High school job fairs shouldn’t be political
Friday''s lead editorial.
Military recruiters should be allowed the same access to students in North Carolina high schools as other employers, with some restrictions. A career in the armed forces is a valid option for young people, along with higher education, retail, manufacturing, public service or other possibilities.
A long-running dispute in Wilkes County, which could wind up in the state’s courts, stems from an antiwar activist’s efforts to claim equal time. She’s been denied access as a “counter recruiter,” someone who advises students to stay away from the military. The North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union takes her side and might challenge her exclusion in court.
Sally Ferrell has been treated disrespectfully by school officials, reportedly being called unpatriotic. That’s unfair. The real issue is whether Ferrell deserves the same opportunity to communicate with students as military recruiters or representatives of other employers. “The students need to know there are alternatives to the military,” Ferrell has told the media.
She’s right. They need to hear from recruiters for colleges, businesses and other organizations.
Ferrell tells students about AmeriCorps and other ways they can serve their country without enlisting in the military. If she were an official representative of AmeriCorps, the schools should not refuse her access. But she’s not. Superintendent Stephen Laws said her mission isn’t to recruit students into an occupation but to push them away from the military. That doesn’t fit the purpose of a career fair.
There are more appropriate settings for political discussions. High schools ought to hold programs about U.S. foreign policy and the use of military force, including a wide variety of viewpoints. Such events would serve an important educational function.
When it comes to military recruiters, school officials should make sure accurate information is provided. Students shouldn’t be promised they won’t be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example. Furthermore, students should be free not to talk with recruiters. Schools also should allow parents to be present, if they choose, anytime their children speak to a military recruiter in school. Guilford County Schools properly requires parental permission before a student’s name or contact information can be given to military recruiters. Students never should be put at a disadvantage or pressured to enlist.
However, millions of Americans joined the armed forces after finishing high school and benefited from the experience. Their country certainly did. The military should be treated as one of many opportunities for high school students, not a threat to them.
Comments (3)
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Anti-war/anti-military protestors should not be allowed access to job fairs, because they do not represent potential employment opportunities. As far as I am concerned, anti-war protestors are usually unemployed sloths who are either "professional students" or mooching off the taxpayers, giving nothing back to society in general, so they have no place at a job fair. Colleges and universities, which usually have tables at job fairs, are increasingly hostile to the military and armed forces recruiters anyway, so there are some "opposing voices" present at job fairs.
Posted on September 5, 2008 11:47 AM
Sally Ferrell is offering students truthful and accurate information about military service; information that the recruiters might not offer the students. She is neither "someone who advises students to stay away from the military" nor is she presenting a political viewpoint. One expects military recruiters to present a rosy view of military service and to downplay the potential negatives of service. Surely these young men and women should be offered a balanced presentation before making the biggest decision of their lives. This decision includes the very real possibility that they might be asked to kill or that they might themselves be killed, putting military service in a very different category from other vocations.
Posted on September 5, 2008 8:45 PM
Sally Ferrell is exactly attempting to advise students to stay away from the military. Keeping kids out of the military is precisely what she wants to do. Let's have no mistake about that.
I agree with Mr. Morris in that young people considering entering the military should get a balanced view of what being in the military means. But so obviously biased a source as Ms. Ferrell is not the way to get a balanced view.
Young men and women considering the military should do their homework. They should talk to people they know who have served and ask questions. Look into the real military expectations. How likely is their job to send them to a war zone? Have they considered the Coast Guard?
I disagree that people like Ferrell are "unemployed sloths." Anti-war advocates are ordinary citizens who believe in a cause, and are attempting to make the world better by change: something the men who participated in the Boston Tea Party did. Ferrell is not unpatriotic--her stance is simply unpopular.
Kids should get a balanced story. Career fairs are no place for political discussion. Colleges and recruiters for organizations like the Red Cross, Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and the like balance the view.
The military IS a good option for some kids who aren't interested in college, can't afford to go right away, or want something specific the military offers. Every job holds disadvantages, and many jobs are dangerous: law enforcement, commercial fishing, working oil rigs, railroad and highway work, to name a few.
Heck, my own career as an ER nurse is high on the list of most dangerous jobs.
The real problem with Ferrell's stance is less that kids are being asked to put themselves in harms way, and more that they might have to fire a weapon and kill someone--an anaethma to Quaker pacifistic beliefs.
Unfortunately, we need men and women in uniform to defend our country, regardless of whether one believes we should be in Iraq or Afganistan.
Posted on September 6, 2008 9:30 AM