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ACLU sues schools for access
by Jule Hubbard
A lawsuit filed late this morning by the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation (ACLU-NCLF) in Wilkes Superior Court accuses the Wilkes County school system of denying members of N.C. Peace Action the same access as military recruiters to students in the high schools.
The suit seeks court action requiring equal access for N.C. Peace Action representatives and that they be allowed to provide information on military service and alternatives to military service to Wilkes high school students in the schools.
The suit also asks for court action declaring that N.C. Peace Action representatives are entitled to present truthful, job-related information about military careers, including disadvantages of military careers.
The ACLU-NCLF filed the suit on behalf of N.C. Peace Action and N.C. Peace Action members Sally Ferrell of Boomer and Bill Towe, who is state coordinator of the organization.
“Military recruiters have long been permitted access to students in Wilkes County high schools to provide information on military careers, but Superintendent Stephen C. Laws and members of the Wilkes County Board of Education have repeatedly refused N.C. Peace Action’s request for meaningful access to offer truthful, job-related information on that very same topic,” in violation of the First Amendment right to free speech, stated an ACLU-NCLF news release.
“I have explained to the superintendent that our approach is not anti-military, but we have been continually denied access to speak with students in our local high schools who are being aggressively recruited by the military,” said Ms. Ferrell.
“Our goal is simply to provide factual information about military careers and other careers and to help young people look at career, vocational and educational funding opportunities outside of military service—for example, Job Corps and AmeriCorps—so that they may make informed decisions about their futures,” she added.
Ms. Ferrell and N.C. Peace Action have repeatedly been denied the opportunity to provide interested students with truthful information on topics such as pay, job duties, commitment options, recruiting policies and college opportunities, the release stated.
The release said the suit was filed as a last resort after repeated attempts to resolve the matter informally and efforts by attorneys for the plaintiffs to negotiate an agreement with the school system.
Attorney Charles Johnson of Charlotte said in an April 21 letter to Wilkes school board attorney Fred Johnson of Mount Airy that a Wilkes school board policy violated N.C. Peace Action’s First Amendment right to free speech by preventing the organization from helping students evaluate military vs. non-military career opportunities.
In his letter, Charles Johnson said he is a cooperating attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation and that he also represented members of N.C. Peace Action.
Fred Johnson said in an interview in April after receiving the letter that four brochures Ms. Ferrell distributed the previous school year at some of the Wilkes high schools violated a school policy for organizations wanting to recruit students for post-secondary education, employment or educational opportunities.
He said that under another school policy, Ms. Ferrell could leave the brochures in question at the school so they could be placed on a table for student viewing—without her being there.
Ms. Ferrell said in an interview in April that school officials hadn’t clearly explained the locations of these tables at the schools, but that she doubted they would be prominent locations.
In a letter to Charles Johnson last February, Fred Johnson quoted a portion of a school board policy to explain why Ms. Ferrell couldn’t give out the four brochures while she talked to students at the high schools. The policy states, “Recruiters may not discourage students from entering, or otherwise denigrate a specific educational program, educational institution, career or job opportunity.”
Fred Johnson’s letter identified the four brochures as “Sgt. Abe the Honest Recruiter Explains the Enlistment/Re-enlistment Document,” “Ten Points to Consider Before You Sign a Military Enlistment Agreement,” “Joining the Military is Hazardous to Your Education” and “Do You Know Enough to Enlist?”
Laws said in an interview today that the key point is that Ms. Ferrell and N.C. Peace Action wish to verbally share information with high school students at the schools that is critical of the military. He said the school policy on recruitment of students for career opportunities doesn’t allow this type of verbal criticism, whether it’s against the military, a certain college or other career option.
Ms. Ferrell said she was visiting Wilkes Central High School in September 2007 after already going to the other Wilkes high schools that month when the principal told her she couldn’t distribute the four brochures while speaking to students. Ms. Ferrell said she removed all but brochures about the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps.
Ms. Ferrell said that when she called about visiting the high schools in November or December 2007, high school principals told her Laws stated she couldn’t do so because of the brochures in question. “They have said they don’t want us to mention the military at all, but I feel we should be able to,” she said.
In a statement e-mailed to the Wilkes Journal-Patriot today, Ms. Ferrell said, “We want to teach peace… to provide a different perspective to students. The schools here allow military recruiters in to recruit underage students for war—and without consent from their parents. The schools hand over the kids’ contact information so military recruiters can call them at home.”
She also stated, “We want to be the peace recruiters… to provide students information on socially positive and environmentally friendly careers and tell them about other ways to serve your country besides going to war and other ways to find college money besides enlisting. The military could be a suitable career for some young people but for many the loss of personal autonomy and the disconnect between military life and the students religious and moral beliefs will result in lifelong social and psychological damage; as well as the possibility of death or serious injury.
“Since joining the military is a life-altering decision and one with potentially grave consequences, it only seems fair to me that students have the opportunity to evaluate their career options before deciding. If the military is going to be an unsuitable career, isn’t it better to find that out before signing up for eight years rather than develop a stress disorder?”
The policy in question was developed after the ACLU contacted Laws on behalf of people wanting to provide students information on military service alternatives.
The policy says the school board “acknowledges the legal requirement that if military recruiters are permitted to have access to students on campus, equal access must be provided to organizations that wish to present alternatives to military service, such as the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps.” It says this equal access doesn’t apply to individuals or ad hoc collections of individuals.
Under the policy, organizations must have some degree of established form and ongoing public purpose to be allowed at schools. The policy says recruiting activities that interfere with traditional school programs won’t be permitted. |
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