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| Superintendent Ed Graff |
Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:
Superintendent Ed Graff suspended all military recruiting indefinitely on Oct. 20, pending review of the program and discussion with recruiters on student safety, reporting protocol and other issues. Graff outlined what meetings military recruiters would have to attend and what paperwork they would have to submit before they would be permitted to return to ASD schools.
"When students come to school each day, they deserve to be safe and treated with respect by everyone in the building, including visitors," Graff said in a statement.
Investigative files leaked to the media describe accusations of widespread sexual misconduct among officers in the Alaska Army National Guard's Recruiting and Retention Battalion, including incidents involving Anchorage students.
District spokeswoman Heidi Embley said Wednesday the district has received a stack of paperwork from military recruiters that includes answers to questions probing into their training and management. The guard met with Graff last week in an additional meeting to discuss their procedures, she said.
Embley said Graff has approved the first group of military recruiters to move forward and talk with school principals. The rest should be approved by next week, she said. She would not specify which branches of the military made up the first group.
"At this point we have no concerns, it's just having an opportunity to review the paperwork," Embley said.
Yeah well I have concerns, and I certainly don't think that the recruiters should be returned to high school campuses so quickly, or to be honest at all.
I have never been comfortable with the recruiters plying kids with pizza and sodas while selling them on a job that could see them fighting for their lives on foreign soil.
And even if these kids return in one piece we have now learned that looks can be deceiving as they may be saddled with emotional issues, permanent brain damage from bomb blasts that did not rend their flesh, and PTSD which could make them unemployable and possibly suicidal.
My advice to parents and their teenagers is to steer well clear of these war pimps, and my advise to the superintendent would be to rid our schools forever of even the possibility that these men may physically or sexually assault any of our kids.
What will Superintendent say the next time this happens? Sorry?
"War pimps" - perfect description.
ReplyDeleteStudents should not give out their personal cell phone numbers to recruiters nor give recruiters names of other students to contact for possible enlistment. Let's face it, these students are kids....kids...not adults. Maybe one of you knows if phone numbers are given out or requested by recruiters nowadays.
ReplyDeleteIn the mid 90's a recruiter phoned our home wanting to speak with our son who was close to graduation. This recruiter was unfortunate as he spoke with me......and I requested as nicely as possible through clenched teeth to never ever contact my son again. We never got another call. Now mind you, this is before the advent of cell phones. Parents need to step up....recruiters need to not get personal with these kids.
I'm not comfortable with this at all and am glad I no longer have kids in school. Wonder what kind of pressure was applied to the head of the school district to change his mind so quickly? And, by whom?
ReplyDeleteSame here, Gles. My daughter took the military "SAT" test in high school, scored the highest and we had recruiters from every branch calling our house. Her dad is a LtCol USMCR and let them have it for calling in ways only a Marine can do. They were lucky they talked to him as I would have been even less polite....
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that recruiters are TRAINED in what they do. I knew one who said it is very easy to manipulate a young person. One of the things they do is NEVER answer a question directly....they answer With a question of their own. They are skilled at talking so that their lies can not come back as lies. It's skilled manipulation.
ReplyDeleteI do not think they should be allowed on school property. If what we have is a volunteer army than they should be content to have the kids come to them. They should not be allowed to exploit kids who are unsure of where or what is going on.
Parents do need to step up. All it would take is for them to 'sit in' on one session so they can see for themselves how these kids are manipulated into thinking it's the best thing since the internet.
But, but, but... WHERE IS YOUR PATRIOTISM???
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I was born in a foreign country (yeah, I know, I am one of those 'durn ferrinners'...), and I absolutely do NOT remember ANY military being allowed to contact the students for enlistment purposes. Mind you THAT, even though we regularly had the military coming for exercises into our area and occupying our school gym! While the military were in our gym, we would hang out with them and get some of their MREs (yippieee - they were so yummy to us kids...) - but there never was any official recruiting going on, and none of the military were allowed to take any of us kids to go anywhere with them.
Having military recruiters coming on campus, and 'wining and dining' young, underage kids is a foreign concept to me, and smacks of what the former Sowiet Union would do.
Also, too: just ONE MONTH after they were banned, they are back again?! THAT'll teach 'em!
ReplyDelete(As our infamous troll would say: SMH!)
O/T Joni sure knows how to pick 'em!!
ReplyDeleteJoni Ernst spokeswoman resigned after OWI arrest
>>>An officer arrived and shined a flashlight into Hamel's car after unsuccessful attempts to wake her.
"All of a sudden she floored it and the car ran up the curb with all four tires and almost ran over the cop," Daniels said.
Hamel blew a .181 on a preliminary breathalyzer test and "pleaded" with an officer not to arrest her, saying "this would cause her to lose her job," the report stated.
The driving offense was not the first in Iowa for Hamel, who is a Washington, D.C.-based political strategist.
At 10:30 p.m. on Oct. 13, Hamel crashed her Ford Explorer into a sign post at the intersection of 142nd and Meredith streets in Urbandale. She was in the passenger seat when Urbandale police arrived. She claimed a man named "Robert" was driving the vehicle and "took off running" after striking the post, according to an Urbandale police report.
"Hamel later admitted that she lied and that she was the one driving the vehicle," the report states.
Hamel blew a .164 on a preliminary breathalyzer test but wasn't arrested "because she wasn't operating the vehicle when officers arrived," the report states. She told officers she had had three drinks but had not eaten anything.
Hamel was charged with failure to maintain control of her vehicle, and having an invalid driver's license and expired car insurance.>>>
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2014/11/06/joni-ernst-gretchen-hamel-arrested-owi/18618313/
No amount of meetings, paperwork or training will change someone who is a sexual predator. Why doesn't the superintendent know that? Since the suspension was so short and this is their solution it's all just political BS.
ReplyDeleteThey had them in Public Schools, but the meetings were changed from "mandatory" to "voluntary", But of course, lines were crossed and free tee shirts, water bottles, i pod headsets, pens and trinkets advertising the armed forces were passed out to anyone with a hearbeat.
ReplyDeleteSo, thinking fast on their feet, they quickly moved to shopping malls. I'm fine with recruiters, open a recruiting office space and label the building as such. Do they think kids are stupid enough to join for a pair of earphones made in singapore? Plastic cups? pens? If they are, we really need education reform, and pronto.
Why don't they show film of people in Veterans Hospitals? People with the scars of war to the mind and body? Families dealing with all this with little to no help? Bet those earbuds would lose their value.
There is a form to sign every year at registration that allows parents to say who they will allow to talk to their children. I always mark the box the denies military recruiters. Bad tactics have been occurring nationwide for years and I don't want them anywhere near my kids.
ReplyDelete