More on student resistance to military testing in Hillsborough

According to an article in UNC's Daily Tar Heel (www.dailytarheel.com) Friday, over 50 juniors refused to take the ASVAB a week ago, not just the three who were put in in-school detention, allegedly not as a punishment.  The article says students refused because they did not want the military to receive their scores.  Apparently this is the first time the entire Cedar Ridge High School junior class has been required to take the military aptitude test.  Principal Gary Thornburg told the DTH that "Some people say schools target only certain kids and only gave tests to students that would be better suited for the military.  But we did it for everybody so that it wouldn't seem like a military recruitment tool" and the article points out that under the bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act, the military can get student information.  UNC SDS member Ben Carroll noted that "Military recruiters often hound students" and "They give you tons of promises."  SDS had a protest Thursday at noon in The Pit, with a fake UNC Draft Board skit.  I saw the flyers for the event, and I thought they were unusually jingoistic, but real.  The Raleigh-based US Army Recruiting Battalion's public affairs officer, Bob Harrison, told the paper that "We focus on what it is that you want to do with your future, experiment with different career options and give you an opportunity to gauge what your future is going to hold."  The article also quotes Al Hartkopf, of the Orange County Board of Education, saying that this policy will be reconsidered for next year, which makes me wonder if all juniors in the Orange County system had to take the ASVAB.  Chapel Hill and Carrboro are not part of the Orange County school system, but still, for a liberal county, making every student take a military test seems unusual.