Schools Recruit Anti-Military Mindset

Via the California Conservative, the Christian Science Monitor reports on a high school in.... drumroll please.... you guessed it! Seattle, Washington! The great state that embraces the freedom to piss all over those that gave them freedom! The military:

Garfield High School took a decisive step last week with a vote of 25 to 5 to adopt a resolution that says "public schools are not a place for military recruiters."

Wow. What a country we live in where a high school can just decide not to obey a federal law. Let's hear from one of the enlightened ones:

Although PTA chapters are supposed to be "nonsectarian and nonpartisan, which means nonpolitical," according to Jenny Sopko, a spokeswoman for the national PTA in Chicago, Garfield's PTSA cochair maintains that its action is "wholly consistent with our mission."

"The mission of the PTA is to protect and defend kids," says Amy Hagopian, a mother of three whose son is a Garfield senior. "It's not just limited to education issues - which explains why the PTA takes positions on kids' health, violence, and other serious issues."

OK, so which category does military recruitment fall under? Health? Violence? Other Serious Issues? Well, there's more!

Like so many schools today, Garfield grapples with painful budget cuts, loss of teachers, and dwindling resources. The school's opposition to military recruitment seems, in part, a result of parents' growing realization that tax money spent for the Iraq war is money not spent on children's educations or other domestic needs.

"They're spending $4 billion a month in Iraq, but we have to cut our race relations class, which costs $12,500," Ms. Hagopian pointed out. "That's an important class for our kids."

What?!? Race relations is an important class? Shouldn't race relations be a mindset, a policy, and adherence to federal, state and local laws against discrimination? Why is this school wasting $12.5K on this crap?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a racist. I grew up with neighbor kids of many races and didn't realize that racism existed until I was a teenager. I think a big reason for that is because I didn't have anyone ramming "race relations" down my throat. My parents never even brought up race when talking about other people. When they couldn't remember a friend's name, they didn't ask, "what's that little black boy's name that you play with?" So if I can grow up not even knowing there is such a thing as racism, how come Garfield High students need this goofy class? Probably because folks in Seattle aren't as "progressive" as they would like to think? I'm just saying...

Let's also address the issue of $4 billion a month in Iraq. First, warfare ain't cheap. But these folks don't care, they probably don't "agree" with the war. I have news for the good people in Seattle: terrorists don't care if you agree with war or not. They still want to kill you just because you are American.

Washington spends more per capita on its students than the national average. So, manage your money better! I'll bet all the books and teachers' salaries for all those nice Language Arts classes (pdf at link, start at page 9). When I was in high school, a lot of those classes were covered in English class. We didn't have separate classes for Shakespeare, Autobiography, Creative Writing, and Poetry. I'll bet those four classes would get you close to $12,500 per year and you could keep your race relations class, cuz "[t]hat's an important class for our kids."

And, you know, it comes down to choices, doesn't it? You could roll some of those typically English subjects into your "Language Arts" class. (btw, why aren't these classes called "English"? Are we afraid of our own language or something?) There sure are a lot of ESL classes for high school students. I went to high school in San Antonio, Texas. I bet there's a larger Hispanic community there than in Seattle, Washington. I'm just saying...

OK, time to swing from right way back to the left side of the universe (you're gonna like this):

During discussion at the PTSA's meeting last week, Ted Inkley argued against the resolution because he thought it dangerous to deny free speech to organizations simply because their philosophies or intentions disagreed with the PTSA.

Mr. Inkley, an attorney whose daughter is a senior, told the crowded library he could "easily" see a resolution by some other PTA that banned Planned Parenthood representatives from campus because of their views on contraception and abortion.

That actually makes sense. If you are going to prevent one group from coming on campus because some parents don't agree with what the group does, then you should ban all groups to prevent anyone from being exposed to something with which they don't agree. That's fair, right?

Steve Ludwig, whose son is a senior and whose daughter will enter as a freshman next fall, made a point shared by many in attendance: Garfield does not allow organizations that promote illegal activities to recruit students to perform those activities, nor does it allow organizations that discriminate on the basis of race, gender, national origin, or sexual orientation to recruit on campus.

"Planned Parenthood, as far as I know, does not advocate or perform illegal acts. The US military does," Mr. Ludwig continued. The soft-spoken carpenter said he would not object if Army representatives came to Garfield to debate their ideas on torture or aggressive war. "What I object to is their coming here to recruit students to perform those acts," he said. "It's not about free speech."

Whoa, now! The US military advocates and performs illegal acts? Mr. Ludwig, don't you mean that a few members of the military do that? Nope, you don't. You are part of the "progressive" element in this country that believes that the military is trained to break the law and does so on a regular basis. You, sir, are an idiot. Anyone that breaks the law in the military is punished. The military does not condone, train, or force anyone to break the law. By your logic, if any member of Planned Parenthood broke the law, that would disqualify that organization from access to Garfield High School. I'd be willing to bet I could find 50 people working for Planned Parenthood that have criminal records.

Fortunately, cooler heads prevail and the law, which Mr. Ludwig declares is the point, will not be disregarded:

Indeed, the resolution by Garfield's PTSA is more symbol than policy, for Seattle, like virtually all school districts, requires high schools to give recruiters access to students - or risk losing federal funding under Section 9528 of the act. School districts also are required to notify parents and students that they may "opt out" by signing a letter preventing recruiters from getting their names.

In response to Garfield's resolution, Seattle's district issued a statement reinforcing its policy of allowing recruiters to work on high school campuses, but also said it would increase efforts next fall to make it easier for parents and students to opt out.

"Nothing in this resolution prevents students desirous of joining the military from doing so," said Sasha Riser-Kositsky, a Garfield sophomore from a written statement during last week's meeting. "Indeed, there is a recruiting center within a five-minute walking distance of Garfield."

Horrors! Those harbingers of lawlessness and death are a mere five-minutes walk from school grounds! The city council needs to close all streets within a ten-minutes walk of the high school to pedestrians. After all, someone might wander over there and be forced to perform torture or aggressive war.

Heaven forbid er... Goddess of Trees and Peace forbid Insert non-secular exclamation here, we should perform torture or aggressive war against those that would behead innocent people or suicide bomb women and children. After all, those animals deserve humane treatment, right Mr. Ludwig?

They must have gone to schools that did not have a race relations class.

UPDATE (0935): my favorite Ft. Lewis Milblogger caught this story also. And he slams the weirdos as well. Fastbunnies is always a good read.

UPDATE (1545): I found a great post on the PC-Gone-Wild phenomenon going on. Check out Michael_the_ArchAngel's post on Diversity.

linked to Outside the Beltway's Traffic Jam