LAT: They're Talking Up Arms (military recruiters/low-income high schools)

[DeepModem Mom]

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."...

***

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....

***

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

[hippiepunk]

1. At some schools,

there are more recruiters for the army than colleges.

[manic expression]

2. I believe it

They got front and center in our lunch room one day. 3 guys or so...dressed in full uniform, handing out their pamphlets and all that. I happened to be wearing my "END THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ" shirt that day :)

I also heard they were in gym, although I wasn't there to see it myself.

The recruiting is pretty light in my HS...you know, not many minorities and there's actually a semblance of a future for a good number of the students.

[rodeodance]

3. its those that do not see much in the future that are easy targets for

them-big promises-if the kids make it through.

[Harlequin]

4. the recruitment literature NOWHERE says you could die

[LibDemAlways]

5. I'll bet it doesn't say that you

may well be able to add "killed people" to your resume, either -- that is if you're lucky enough to leave with discharge papers rather than in a box when your stint is up.

[saigon68]

6. Just wait until the "RECRUITS" return to The ZI

And show the CRACK GANGS how to enforce a penalty against Informants or RIVAL CRACK DEALERS

Nothing like a little tattoo job with an AK etc.