Students recruited in wartime

Chicago Reporter, The, March, 2003 by Sarah Karp

More than 10 percent of Chicago public high school students participate in Junior ROTC, a class designed, taught and partly paid for by the U.S. military, according to Chicago Public Schools data. Ninety-three percent of the junior cadets are black or Latino.

Critics charge that the program pushes students with limited options toward the military. These students, they say, are told that the military provides a way out of resource-starved neighborhoods and offers money for college. With a war against Iraq seemingly imminent, the critics worry that such young people might pay for their desire for opportunity and education with their lives.

"There's always a need to recruit more people during a war," said Chuck Hutchcraft, Chicago-area coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee, a national social justice and peace organization. "I think the pressure increases at times like these."

But Rick Mills, director of the JROTC programs in the Chicago Public Schools, contends the war will not affect the classes.

"This is not about training students to be soldiers," he said. Instead, he said the goal of the JROTC program is "to motivate our cadets to be better citizens in this country The JROTC curriculum focuses on citizenship, leadership, values, character development and service learning."

However, the official U.S. Army's Junior ROTC Web site makes clear that a 1999 program change made it "Cadet Command's policy to do everything possible to influence young impressionable people under their control to enlist in the Army, Army Reserve, or National Guard."

Sherard Holland, a 16-year-old sophomore at Curie High School on Chicago's Southwest Side, said he is in the middle of the issue.

He is active in Generation Y, a youth group that organizes teens around urban issues. The group has challenged the Chicago Public Schools to change the over-representation of students of color in military programs and under-representation in college preparatory classes.

But Holland is also a member of his school's Junior ROTC program. He signed up because he plans to serve as an electrician in the military after high school. "I wanted to go in because of the benefits," Holland said. "They will pay 100 percent of your [college] tuition."

Yet Holland has never wanted to be on the front lines, and the possibility of it has given him second thoughts about joining the military. "It kind of makes you worry," he said.

At the Chicago Military Academy in Bronzeville, a traditionai military regimen is structured into the school day. Students come to the South Side school four days a week dressed in uniform, and they endure inspections and roll calls. Still, Principal Phyllis Goodson stresses it is a college preparatory school.

On a morning in mid-February, teacher Donna Fournier, who is a commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve Force, led a class on diplomacy and military strategy. The class receives daily briefings on what's going on in Iraq. And when things are happening such as Secretary of State Colin Powell's speech to the United Nations, she turns on the television so that her students can witness history.

But Fournier said she does not try to influence students to join the military. "It is their own choice," she said.

About hail of the 20 or so students said they plan to sign up for the military or college ROTC after graduating from high school. Out of this group, two said they want to fight for their country.

Many are like Derrick Samuels. He plans to participate in college ROTC because he needs help paying for his education and doesn't think his C-average will win him many scholarships. He doesn't feel a war in Iraq would pose a direct threat to him.

And even if he could someday find himself in combat, Samuels has an 18-year-old's sense of invincibility.

"I am not going to sweat it," he said. "I plan to be around for a long time."