[May 12] SF School Board to vote on restoring JROTC

San Francisco School Board to VOTE
on restoring JROTC at its next meeting.

Come to the meeting and show your support for the school board members who are standing up against the Pentagon's onslaught.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 - 6:00 pm
555 Franklin Street at McAllister

It is time for JROTC to go.

The San Francisco Board of Education voted over two years ago to phase out the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps. JROTC is run by the Pentagon and their hand-picked military instructors. The program is scheduled to end this June.

The Pentagon and their allies are trying to overturn the school board decision. The board is expected to vote at its next meeting on a resolution to restore the program, introduced by the Pentagon's two most shameless supporters, Jill Wynns and Rachel Norton.

The school board voted to phase out JROTC because San Franciscans do not want the military in our schools. JROTC targets children as young as 14 and 15, particularly working class youth from communities of color. Nor do San Franciscans support a program that won't hire openly LGBT instructors, in line with the Pentagon's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. JROTC costs school district taxpayers one million dollars per year.

The struggle to get the military out of our schools goes back to 1994, when the public and the school board learned that "for at least the last five years, ranks... a ritual punishment in which JROTC cadets are punched repeatedly... as they walk between a gauntlet of drill team members" was common in at least one high school. Since then, those opposed to the military presence in our schools have been subject to repeated threats and intimidation, including at least one death threat against a school board member.

In 2005, nearly 60% of San Francisco voters declared that we want military recruiters out of our schools. In 2006, the school board finally voted to phase out JROTC.

Last November, downtown and military money funded the "Yes on V" campaign, a purely advisory measure supposedly aimed at supporting JROTC, but really aimed at creating a "wedge issue" to defeat progressive candidates for the Board of Supervisors. Downtown poured $200,000 into this campaign, gained a small victory with Prop V, but lost every Supervisor campaign. Despite being out-spent 15 to 1, opponents of JROTC got nearly 150,000 votes.

The school board vote on May 12 should be the final chapter of this long campaign. If we win this vote, JROTC will be gone in June. Come to the meeting and show your support for the school board members who are standing up against the Pentagon's onslaught.

We can and will win.

http://www.NoMilitaryRecruitmentInOurSchools.org

NoJROTC@yahoo.com
510-326-1961