Rochester City School District: Answer to Parents, Not Marines

This is a call to action for parents, students and community members who are not already plugged in to organizations who will be acting to oppose the release of private information to military recruiters without parental consent.

According to the Democrat and Chronicle, the Rochester City School District is reversing a three year old policy regarding disclosure of student information to military recruiters. Charles Johnson, an attorney for RCSD, stated that a Marine Corps official called the district last week threatening federal funding consequences if student data is not turned over to the military, even for students whose parents have not authorized disclosure of their children's personal information. He plans to comply with the Marine request, regardless of what the School Board says.

In 2005 the School Board made a thoughtful decision that runs counter to the federal No Child Left Behind requirement that schools give the military extensive data on all students, including contact information and details about academics and extracurricular participation. RCSD decided that this information should only be given with parental permission, ie if parents "opt in" to the data sharing program.

This very appropriate "opt in" policy is now being replaced by an "opt out" policy in which parents must proactively notify the school district in writing in order to prevent their child's information from being shared with military recruiters.

School Board member Willa Powell spoke up at a School Board work meeting in opposition to the District's reversal of the existing policy that protects student privacy. She correctly notes that an "opt out" policy will not accurately reflect parents' wishes because of well-known problems with school paperwork returns, mixed up addresses, etc. I can verify serious school-parent communication issues as a current parent - it took over a year of multiple written, emailed, phoned attempts to make an address change with the School District when we moved in 2007.

There are many concerns regarding military recruitment tactics - see psychological pressure techniques, misleading and dishonest information and more at, for example http://law.newark.rutgers.edu/MilitaryRecruitingReportConLitClinic.pdf

For me, as a parent, this particular turn of events comes down to a simple question for Superintendent Brizard and his legal staff: Who are you responsive to, parents and students, or the Marines?

As a parent I am directly affected and there is no choice but to face this challenge with organizing efforts to maintain the existing policy that protects our children from known predatory tactics of military recruiters. If you are not already plugged in with a parent of peace group working to prevent disclosure of our kids' information to the military, please contact me at maryb_adams@yahoo.com