Detroit school board okays counter-recruiters

Zoe Villegas at protest over ICE raids. WW photo: Cheryl LaBash

On Dec. 14, the Detroit Public School Board voted unanimously to allow counter-recruiters into the city’s schools. Zoe Villegas, a recent high school graduate, had appealed to youth online to come out to the Board meeting:

“This meeting will determine whether Finding Alternatives to Military Enlistment (FAME) will be allowed in schools to present an opposing argument (not even just an opposing argument, but the truth) to military enlistment. We all know how heavily recruiting is done in Detroit public schools. We are facing an economic draft that is targeting us directly, using the fact that we’re less likely to afford or be accepted into most colleges.

“But just because our education has been compromised does not mean that we are only worth a college education if we are willing to sell ourselves over to the military. The fact that we haven’t necessarily had an adequate education that’s on par with standardized testing isn’t our fault. That is institutional and we don’t have to apologize for low test scores by playing Russian roulette.

“FAME being allowed in schools will present students with the opportunity to scrutinize actual military contracts and understand the deceptive language. We all know how popular JROTC (jr.nazi) is and for those of you who are considering joining the military, this would just be an opportunity for you to carefully weigh your options.

“I know a lot of people who considered joining the military to get their college education paid for, or just to see something other than the same thing we’ve seen every day. But, I want you all to know that showing support for Finding Alternatives to Military Enlistment would be a way for DPS students to have people giving them real guidance and support, and would allow us a way to defeat the propaganda and have people in our corner for once. I’m going to try to get off work early and I drive a big ass car so if

anyone wants to car pool, call me. It’d mean a lot to me if we would actually express enough optimism to change things.”