The ASVAB
In addition, the federal No Child Left Behind Act requires schools that receive federal funding to provide military recruiters with students' names, addresses and phone numbers unless parents have opted out. Schools also must allow recruiters to have the same access to campuses that colleges have.
The military's vocational aptitude test is not part of the No Child Left Behind requirement, and the test's "career explorations" Web site says students who agree to take the test aren't making any obligations.
http://www.commondreams.org/head...s05/0103-
02.htm
I bet they'd love to have her.
My reaction would have been as furious as your own.
Ugh. I read the article at the link. Ellen told me some other stuff she hadn't told me before. I knew after the fact that she'd taken that ASVAB test but I don't recall ever receiving ANYTHING that indicated that they were going to have her take a test, and certainly nothing about what it was for. She had taken all of the courses required for high school graduation but needed additional hours and was taking a class, in art, at the county vocational technical school. That's where the test was given to her. She told me this evening that she was given a form to sign which she refused to sign and turned it in blank. And then she was "visited" by a recruiter, in uniform, who apparently intimidated her into signing it. She had never told that part before. This just made me angry all over again. Ellen and I were talking further and she said she knows they target kids in the vocational technical schools because those are generally the kids that aren't going to college and so those are the ones they want. I told my father, a man who worked for the military in one form or another, via serving in the Air Force, and later the US Public Health Service, about the recruiter. My father despises Bush and this war and did not mince words about his own disgust. Not to mention the rude gesture he made with his cane, in the general direction of this country's president.
What form did they make her sign after she'd taken the test? Was it something to do with requesting more information so that they could hound her? Did she realize she could opt out of taking the test? Sounds like no.
This link is to a stand taken in GA by some against taking the test. Teachers are apparently confused about process themselves and compel students into situations where they are told they msut take the test.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/
hort...articleid=10055
I don't know what form Ellen was made to sign. She doesn't seem to know. And what she also said was that after refusing to sign it, the recruiters singled her out, and what she seemed to be saying was that they had her by herself when they insisted she had to sign it. Her description would be born out by the things in the article you linked. Your posted painting at your own blog, the timing of this phone call this evening, what a strange and ironic convergence of things, coming just a day after August 6 anniversary. Thanks for the additional information.
So she sounds like she was in a situation where she didn't even feel free to look over the form carefully because she was under pressure and anxious. In other words, bullied. These military people in a school situation coercing her. A double decker of authoritarianism. Kids aren't adults and it would be difficult for many adults to stand up to pressure like that. It's absolutely reprehensible.
Mind if I blog about it and give a pointer over here?
Yes, I think you are right, she probably didn't feel free to look over the form. And the word "bullied" had come to my mind, as well.
Feel free to blog about this and give a pointer.
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