16 October 2008

JROTC going away? Or just Bay Area feel-good politics

So the citizens of San Francisco voted to boot JROTC from their high schools. Well now the students are fighting back:
Some San Francisco students are taking to the streets over military involvement in schools – to support it.
On a recent afternoon, they are on 24th Avenue. Adeline Wong and Michelle Ha knock on every door down the block touting a ballot proposition that would save a military-tied program in their school. The city's board of education narrowly voted in 2006 to phase out military education courses, known as junior ROTC, arguing it was a form of recruitment.
Adeline, a senior at Lincoln High and the school's senior battalion commander, is trying to tell voters that her favorite extracurricular activity isn't grooming her to be GI Jane. 'It's funny hearing other people's understanding of the program. It's so limited, so stereotypical – if you're in a uniform, you are going to go into the military,' says Adeline, who is gunning for a master's degree in biotech.


By: Brant

No comments: