Nearly 60 students — most from Riverside Preparatory High School, ADDRESS — gathered in the cold Thursday at Riverside Park, ADDRESS, to protest military recruitment in high schools. The students picketed and displayed large signs starting at 3 p.m. Around 5 p.m, the students marched to the Army Recruitment Center on Oakland Avenue.
The rally, called "Not Your Soldier," was run mostly by students but supported by Peace Action Wisconsin, a local for-peace group with an office at 1001 E. Keefe Ave. The group provided two empty caskets draped with American flags and the protest signs for the students.
According to John Schwochert, a senior at Riverside University High School, the rally was anti-war and also anti-recruitment in schools. He has been organizing the students at Riverside against these causes for nearly a year and a half. Beyond the rally, Schwochert has been working to get the message out about what he feels are the negative aspects of army recruitment and possible alternatives to joining the army in order to pay for college.
"When the Army recruiters come into the lunchroom to talk to students, we set up counter-recruitment tables in order to inform students about what they are getting themselves into," Schwochert said. He has also been working with Milwaukee Public Schools in order to make "Opt-Out" forms unnecessary.
According to the No Child Left Behind Act, opt out forms allow students to keep their names, addresses and telephone numbers from military recruiters. According to Schwochert, Milwaukee Public Schools has a lobbyist who is working to change the Opt Out concept to "Opt In," meaning recruiters would only have a student's information if the students themselves requested to have the information sent to recruiters.
Traci Sperko, who spoke at the rally, is an armed services veteran who never saw combat. She said she signed into the military to pay for college. She was only 18 at the time and thought enlisting in the armed foces was her best chance to pay for college. She spent nine years in the military and traveled all over the world, including a stint in the Philippines during the Gulf War.
"I was pulled out of everything and put into the military environment. While all of my friends were living their lives, I was dealing with life and death situations," she said.
Although she did not see combat, Sperko contended that joining the military "changes everything."
"Life turns 180 degrees," she said. "No words can do justice to the life change that occurs." She believes that at eighteen, students are too vulnerable to make this decision.
"The fact that they cannot sign a contract for anything else but they can still sign a contract with the military for their lives is wrong," she said.
However she believes that life does go on and pointed out that joining in the military was a way to pay for college. When asked if she was going to march she exclaimed "I have to pick up my son! He's five and is waiting for me."
An army recruiting spokeswoman declined to comment specifically on the allegations made at the protest.
"I won't comment on what people are entitled to do with their free speech," said Sara Micka, a sokeswoman for Army Recruitment public affairs. "All we can say is that we protect and defend the Constitution, and that includes free speech."
Major Douglas Pryer with the Army Recruiting Company defended his organization's tactics.
The army offers $70,000 to pay for college for full-time enlistees and $20,000 in college tuition for enlistment in the reserves, he said. Some prospective enlistees are elegible for a $20,000 bonus for joining, according to Pryer.
More importantly, he believes "the main reason for joining the army should be to serve your country."
When asked about the approach of recruiters in high school, he said, "We are moving away from the pushy approach to recruiting. I have instructed my recruiters to let the students who are interested approach them."
He admitted that although it isn't his decision about the age at which it's appropriate for people to join the military, he believes that at 18, "people have reached the legal age at which they should decide what they want to do with their lives."
"Nothing makes me happier to see America how it is," Pryer said when asked about the protest. "I personally do not agree with the opinions expressed by the demonstrators, but I believe they have a right to protest, and I am proud to live in a country where protest is allowed."