Liberal Media v 2.0 - It's the HIPPIES, I tell ya!

Liberal Media v 2.0 - It's the HIPPIES, I tell ya!

San Francisco to Boot JROTC Programs

SAN FRANCISCO — High schools across the city soon will no longer have Junior Reserve Officers'Training Corps programs after officials decided to eliminate them because of the Pentagon's"don't ask, don't tell"policy regarding gay service members.

The Board of Education voted 4-2 late Tuesday to phase out the JROTC from schools over the next two years, despite protest from hundreds of students who rallied outside the meeting.

The resolution passed says the military's ban on openly gay soldiers violates the school district's equal rights policy for gays.

The school district and the military currently share the $1.6 million annual cost of the program. About 1,600 San Francisco students participate in JROTC at seven high schools across the district.

Cadets and instructors who spoke at the meeting and rallied outside argued that the program teaches leadership, organizational skills, personal responsibility and other important values.

"This is where the kids feel safe, the one place they feel safe,"said Robert Powell, a JROTC instructor."You're going to take that away from them?"

Mayor Gavin Newsom called severing ties with the JROTC"a bad idea"that penalized students without having any practical effect on the Pentagon's policy on gays in the military.
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Nov15/0,4670,JuniorROTC,00.html

Letter to the Editor:

It is a sad day for the students of San Francisco's public schools. With the elimination of the JROTC program, the school board killed a program that offered an alternative for many students ("School board votes to dump JROTC program," Nov. 15).

The only reason that I can think for this action is the board's fear of an alternative voice on campus; the fear that its "progressive" views will somehow be diluted by students who found a home and a place to grow in the JROTC.

I spent three years as a cadet at Lowell High School's JROTC program. I was shy and reserved as a 10th-grader; when I graduated three years later, I was the deputy battalion commander. I also gained experience as a company commander, teaching a class of 30 cadets. No other school program provided me with that kind of experience. I never once thought about joining the military; it is precisely because there was no military commitment that many students enrolled in JROTC.

The school board does not seem to care about programs that benefit students, just about eliminating competing ideas. This action looks and smells like tyranny, instead of democracy.

ALEX LEE

San Francisco
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/16/EDGTGMDCSA1.DTL&hw=jrotc&sn=002&sc=854