Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Schools may allow Veterans for Peace

The antiwar group wants to be allowed to counter military recruiters on campuses with information about alternate careers.

By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published July 14, 2006

After an 18-month ban, antiwar protesters may soon be allowed on Pinellas County high school campuses.

This time with a focused message: alternatives to military careers.

The Pinellas School Board on Thursday gave tentative support to allowing a local 50-member Veterans for Peace chapter on campus, agreeing it should have equal access to students who hear presentations from military recruiters.

Board members asked superintendent Clayton Wilcox to draft a policy that would provide access for the veterans after reviewing a letter from the group saying it intends to present "positive, factual information about vital career options that are wholesome and oriented toward serving society, both at home and abroad"

"If the military recruiters are setting up a table, I don't know why the Veterans for Peace can't set up a table as well," board member Janet Clark said.

Military representatives have been visiting high school campuses to encourage students to consider military careers for years. Since 2002, schools have been required to provide students' names, telephone numbers and addresses to military recruiters who ask for them under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

If a district fails to provide "directory" information to military recruiters, it can lose federal money. Some Veterans for Peace members think that's why the Pinellas and Hillsborough school districts have been reluctant to allow the group on campuses.

But School Board attorney Jim Robinson said his concern from the outset has been that the veterans did not appear to be presenting career alternatives, but rather trying to refute military recruiters' statements.

"That was a key point for me," Robinson said. "The issue is careers."

Veterans for Peace president Dwight Lawton, 72, said the group would like to work with school guidance counselors to present information about careers with organizations such as the Peace Corps.

He agreed that any printed material that is handed out to students would be subject to district approval.

As recently as April, school officials voiced concern that the group's true purpose was to counter the military recruiters.

St. Louis-based Veterans for Peace is a national organization of about 5,000 veterans of all eras, from World War II to Iraq. Its purpose is to raise awareness about the consequences of war and to encourage peaceful alternatives.

Board members will review a draft version of a policy that will allow the group to present its message at its Aug. 22 workshop.

In other business Thursday, the superintendent unveiled more plans to reorganize the school administration.

Among the possibilities: giving the responsibility of directing "traditional schools" to one official and the charge of overseeing schools with challenges to another.

The goal would be enhanced services for a variety of students, Wilcox said.

"We tend to see every problem as a nail and the only tool we have as a hammer," he said.

Wilcox also is considering retooling the curriculum supervisor's role and adjusting how the district handles crisis management.

The latter could require hiring more staff, but all other administrators already are on board, Wilcox said.

"We've got all the right people on the bus," he said. "Now we've got to get them in the right seats."

Wilcox appointed Julie Janssen, former principal at St. Petersburg High, to deputy superintendent in early June. He named former Palm Harbor University High principal Harry T. Brown associate superintendent for curriculum two weeks later.

Earlier this week, the board approved Wilcox's appointment of former Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle School principal Joan Minnis to a districtwide technology supervisor position.

[Last modified July 14, 2006, 03:03:05]