who you say you are?" I responded that I hadn't actually said that I was anyone yet. I explained who the groups named on the flyer were, and who AFSC was, but I ended by saying that it was all immaterial. We were on public sidewalks and were allowed to be there.

He then said that if I didn't show him credentials right away, he would have to call the police. I answered that we had already spoken with the School Police but that if he wanted to call Metro-Dade County Police, he should. It certainly seemed to me to be a crime what was happening at the schools. He seemed surprised and moved inside the fence. As students entered the gate, he told them, "Here, just hand me those," asking for the flyers that we were handing out.

Knowing how high school students respond to authority trying to keep something from them, I quickly changed my approach. I started saying to the students, "See that gentleman from your school. He doesn't want me to give you this information. He doesn't want you to know where your private information is being sent. He even threatened to call the police. I'm not going anywhere. I think you have a right to know." Students eagerly reached out for the flyers as one exclaimed, "Preach on, Sister." Preach on we will.

To get more involved in countering military recruitment in your area, please contact CCCO at 800-NO-JROTC, the War Resisters League at 212/228-0450, Project YANO at 760/634-3604, or the AFSC youth and militarism office at 215/241-7176. To participate in a national listserve, email <counter-recruitment-subscribe@yahoogroups.com>.

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