Should We End Military Recruiting in High Schools as a Matter of Child Protection and Public Health?

摘要

Recruiters for the various US armed forces have free access to our nation's high schools, as mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act. Military recruiter behaviors are disturbingly similar to predatory grooming. Adults in the active military service are reported to experience increased mental health risks, including stress, substance abuse, and suicide, and the youngest soldiers consistently show the worst health effects, suggesting military service is associated with disproportionately poor health for this population. We describe the actions of a high school parent teacher student association in Seattle, Washington, which sought to limit the aggressive recruitment of children younger than 18 years into the military. SINCE ITS ADOPTION IN 1989, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified more quickly and by more governments than any other human rights instrument. 1 There are only two United Nations (UN) members who have yet to ratify the convention: Somalia and the United States. Opponents of ratification object to giving away US sovereignty to the UN (a general objection applying to most treaties), but they also claim the treaty undermines parental rights. 2 But those are not the only objections. An optional protocol to the convention promises, “Persons who have not attained the age of 18 years are not compulsorily recruited into their armed forces” 1 and ensures safeguards for children subjected to voluntary recruitment. The United States would be out of compliance with this protocol because our federal government currently mandates that military recruiters have full access to the nation's public high schools for purposes of aggressively recruiting youngsters. (The laws governing military recruiters in high schools are Section 544 of the National Defense Authorization Act [FY 2002; PL No. 107–107] and Section 9528 of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 [PL No. 107–110].) In every public high school across the country, including the one our children attend in central Seattle, recruiters from all branches of the military work to enlist children, aged 14 through 18 years, for assignments ranging from pushing paper to bombing Afghan villages. Underage adolescents often enlist in what is called the “Future Soldier Program,” which encourages them to attend boot camp during the summer between their junior and senior years.