Are Students Getting a Balanced Education About the Military?
A Military Recruiter's Job Is To Sell the Military
Recruiters are salespeople with a quota to meet. If students are learning about the military from recruiters alone, they're getting only part of the story. Their education is being shortchanged.
Does your school let military recruiters on campus? Most do. From guidance counselors' displays to recruiters' presentations in classrooms to JROTC to the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test, the Pentagon sells the military to high school students.
Equal Access is Required by Law
Federal district and appellate courts have repeatedly upheld Equal Access laws that enable students to get information on both sides of controversial issues.
In San Diego Committee v. Governing Board of Grossmont Union High School District [790 F.2d 1471 (9th Cir. 1986)] the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, "The Board cannot allow the presentation of one side of an issue, but prohibit the presentation of the other side.... Here, the Board permitted mixed political and commercial speech advocating military service, but attempted to bar the same type of speech opposing such service. Accordingly, the Board violated the First Amendment." (See also Searcey v. Crim [815 F.2d 1389 (11th Cir. 1987)].
As the 9th Circuit Court stated : "It has long been recognized that the subject of military service is controversial." When schools create a forum for the proponents of the military, they must, under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, provide equal access for those with opposing points of view. Simply put: if you allow military recruiters and/or military literature in your school, the law requires you to provide equal access to critics of the military. If you fail to provide equal access, your district is subject to expensive and controversial lawsuits.
Help students get the information they deserve.
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