The Army has asked Loudoun County public schools to distribute a survey to help identify students interested in the military, a proposal some parents contend would give the armed service an unfair recruiting edge over colleges and other career paths.The brief survey, submitted to the School Board this spring by a Sterling-based recruiter, would ask students for contact information and whether they would like to learn more about the Army or Army Reserve.
Federal law requires public schools to provide contact information to the military for every high school junior and senior, unless parents choose to block the information. The law also calls for military recruiters to have the same access to students as college and career recruiters.
But some parents argue that the military, under pressure to sustain troop deployments in Iraq, is going too far in its quest to recruit students. Amid debate over the war, more parents across the country are asking school officials to clarify the federal law through local policies that create clear limits on military recruitment on campus.
Michelle Grise, a Leesburg mother, has formed a parents group to scrutinize school recruiting. She said the military should not get preferential treatment.
"We don't allow colleges and other businesses who are recruiting to come in and pass out these surveys," Grise said.
Her group wants to reduce the number of visits military recruiters can make to high school campuses and to confine their meetings to a career center. The group also seeks to have opt-out forms placed prominently in the student handbook. Currently, parents who wish to opt out must write a letter requesting that their children's names not be released to the military, following instructions on Page 23 of the handbook.
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