They're Talking Up Arms
Military recruiters are going deeper into high schools, hoping a chummy familiarity will entice students to enlist. Some decry their tactics.
By Erika Hayasaki, Times Staff Writer
Marine Sgt. Rick Carloss is as familiar to students as some teachers at Downey High School. He does push-ups with students during P.E. classes and plays in faculty basketball games. During lunch, he hands out key chains, T-shirts, and posters that proclaim: "Think of Me As Your New Guidance Counselor."...
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Such familiarity is what the Marines and Army need if they are to keep their ranks replenished. As the conflict in Iraq entered its third year, the Marines missed their monthly recruiting goals in January through March for the first time in a decade, and the Army and the National Guard also fell short of their needs. This year, the Army and the Marines plan not only to increase the number of recruiters, but to penetrate high schools more deeply, especially those least likely to send graduates to college.
For Carloss and other recruiters, part of the way has been cleared by No Child Left Behind education law of 2002, which provides the military with students' home addresses and telephone numbers. It also guarantees that any school that allows college or job recruiters on campus must make the same provision for the military....
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Some teachers, parents and students are complaining about what they consider to be overly aggressive recruitment tactics, especially at schools with low-income and minority students. That criticism has prompted some schools,like Roosevelt High in Boyle Heights, to curb military recruiting.
But at others like Downey, which serves mostly Latino students from working-class families, recruiters like Carloss are welcomed....
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-recruit5apr05,0,5875265.story?coll=la-home-headlines