VVAW... 9. Recruiters... 0.

By Madison VVAW

"The Army's mission is national defense, not the creation of job opportunities or to help out people in civilian life." Former Brigadier General Mildred Bailey.

It's not secret that military recruiters have stepped up their activity in our nation's high schools. In Madison, Wisconsin, VVAW noticed this escalation not only in on-campus visits by military recruiters but also there seemed to be no systematic documentation of recruitment visits.

Madison School Board Policy #7541 states: "There shall be no active recruitment of high school pupils for any branch of the Armed Forces in the Madison Metropolitan School District." We believed the intent of that policy was clear and commendable; the school building was not the proper place to conduct military recruitment. The lack of well-defined procedures had the effect of shifting policy-making responsibilities from the Board to individual schools. As a result VVAW found out the visits by recruiters to our high schools ranged from approximately 7 visits to 108 per year.

High school students face unprecedented pressures as they decide among increasingly limited post-high school options, of these options only the military has the resources to conduct a full-scale recruitment campaign including sophisticated marketing strategies, a massive advertising campaign and the deployment of representatives to every high school in the nation. Approximately $2900 of our tax dollars is spent in costs to recruit one enlistee!

We found military literature available in four of the five Madison high schools. In one school a prominent display was located in the main corridor. Sophisticated magazines, not identified as military recruiting literature were offered as general guidance magazines and promotional materials such as pencils and bumper stickers were given by teachers in their classrooms.

In some schools, students saw, heard or otherwise were aware of the presence of military recruiters on an almost daily basis. At some point, we contended, the quantity of visits had a qualitative effect.

Two Madison schools serve as sites for administering the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a military recruiting and placement tool. Both schools advocated the AS UAB as an "excellent general aptitude test." VVAW challenged that assertion.

In March of 1985 VVAW Madison made the issue of recruitment in the school board election calling a forum. Candidates for two school board seats agreed that military recruiters should not be allowed to actively recruit in the city's high schools. Two vocal candidates siding with VVAW's views were Mary Kay Baum and Nan Brien. We're happy to say they also won seats on the school board. Ms Baum later became chair of the policy and procedures committee, which began looking at VVAW recommendations to rectify the recruitment problem.

On June 35th, the Madison School Board voted 6-0 to give preliminary approval to recommendations submitted by VVAW. They were as follows:

1. Recruiting materials: All recruiting literature will be labeled as such. Its presence of distribution will be limited to the guidance office and proportional to material on other post high school options.
2. Guidance Counseling: High School guidance counselors will attend an annual workshop to acquaint themselves with issues in pre-enlistment counseling. No school employee will disseminate information regarding any individual student to military recruiters.
3. Military Recruiters: No military recruitment will be permitted on school grounds. This prohibition must apply to all schools. The exception to this rule will be to permit recruiters to talk to students on bona fide career days—no more than two visits a year—when representatives of other post ?high school options are present. The public will be notified of the date, time and place of these events.
4. Promotional Materials" Military promotional materials will not be distributed in the schools. Promotional events, displays of hardware, etc will not be conducted on school grounds.
5. ASVAB: the schools will not be used as a site for conducting the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery.
6. Military Academy Recruitment: Military academics will be accorded recruitment access equal to that of other four-year colleges. The activities of academy recruiters will be monitored, documented and reported by the principal to the superintendent.
7. Notification of Policy: Students and their parents will be notified annually in wiring of the School Board's policy on military recruiting and its policy on the distribution of names, addresses, etc of students and parents.
8. Conflict of Interest: School employees will notify the Superintendent of a conflict of interest regarding military recruiting. Military personnel who are also school employees will exempt themselves from counseling students on the pros and cons of military life.

At the Madison Metropolitan school district meeting of August 26, 1985, the Board voted our recommendation in. The access of military recruiters to our schools was set at "2 days a year on career day." In effect this limits the military as a group to only those two-day a year in our high schools.

It was a great victory not only for VVAW but also it was a precedent-setting decision for the state and country. VVAW collected and catalogued recruiter abuses. We saw a problem that need immediate attention and followed it up with action. That action now means our high schoolers are safe from abuse and misinformation from the military in our schools. The sweetheart deal between the armed forces and school counselors and administrators encouraged across to students during school hours. That is now ended, but we will stay vigilant

Madison VVAW