Letters from Paly Principal Jacqueline McEvoy were sent to the homes of thousands of students this past weekend. These letters were not warning notices for grades, nor were they quarterly report cards, but were informing parents that their child’s personal information was to be given to United States Military, unless the parents request otherwise.

According to the New York Civil Liberties Union in a story titled, “NYCLU Launches Campaign to Protect Students’ Rights from Abusive Military Recruitment Tactics”, written Sept 22, 2005, “The federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 grants military recruiters wide access to public high schools and to students’ personal information. The NCLB law also requires schools to allow students and parents to withhold personal information from the military.” According to a story in USA Today titled, “Some opt out of military options; Students can deny recruiters their data”, written Nov 3, 2006, “Some schools mail notices about opting out to parents, others send them home with students.” While there is no law requiring a minor’s right to privacy, families should not have to go out of their way to restrict their child’s information from military recruiters.

Contrary to the belief of many, there is no actual law regarding any citizen’s right to privacy. This is a problem in and of itself, especially when it allows the exploitation of minors’ private information. According to The White House home page online, No Child Left Behind created “performance-based titles” to categorize different topics of the law including “Improving the academic performance of disadvantaged students “, “boosting teacher quality”, “encouraging safe schools for the 21st century” etc. Nowhere in these titles was the subject of the military even included. The NCLB law was created for the purposes of bringing public school systems more educational equality and academic improvements, not military recruiters.

The same story in USA Today states that “California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill this fall that would have required schools to include an opt-out box [for military recruiting] to check on student emergency-contact cards.” While including this “opt out” box would not have fixed this issue entirely, it would have at least been a step in the right direction. Passing this bill would have demonstrated that the government is at least trying to make it easier to say “no” to this policy. Schwarzenegger’s veto to this bill, instead, gives parents the impression that the government does not want to allow parents the right to deny their child’s information to the military.

According to a story in The Washington Post titled, “Pentagon Creating Student Database”, written June 23, 2005, other government programs, such as the Pentagon, are actually using the student’s information toward data that is not militarily-based. “The new database will include personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade-point averages, ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying.” The Post continues to explain how “the system also gives the Pentagon the right, without notifying citizens, to share the data for numerous uses outside the military, including with law enforcement, state tax authorities and Congress.” It’s bad enough that parents have to actively decide whether to disclose their child’s information to the military, but now it appears that the government is withholding information that could alter the parent’s decision. Why must we make our decisions regarding disclosing information apparent to the government if they are able to withhold their own information from us? The government’s omission of information gives new meaning to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Apparently, if parents do not ask where their child’s information is going, government will not tell them.

One solution to this issue would be to encourage families to give information for military recruitment, rather than coercing them into providing it. One might argue that enlistment of young people into the military would decrease since fewer parents would go out of their way to allow military recruitment of their child. However, there are ways the government could make it easier for parents to say “yes”. State governments could instead include an “opt in” box on student emergency contact cards. Since government currently does not seem to want to make it easy for parents to withhold information, in the future, they could at least make it easier for parents to disclose it.