Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Schools

Vets get a peaceful welcome

The antiwar group's return to campus draws no protest.

By DONNA WINCHESTER, Times Staff Writer
Published October 6, 2007

Members of the antiwar group Veterans for Peace Patricia Boynton, left, and Linda Hubner talk to students Michael Bianchi, 14, and Danniel Martinez, 15, right, in the Dixie Hollins lunchroom. Boynton and Hubner began visiting Pinellas County schools Friday.
	[Cherie Diez | Times]

ST. PETERSBURG - The last time Veterans for Peace members set foot on a Pinellas County high school campus, uniformed police officers escorted them off the premises.

On Friday, Dixie Hollins High principal Michael Bohnet welcomed them to a table set up for their use in the school cafeteria.

For 30 minutes, two members of the antiwar group handed out literature on career alternatives to the military and talked to kids about scholarship opportunities. They also pointed out some "negative facts" associated with military enlistment.

No one seemed to object. In fact, several of the two dozen students who stopped by the table said they thought it was good that Veterans for Peace had come.

"A lot of students here don't think there are peaceful opportunities for solving conflict," said Jay Bartels, a 17-year-old senior in the school's JROTC program. "As long as the veterans don't try to jam anything down my throat, I'm okay with them being here."

His friend, sophomore Thomas Fetterman, 15, said he doesn't agree with everything members of Veterans for Peace say, but he respects them for speaking their minds.

"I'm not going to change their opinion," said Fetterman, who is starting his second year in JROTC. "I don't see a point to people dying in Iraq, but I don't see any way to avoid it."

Linda Hubner and Pat Boynton of the 50-member Tampa Bay chapter of Veterans for Peace offered pamphlets with titles such as "Do You Know Enough to Enlist?" along with financial aid information.

They propped a sign in a nearby window listing 10 points to consider before signing a military enlistment agreement. To get the kids' attention, they scattered mini boxes of raisins and strings of gold, green and purple Mardi Gras beads.

Most of the students breezed by on their way to the lunch line. Hubner and Boynton talked to a few about vocational education opportunities.

Not all who stopped were interested in what they had to say. Michael Bianchi, 14, asked if he could get a packet of raisins if he took a pamphlet. Chris Jones, 16, stopped just long enough to grab a string of purple beads.

"I'm not going in the Army," he said. "I'm going to college."

Danniel Martinez, 14, thought Hubner and Boynton were there representing the military. He walked away with a pamphlet and some scholarship information.

Bohnet, the principal, said he thinks there's room for both the military and the antiwar group at Dixie Hollins, a school in an unincorporated area of the county known for its large JROTC presence.

"I just do my best to educate the kids in the four years they're here," he said.

Military representatives have been visiting high school campuses nationwide for years to encourage students to consider military careers. 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 that information, it can lose federal money. That's why some Veterans for Peace members think the Pinellas and Hillsborough school districts have been reluctant to allow them on campuses.

The group began lobbying the Pinellas School Board in 2006, pointing out that a 1989 court ruling established that individuals or groups wishing to present alternatives to the military must have the same access to students as military recruiters. The board unanimously approved a policy allowing Veterans for Peace access to students in August.

"This is like a dream come true," Hubner said before dismantling the display. "If we reach just one kid, it will have been worth it."

Staff writer Donna Winchester can be reached at winchester@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8413.

[Last modified October 5, 2007, 23:39:27]