No Child Left Behind if They're Dead

Well, finally a useful piece of information from Massresistance. It seems that in President Bush's "No Child Left Behind Act" high schools are required to give the federal government the names and addresses off all juniors and seniors for the purpose of recruitment into the armed forces. If you are not concerned about your child enlisting this is not a problem.

Recruiters are up-front about their plans to use school lists to aggressively pursue students through mailings, phone calls, and personal visits -- even if parents object. "The only thing that will get us to stop contacting the family is if they call their congressman," says Major Johannes Paraan, head U.S. Army recruiter for Vermont and northeastern New York. "Or maybe if the kid died, we'll take them off our list."

Kudos go out to the Principal of Lexington High School for alerting parents of this potentially lethal threat.

Ms. Massresistance is pissing and moaning over the fact that the pricipal notified parents of this action. What Ms. Massresistance refuses to accept is that the Federal government requires the principal to notify parents (from the "No Child Left Behind Act"):

(2) CONSENT- A secondary school student or the parent of the student may request that the student's name, address, and telephone listing described in paragraph (1) not be released without prior written parental consent, and the local educational agency or private school shall notify parents of the option to make a request and shall comply with any request.

In a related matter, Conservatives are joining the fray in asking the Whitehouse to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy". Apparently, we are not good enough to receive equal treatment under the law for our families but we are good enough to die on the battlefield. It seems that since the Armed services is badly in need of recruits, some people are willing to "look the other way" when it comes to gay and lesbian personnel. However, the White House isn't budging yet:

Still, the White House and the Pentagon have given no signals that they would drop their longstanding support for the policy, implemented in 1993 under the Clinton administration. It prohibits the military from inquiring about the sex lives of service members but requires discharge of those who acknowledge being gay.

I can't imagine what will happen if a draft does go into effect. I guess gay and lesbian young people will be "coming out of the woodwork" instead of the closet if the ban stays in effect.