Military gets its orders: Limit access to students
Lincoln group works to restrict recruiter efforts
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
News Staff Reporter
Things changed.
Last fall, the 16-year-old brothers formed a group at Lincoln High School called Students Against War. That group helped create an "opt-out'' policy so that it's easier for students and parents to withhold student information from military recruiters.
Now they've taken it a step further. Military recruiters who were previously allowed to set up informational tables in their high school cafeteria may now show up only by appointment in a conference room.
"I think for a certain group of people, whether it be economic or cultural or whatever, the military is a viable job; a viable way of life,'' said Mitch. "But with talking with students at my school, I see that the vast, vast majority are against the war and don't want anything to do with it. They don't want to go and fight for something they don't believe in and possibly lose their life.''
When SAW lobbied for the right to set up informational tables in lunch rooms on the same days as recruiters, Schools Superintendent Fred Williams said that wasn't a good idea, because it would turn it into a competition and a debate.
"We talked it over, and decided we don't let colleges set up in the cafeteria, so why not treat everyone in the same, more professional manner?'' Williams said, adding that the sometimes chaotic, always crowded cafeteria was not the best venue for the recruiters, anyhow.
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