Adopt A School Near to You
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What is it? A systematic approach of organizing to demilitarize the local school and provide alternatives to our students. Military free schools! Which schools will be involved? We will pilot around 5 schools during the summer, and kick off in the fall with as many schools as we have the resources for. We presently have between 20-30 schools with a point person and supporters to launch this project. How do you start? A step by step handbook will be provided that will guide a point person (who will take the lead) along with community supporters. The handbook will include a list of questions and data to collect, strategy models and ideas with an action plan guide. CAMS will also consult with these school teams and provide a display of counter recruitment literature for the schools. Has this ever been done? This approach to demilitarizing the schools has been suggested but never implemented in a systematic way with so many staff, students, parents and school community working together. It is comprehensive and will be a model for the nation. What can I do?
Let’s all work together to change the school climate! The first step is to identify Point persons and supporters at each school. If you would like to help, or know of anyone please contact Arlene Inouye, CAMS Coordinator at 626-799-9118, aginouye@militaryfreeschools.org or through our website info@militaryfreeschools.org. The second step, to begin as soon as we identify the point persons at a school is to send out the Adopt A School Project Data Base Sheet to obtain the necessary information about your school. The third step is meeting together with Regional Organizers of CAMS, and/or the Coordinator and the School Point and Support persons to develop a strategy at the school. Since every school is unique we want to approach the school in a way that will be most positive and effective. A list of strategies and possibilities will be discussed. The fourth step is to develop the Plan of Action indicating what will be done, by whom, when and how. This will be carried out at the local school with support from the Regional Organizers as needed. The last step is to evaluate and celebrate. We will have worksheets to guide us in the process. If we can succeed, we will be the first to have an organized plan of action comprehensively covering all areas of a large school district. This will definitely be a model for counter recruitment throughout the nation. Please let us know that you are on board with us in this 5 Step Adopt A School Project. It’s only because of the widespread support and concern of the community that we have the resources to move forward. Thank you. Arlene Inouye, CAMS Coordinator aginouye@militaryfreeschools.org, www.militaryfreeschools.org 626-799-9118
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The Army’s School Recruiting Handbook USAREC Pamphet 350-13 http://www.usarec.arm.mil/im/formpub/REC_PUBS/R621_1.pdf states, the goal (of which) is school ownership that can only lead to a greater number of Army enlistments (USAREC Pam. 350-13,1-4.c)” To this end, recruiters are instructed to establish and maintain a rapport with our schools because “once educators are convinced recruiters have their students’ best interests in mind the SRP can be effectively implemented (ibid.).” The Army’s intentions are very bold, aggressive, and also insidious, as they make themselves available to assist at school functions and bring donuts to the faculty meetings among many other actions. Students, parents, school staff, teachers and community can be and must be just as organized and influential in our schools. Therefore we are proposing this Adopt A School Project as a way for us to work together to specifically find out about the military presence at each school, monitor if there are abuses or concerns, and to ensure that alternatives are also available to students. |
Career Day and Job Fairs should allow an equitable forum regarding job-related issues, and the Peace Movement needs to start stepping up to the table. Late last year I was trying to think how we could meet and match the military’s invasion of our High Schools and their dumping of violent video-game propaganda and half-truths during the “Career Days” and “Job Fairs”. While I do not have anywhere near the resources of the $500 billion war-tax funded military, I do have the ability, during my vacation time to go to the school nearest my house and ‘adopt’ it for the purposes of supplying it with an alternative vision to the military death state that traps so many kids during Career Day’s/Job Fairs. One of the real problems we at CAMS have faced in regards to Career Days and Job Fairs is that there is no set schedule for these days in LAUSD. Individual schools set their own schedules. The military, with all it’s resources and it’s unending hunger for young bodies to catch bullets in the burgeoning resource wars of our politicians, somehow gets these records and descends on our High School and Middle School campuses. These modern-day Gorgon's, riding in Hummers, blaring hip-hop from fake and manufactured bands, handing out extremely violent video games, are of course, trying to snare our young into their meaningless wars. The pitch is idiotic but effective: sacrifice your life, health, or sanity to attain the ‘military-chic’ look and the chance to kill for America (American corporations, that is). It is a potent drug like message for our children trying to decide their future and how they want to help in building a stronger America. In terms of access to our children, Career Days and Job Fairs provide the military with an easy day of hunting. There are very few alternatives-to-the-military presented to students attending these Job Fairs. As a stakeholder in the community, a resident and a taxpayer, everyone with an alternative vision should be allowed access to these Career Days. How do we gain access? The easiest way is to find a teacher at the local school to invite you in, or sponsor you, for a Career Day/Job Fair. Alternatively, you could approach the Principal or Career Counselor of the school between 8:00 AM and 3:00 PM weekdays and ask permission to set up a table for careers in the non-military areas. You probably do not have to set up an appointment, just stop by the school and ask to speak to the Principal/Counselor. Mention the issue of equitability, and stress that you are there to provide job information rather than propaganda. Virtually any job or career outside the military can be conceived as being a non-military job. From firefighters to artists, nurse practitioners to teachers, there are so many careers that are attainable for students and that build strong healthy community's. Our young people need to be made aware of these careers. If we want peace than we must create it. Adopt your local school. Protect our young people from these predators--the military recruiters. There is much material on this web site that can be useful for literature to hand out, and call us if you need more. We have also just put together an Alternative Jobs packet that is available by calling us or emailing us. Through one of our Coalition members, San Pedro Neighbors For Peace and Justice, a Peace Club starter kit is also now available for $28. It can be provided free, as a scholarship, to K-12 students. Let us know if you adopt a school. ~~~Gregory Sotir gsotir@militaryfreeschools.org |
