Temescal Canyon High School's administration will do anything to stop the Peace Club from meeting. But they gladly allow military recruiters on campus.
Temescal Canyon High School's administration will do anything to stop the Peace Club from meeting. But they gladly allow military recruiters on campus.
TCHS is a public school in Lake Elsinore, California. Ted Pennings is a student at TCHS. Ted believes in a peaceful world. Apparently, the adminstration does not.
Pennings has been trying for weeks now to organize a Peace Club on campus, and has encountered numerous obstacles. Posters weren't allowed at first; an on-campus peace rally was banned. Then they were allowed, but under restrictions not imposed on other student organizations. Then they were off again, because faculty advisors for the club resigned.
Now we hear that the administration is planning to allow Army recruiters to come on campus February 26, with the goal of enticing students to join the military. Under the "No Child Left Behind" law passed last year by the U.S. Congress, the schools are provided to turn over student contact information to military recruiters or face loss of federal funding. These recruiters regularly mislead students about the benefits of military service in order to get them to sign up. Once recruited, you may be stuck, and the government increasingly doesn't follow through on their own promises to those who choose to serve.
The Peace Club and local community peace activists are therefore planning a peaceful protest on February 26 at 1:00 p.m. outside Temescal Canyon High School. The last community protest, against the TCHS administration's refusal to support the peace club, drew a number of students, supporters from the area, and students from UC Riverside despite the dismal rainy weather of that day. The students of TCHS's peace club want to be heard -- and what they are saying is "no war."
This isn't the first time that the administration has had "control issues." Last year, Principal Steve Haney censored a student videotape announcement. Why? Because it urged students and their parents to participate in an issue that would have very serious effects on their lives -- cutting of school programs as the district deals with massive deficits. Apparently students shouldn't show an interest in that.
Nor should they show an interest in how many classes they attend. Haney blocked publication of a school newspaper editorial that criticized the decision to reduce the number of classes from eight to six. In addition, the TCHS administration also used the campus "censorware" software, designed for preventing minors from accessing pornography at school, to block access to a student-run Web site critical of the school district.
Okay, let's look at this carefully. No talk about alternatives to war, even though our high school students are being actively recruited to serve in the upcoming war and subsequent occupation of Iraq. No talk of budget cuts even though they'll directly impact our students. No discussion of changes in the educational quality due to schedule shuffling. And above all, no sign of dissent. Wait, are we still in America?
Military recruiters have access to students, off and on campus. Car dealerships have access to students. Computer industry giants have access to students. Why can't peace have access to the students? The obvious answer, of course, is that peace doesn't donate oodles of money to the district.
