Blog Archives

Just the Facts, Ma'am.

4/27/2012

Ever play this game?

So far this year, my local rural school has scheduled on the calendar, 17 military recruiter visits to the campus.
17 is a big number for a little school...
Military recruiters have not showed up every time.
  So what.
They have been welcomed to visit, whether or not they show up has no bearing on anything.
The district would be OK with them showing up 17 times.
  Yes they would.
I am not OK with it.
Here is my sign that I carried this morning at my regularly scheduled protest time of 7:50am-8:20am every school morning:

Fact or Crap?

I had a surprise waiting for me this morning.

Fact or Crap?

The school district has a reader board and it is on the block that I walk up and down with my protest sign.

Fact or Crap?

As stated above, I give no credence to how many times military recruiters have been on campus - my concern is with how many times they COULD have been on campus if they wanted to be.
And that college number....
hmmmmmm.....

I have combed the visitor sign-in sheet several times over for college recruiter visits - because I want to be quite accurate with my sign that I carry each morning.
I was puzzled by that.
So, after my protest, I went to see who put the sign up and where they got their information.

Fact or Crap?

The person I spoke with had a copy of the visitor sign in sheet for the year and had highlighted Military Recruiter visits -in Blue - College Visits in Yellow and my visits in Pink.
Nice!
She pointed out to me a college visit I had missed.
I told her I would correct my sign.
Then I was puzzled by another college visit highlighted in Yellow from
THIS week.
Hey!
Aren't all recruiter visits supposed to be on the calendar according the the new Rules?
She could not tell me why it was not on the calendar - so I went up the the school check on procedures.

Fact or Crap?

At the school, it turns out that there was nobody in charge today to be able to answer, oh, any of my questions.

I asked to speak to the school counselor (the only counselor) and it looks like he declined to speak with me.

It also turned out that the college recruiter who visited this week and thus got tallied up on the public reader board was really not a college recruiter and is a parent of a student only talked to the shop class.

Fact or Crap?

When I got back to my office I looked at my copy of the highlighted visitor log and decided to contact the college recruiter that it looked like I missed in my earlier attempts to glean information
from the log.
Turns out she was not a college recruiter at all - she was from a college but only an observer in a class.

Fact or Crap?

Sooooo......
Is this sign on the public school reader board correct now that 2 of the college recruiters were really not college recruiters?
Is this sign still unchanged even though I emailed corrected information to them?
Is this sign now going to be up at least all weekend, since today is Friday?

Fact or Crap?

To top it off today - the (only) school councilor sent me an email to refrain from emailing again him unless it pertained to my kid.
Geez.
Isn't he the guy who schedules recruiters?

Fact or Crap?

My sign is factual and the other is....

2 Comments

Yep. I am still here.

4/23/2012

0 Comments

I have carried a protest sign almost every school day since January 2nd and I expect to carry a sign until two more issues are taken care of.

1.   Limit how many times recruiters from any organization may come to the school each year.
I suggest two on-campus visits per year.

2. Do not allow recruiters to ask children for contact information. Turn it around. Let the children get the recruiter's information.

That's it.

Both of those seem so common sense to me.

What have I accomplished so far?

1. Recruiters are no longer in the hall at lunch time - they have to be in a classroom.

2. Recruiters may no longer solicit the 7th and 8th graders.

3. All recruiters must sign the visitor log.

4. All recruiter visits are now on the online calendar so the public will know when they are scheduled.

0 Comments

The No Child Left Un-Recruited attitude at this school

4/18/2012

1 Comment

The No Child Left Behind act became law in 2002.

In my mind, I consider it the No Child Left Un-recruited law.

The law says that the armed forces are allowed EQUAL access - to students that colleges and universities are granted by school districts.

Equal.
Schmequal at this school.

1 Comment

Free ain't always free...

4/5/2012

1 Comment

Yesterday an Armed Forces Recruiter was scheduled to be at the school, so as usual, I went there on my lunch hour to be the self-appointed, "Military Monitor" in the room where the recruiters give their sales pitches.

The Armed Forces Recruiter brought lots of "goodies" this time.
Brochures, stickers, lanyards, all paid for with our tax dollars.

Two young women came in and wanted a free lanyard/keychain.

The recruiter told them they would have to fill out a survey to get a "free" lanyard.

They willingly filled out the surveys, which likely gave the recruiter quite a bit of information.

This is the exact scenario that I have warned the administration and school board that is going to get them sued.

I think that if a parent signs the opt-out form that prohibit the district from giving their child's contact information to the military recruiters that the district should not allow a recruiter to supersede the parent's signed document against just such information getting to the recruiter.

That is the way I see it.

The administration and the school board apparently do not.

I am not an attorney - but would not mind if someone with a law degree weighed in on this....

1 Comment

The numbers don't lie.

4/3/2012

2 Comments

In March, the (only) school councilor had a presentation to the school board about how the school is preparing children in the district for the future.
There were graphs and numbers and percentages.
Talk of colleges visits on and off campus.
He said that Pacific University comes out several times a year to recruit.
So the next day,
I emailed the school to see how many colleges came to visit so far this year and they responded by telling me, that if I wanted to know, I would have to go look in the visitor's log book.

OK then.

I went to look in the book and there, in October, was a name - with the purpose - "college visit " - but did not list the college. It so happened the (only) school councilor walked in the office and I nicely asked him if he could tell me what college this recruiter came from and he looked at it and said to me, "No. I don't know."

Ok then.

The next college recruiter was listed as a visitor in November. He was from Heald College. That is a for-profit sort of business, healthcare, technology college.

OK then.

The third recruiter, who was there in December is the one I have decided was likely not a college recruiter. He was listed as, "MAC FB College Visit" and signed in at 7:30am. He did not sign out. School starts at 8:15am. So this, to me, is likely not a college recruiter.

I may not be a math whiz, but I do know right from wrong when I see it.

I carry this sign most school mornings for about 1/2 hour and walk up and down the sidewalk near the driveway into the school.

If you are in the neighborhood - come and walk with me!

2 Comments

Just the Facts, Ma'am.

Fact or Crap?

Fact or Crap?

Fact or Crap?

Fact or Crap?

Fact or Crap?

Fact or Crap?

Fact or Crap?

Fact or Crap?

Fact or Crap?

My sign is factual and the other is....

Yep. I am still here.

The No Child Left Un-Recruited attitude at this school

Free ain't always free...

The numbers don't lie.

Author

Archives

Categories