Tens of thousands of high school students are reportedly being pushed into military classes without their knowledge or of their parents.
There is a growing shortage of recruits for the US Military. The recruitment crisis becomes more evident as the country intensifies the US/NATO war against Russia and simultaneously prepares for an upcoming war with China. Yet, at the same time, more and more young people are at odds in serving the military, WSWS reported.
Thus, the armed services have allegedly partnered with school authorities in "illegally" forcing thousands of high school students into the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC).
To open student's eyes to a military career
Andreya Thomas of Pershing High School in Detroit found on her first day of school that she and her other freshmen classmates were enrolled in the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, a class they did not elect on their own.
They soon found out that the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps is a class taught by military veterans and funded by the US military, aimed at teaching civic values, leadership skills, and discipline. However, it was also designed to "open students' eyes" to have a military career.
According to Thomas, who shared her story with the New York Times, they wear military uniforms in class and need to obey orders from their instructor, who kept yelling. She admitted that she pleaded several times to drop out of the course, yet school administrators would not allow it, stating that it is "mandatory." She even said they are enticed to a military career as it could help pay for college.
She also admitted that she often skipped class resulting in a failing grade. In sophomore year, she was put back in the same class.
According to a Times feature, 90 percent of the school's first-year students were auto-enrolled in the military class for the school year 2021-2022. It also reported evidence from hundreds of public records requests stating that "thousands of public school students were being funneled into the [JROTC] classes without ever having chosen them, either as an explicit requirement or by being automatically enrolled."
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'Egregious' violation of rights
In the Detroit Public Schools Community District, three other high schools auto-enrolled 75 percent of their ninth-graders in military training.
The following are the other cities with schools that involuntarily enroll 75 percent of their students: Vincent, Alabama; Spring, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Cape Coral, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; Memphis, Tennessee; Port Gibson, Mississippi; San Diego, California.
On the other hand, Baltimore, Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Miami, St. Louis, and Washington D.C. are the cities where over half of all students are forcibly placed in ROTC training.
Surprisingly, even military personnel object to this auto-enrollment scheme.
JROTC instructor and retired Army Major William White, who taught in three states, described the violations of the rights of students and their parents as outstandingly awful. According to Courage To Resist, he expressed that children were indeed "forced" into the military program and that he faced a backfire when he helped students to exit from the class.
Four Democratic lawmakers, namely senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; and representatives Ted Lieu of California and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, have already sought the attention of the Department of Education and Department of Defense about the pressing issue. As reported, the departments were already asked to respond to a series of questions to attempt damage control.
