Pittsburgh tightens restrictions on military recruiters
Driven by concerns about high pressure tactics by military recruiters, the Pittsburgh school board has tightened restrictions on recruiters who visit district high schools. "We don't want our children to be badgered," says school board member Dan Romaniello. "We don't want people walking around our building without any regulations, but we also have to treat the military the same as we treat anybody else." The revised policy applies with equal force to recruiters from the business and education communities because federal law requires that military recruiters receive the same access to students as those other recruiters. The board’s changes require recruiters to register with an administrator when they arrive at a school. The board has also banned recruiters from using contests, drawings or lotteries, or money or gifts, except minor promotional items or scholarships. In addition, the policy now prohibits exhibits or video games depicting weapons or violence, which primarily affects military recruiters. The board also ordered the creation of a system for logging complaints about recruiters.
Over the objections of two board members, two other provisions were cut from the revised policy. The board dropped provisions that would have limited recruiters from a given organization to four visits per high school per year and would have banned recruiters from serving as tutors or mentors unless they were parents. Although the board discussed prohibiting recruiting in cafeterias and hallways, the policy leaves it to individual principals to determine where recruiters may interact with students. This year will also be the first year that parents will be provided with opt-out forms, which will prevent recruiters from contacting students whose parents sign the form.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette By Joe Smydo
WTAE-TV4 By staff
[Editor’s Note: The federal law referred to is the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which also requires that parents and students be able to opt out of having their contact information disclosed to military recruiters. Other examples of issues related to recruiter access are provided starting below.]
NSBA School Law pages on NCLB and military recruiters