NationStates Jolt Archive

School districts are required under Section 9528 of the No Child Left Behind Act to release student records to military recruiters or risk losing funding, but they are also required to inform families of their Opt Out rights.

Here's a link to a site that will help you opt them out if you so choose:

http://www.leavemychildalone.org/index.cfm?event=showContent&contentid=13&mktcode=tm

What does it bother you if military recruiters have your information? No one is forcing you to join. All this does is let them get an idea of who they should approach to join.

What does it bother you if military recruiters have your information? No one is forcing you to join. All this does is let them get an idea of who they should approach to join.

Me personally? It doesn't because I am well past recruitment age and don't have children. ;)

That said however, there are many parents out there that were quite disturbed when they discovered this and I hoped they might find this site helpfull.

Also, it should be said that I have met many people and read reports from many others that were badgered and severely harrassed by overzealous recruiters using just this sort of information. Sorry, but I have a slight moral aversion to harrassment that one hasn't done anything to bring on themselves. (part of my issue with mass marketing techiques as well...)

Again, all this does is make recruiters job easier, as they can find people they would want in the military. However, nothing forces anyone to join. Don't want to join the army? Say no.

Again, all this does is make recruiters job easier, as they can find people they would want in the military. However, nothing forces anyone to join. Don't want to join the army? Say no.

Except, of course, that right now they want just about every young person they can get in the military. ;)

No, if they took every random person of the street, they wouldn't need this information, now would they? Actually, the US military is fairly selective about who it accepts in.

No, if they took every random person of the street, they wouldn't need this information, now would they? Actually, the US military is fairly selective about who it accepts in.

Well recruitment has dropped by 25% for a couple months now. They will probably change their views if it continues.

To the topic at hand:

Meh. My girl is 4 so I don't worry about it for awhile. The shrub and his cronies will be long gone by then.

Even then, it's not like they will grab her up and mind control her to join up.

She and I will have a very long talk about it if she decides she wants to join. Long military line and many diaries still in family hands.

Finally, if you think your personal information is safe, you might be a tad surprised at things.

No, if they took every random person of the street, they wouldn't need this information, now would they? Actually, the US military is fairly selective about who it accepts in.

Certainly you've heard that the military itself is worried about its own recruiting practices, no? They decided to take a 1 day break from recruitment activities across the board as a show of good faith and to study how they were doing things.

Overzealous recruiting has become a real problem, far more than simply being in a school and having access to records, there's a larger problem here.

Again, you don't sound like someone who's never actually seen recruiters at work, or if you have, had an unusually good experience with them... or perhaps the experience that I've had both personally and by proxy has been unusually bad (though by recent reports, I don't see that being the case.) Either way, it doesn't change the point of this post which is to provide those parents who were not aware of this and would like their children opted out with a resource. Everyone else are free to let their children come under "recruitment scrutiny". ;)

What I'm saying is that no one forces you to join the army. So what if they have some of your information? If they call, and you don't want to join, then don't.

It's easy to avoid them. Say you're gay and start touching them sexually. That should always work.

What I'm saying is that no one forces you to join the army. So what if they have some of your information? If they call, and you don't want to join, then don't.

Easy enough to say (or type), but have you ever been harrassed by a persistent telemarketer? OK, now take that and multiply it by 10. Now try to type your response again. Not so easy now is it? ;)

Add to the preasure, the fact that most of those targetted using this sort of information are those already considered to be easilly influenced using simple pavlovian methods and well...

To put it another way, say you were prone to overeating but only your employer knew about it. Then a law is enacted that says that your employer has to provide any information they might have about their employees to McDonalds unless that employee "Opts Out" (the employees, of course are not informed of this "information collection" or "opt out" portion of the new law.) Being a good corporate citizen, your employer follows the law and gives all its employee's information to McDonalds who, of course, will only use the information to look for those who would most likely want to partake of their fast food offers. As an recovering chronic overeater, you fit that description and are thus bombarded with all manner of advertising virtually all day every day for anywhere from 1-6 months (if not longer), trying to entice you to join in the fast food feast.

Now, as you point out, you have every right and can say "no". The question is, with your preexisting weekness and the constant badgering, how much ability to say no do you really have? Beyond that, should you have to put up with that to begin with, when you yourself did not seek it out in any way? Further, should a private company which is fully capable of achieving it's sales goals without these tactics really have access to your personal information for what amount to advertising purposes, without that information being voluntarilly submitted by the subject of that advertising?

While the specifics are different; the question remains essentially the same.

No, if they took every random person of the street, they wouldn't need this information, now would they? Actually, the US military is fairly selective about who it accepts in.
Not any more, they aren't. They're dummying up diplomas, taking kids to get products so they can pass piss tests, threatening them with jail time if they don't show up to appointments--you name it, they're doing it to fill their quotas.

I am not too worried about them having my information. They wouldn't want me.

You can't deny they offer some really nice benefit though. Almost makes me regret being a CO.

Not really. I would hope my principles are founded more solidly than that.

What I'm saying is that no one forces you to join the army. So what if they have some of your information? If they call, and you don't want to join, then don't.
There is this argument to be made. Recruiters are going after people at a very vulnerable stage in their lives, and aren't exactly being honest about it. Tell an 18 year old kid that he can have this terrific career in the army and that because he's a new kid he almost definitely won't be going to iraq and even if he does, he'll be in this specific MOS and won't be in danger, etc. The recruiter's full of shit and he knows it--pretty much anyone out of high school going into the Army now is going to Iraq as a grunt with a rifle and there ain't no getting around it. It's not a fair fight.

And yet, the kids are winning it right now, because they're not buying the line from the recruiters. Sad thing is, if Bush had asked for volunteers in the Army in the months right after 9/11/2001, had expanded the Army to handle the increased desire, he'd have more people than he could get killed. But instead he told everyone to go shopping and go to DisneyWorld, and we've got a broken Army now.