Many Students Choose Not to Share Contact Information with Military Recruiters;
Schools Should Make It Easier to “Opt Out”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rachel L. Myers, MCLU, 409-5509
Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Portland: Last year, the contact information of 98 percent of juniors and seniors in Portland public schools was turned over to military recruiters.  This school year, that number dropped to about 40 percent.  The drop is due to a change in policy at Portland’s public high schools that seeks to make students and their parents aware of their right to “opt out” of having their personal information handed over to the military.

“65 percent of juniors and seniors at Deering High School opted out of allowing their personal information to be shared with military recruiters,” said Rachel Myers, Field Organizer at the Maine Civil Liberties Union.  “That sends a clear message that handing over such information should not be standard practice in Maine’s schools.”

The personal contact information of high school juniors and seniors is being shared with military recruiters under the No Child Left Behind Act.  However, schools often fail to share with students and their parents that the NCLB Act includes a provision which allows them the right not to share their information, simply by making a request to remove their name from the list.  Until this year, Portland, like most school districts in Maine, did little to make students aware of this right to opt out.  As a result, the contact information of almost every student was distributed to any recruiter who asked for it. 

Prior to the 2005/2006 school year, the Portland School Committee passed the “Equitable Recruitment Access Policy,” which requires Portland’s high schools to include the opt-out option on mandatory emergency cards.  After the inception of this policy at the beginning of the 2005/2006 school year, 52 percent of eligible students at Deering High School and 65 percent at Portland High School opted out of having their personal contact information shared with military recruiters. 

“Whether a student intends to join the military or not, it is absolutely necessary that he or she is given the choice to keep his or her personal information from being handed over to military recruiters,” said Myers.  “It is a simple matter of personal privacy, and schools should make it as easy as possible for students and their parents to protect their own privacy.  All schools in Maine should adopt a policy like Portland’s.”

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