Leave Our Children Alone!
Legislation to Stop Military Recruiter's Access to Students
by Linda Pascatore on 28 May 2005
Most people don’t realize that there is a provision in the No Child Left Behind Act that mandates schools to provide our children’s personal information to Military Recruiters. Now one would expect that parents would have to sign a Release of Information form to authorize the school to give out their child’s information to recruiters. That is not the case. Rather, the school will automatically share the information, unless parents sign an Opt-Out form
preventing them. Many parents don’t know this, or don’t understand the form, or never even receive the form sent home with their children. As a mother of two boys, I know I never saw half the information the school sent home.
US Representative Mike Honda has sponsored a bill to remedy the situation. The Student Privacy Protection Act would change the law so that school would release private information to military recruiters only if families request it, rather than the other way around.
The Bill is H.R. 551, the Student Privacy Protection Act of 2005, which amends section 9528 of No Child Left Behind. It prohibits military recruiters from contacting students unless these minors and their parents specifically “Opt In” and consent to receive such communications.
There is a great web site, Leave My Child Alone at: www.leavemychildalone.org
On this site you can sign on as a citizen co-sponsor of the bill. If you are a parent and want to opt out, this site has an Opt-Out letter to send to your school district, with specific directions. The Leave My Child Alone web site also has more detailed information on this subject.
If you want to send an contact our elected US representatives, you can use my sample below.
To my Elected
Representatives,
As a parent, teacher, and concerned citizen, I was horrified to find
out that No Child Left Behind has a provision requiring school districts
to share student's personal information with military recruiters.
I believe that information should be shared only with the student's
and parent's informed, signed consent. The current requirement for
parents to "Opt Out" of this sharing of info is unreasonable
and inherently misleading and dishonest.
I support H.R.551, the Student Privacy Protection Act of 2005, which
amends section 9528 of No Child Left Behind. H.R. 551 prohibits military
recruiters from contacting students unless these minors and their
parents specifically “Opt In” and consent to receive such
communications.
Sincerely Yours,
Contact information
of Hawaii's federal representatives are listed below. Especially important
in this effort is contacting Ed Case, Dan Inouye and Dan Akaka. These
contacts (and others) are always available on the sidebar index of
this website listed under Government as KauaiReps.
US Federal
Government Representatives:
US
House of Representatives: Hawaii,
1st District
Niel Abercrombie
Honolulu Office
Prince Kuhio Federal Building
300 Ala Moana Blvd.
Room 4-104
Honolulu, HI 96850
phone: (808) 541-2570 fax: (808) 533-0133
Washington Office
1502 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
phone: (202) 225-2726 fax: (202) 225-4580
Neil.Abercrombie@mail.house.gov
US
House of Representatives: Hawaii,
2nd District
Ed Case
Honolulu
Office
5104 Prince Kuhio Federal Bldg
Honolulu HI 96850
Phone: 808-541-1986
Fax: 808-538-0233
Washington
DC Office
128 Cannon HOB
Washington DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-4906
Fax: 202-225-4987
ed.case@mail.house.gov
US Senator
from Hawaii:
Senator Daniel Akaka
Honolulu Office
Prince
Kuhio Federal Building
300 Ala Moana Blvd., Rm. 3-106
Box 50144
Washington Office
Honolulu, HI 96850
141 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-6361
senator@akaka.senate.gov
US Senator
from Hawaii:
Senator
Daniel Inouye
Honolulu Office
Prince Kuhio Federal Building
300 Ala Moana Blvd., Rm. 7-212
Honolulu HI 96850
Washington Office
722 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3934
senator@inouye.senate.gov
President
of the United States
George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington DC 20500
Phone: 202-456-1414
Fax: 202-456-2461
president@whitehouse.gov
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