Mesa Legend - ARCHIVES - Vol. 40, Issue 9


Volume 40, Issue 9. Today is .

You are viewing
Volume 40, Issue 9.
February 4, 2003

To return to the current issue please click here.

Military invades student’s privacy

Carly Schorman, News Editor
Carly Schorman
News Editor

Everyone must learn from their mistakes. That’s how children know not to touch the stove when it’s hot.

City planners know to reinforce the bridge after the first one collapses. Monuments are constructed to remind people of our errors. Dauhcau, the concentration camp, serves as a reminder to the horrors of WWII that cannot be repeated.

Humanity records history to prevent the mistakes of the past from reoccurring. If we ignore the problems of our past we will have to face them once again.

Recent events have started the ball rolling along a path riddled with potholes from the past. Refusing to recognize our previous actions as mistakes has prevented us from mapping the locations of these holes and the road’s about to get bumpy.

The National Defense Authorization Act now requires all public schools to give information pertaining to students such as name, address, and phone number, to military recruiters.

This is the same information schools give to schools of higher education and some employers. However, the military filching information about students just continues the accelerating breakdown of american academic institutes.

School is a place for education. Administrators, instructors, and all other faculty members have one responsibility that supercedes all others: to educate.

School is not a place for military recruitment for impending war. Now is a good time to point out that the privacy of every high school student is compromised by this new initiative.

Students should feel secure that their personal information is not being handed out. They lack that security because their information is being handed out.

Parents are supposedly given the option to “opt out” of the whole military-after-my-child-thing. But, most parents don’t even know that their child’s information has or will be released let alone that they can request omittance.

Never mind the fact that only public schools are forced to give out information about their students while private schools remain beyond the reach of recruiters.

So, if a parent can afford a pricey education they can buy freedom from the military pressuring their children into joining a battle.
Sound familiar?

During the Vietnam War, Americans called for any available man to fight. Young men without families to support and who weren’t in college were top on the list. Consequently, many of those sent to Vietnam were young men who couldn’t attend college for socio-economic reasons.

More important then the sociological implications or the refusal to even acknowledge the student’s right to privacy, the academic system in this country is once again opening its doors to a mentality that has no place in an institute of learning.

The argument over the arming of college safety officers brought to light the ideal that seeks to place separation between schools and violence. Schools cannot ignore violence in their communities or on their campuses, but they can choose not to contribute to that mentality.

Once again, a comparison must be drawn between the “skirmish” in Vietnam and the “war” on terror. During the Vietnam era, our colleges were the forefront of the war’s opposition. Students tried to force the military from their campuses and their lives.

Eventually, some success was achieved with the end of the draft.
Slowly, the armed forces are making their way back onto campuses.

Alone this might not seem like an point of alarm. However, schools have become a place associated with violence over the past few years.

Following shootings at Columbine and the University of Arizona, in addition to many others, schools have been home to some of the most horrific acts in recent history.

The military recruiting on campus is nothing new, but schools turning over personal information pertaining to students aggravates an already upsetting situation. By separating academic institutions and national defense some rights that are currently being conveniently overlooked would be reinstated.

This also might serve as a first step, however small, in eradicating the association many students now make between school and aggression. School should become, once again, a place for education not fear.