Four-man punk band Anti-Flag stood alongside House Reps. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), Peter Stark (D-Calif.) and Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) on the terrace of a congressional office building Thursday afternoon to announce the initiation of a grass-roots campaign against a provision of the No Child Left Behind Act that requires high school administrators to provide military recruiters with students' names and contact information.
"We support our soldiers. Don't let anyone tell you that we don't," said McDermott, who is a Vietnam War veteran. "We are here today to call attention to something that has no place in a free society and no place in a voluntary military."
McDermott was referring to Section 9528 of the No Child Left Behind Act, President George W. Bush's 2002 education bill, which requires school administrators seeking federal funding to give students' names, addresses and telephone numbers to military recruiters unless their parents formally 'opt-out' in writing.
"The federal law permits a military recruiter to obtain private student information, and that is not right," McDermott said. "Young people, not government, should make the decision about whether to explore a military career."
Woolsey voiced her opposition to the policy requiring students to submit opt-out forms to protect their personal information. "We should be insisting that all schools give out forms to opt-in," she said.
Anti-Flag's lead singer, Justin Sane, also criticized the law, citing the required form as the opposite of a permission slip. Both Woolsey and Sane spoke of the need to "restore young people's privacy."
The members of Anti-Flag are the founders and co-directors of Underground Action Alliance, an Internet-based activism organization.
"There are a lot of kids that want to stand up for their rights, but don't know how," drummer Pat Thetic said. "Our objectives are education and empowerment."
On Thursday, the alliance launched www.militaryfreezone.org, a Web site whose stated objective is to "give students and parents the information and tools they need to protect the privacy of students and their right not to be subjected to predatory recruiting practices by the military."
The site provides opt-out forms and a petition that the group intends to present to Congress.
Sane said he is confident that the campaign will gain momentum with support from high school students.
"It's just a matter of young people being aware of the issues," he said. "They are definitely going to stand up and go to their representatives."
The group has expressed hope that if thousands of high school students fill out the forms and sign the petition, they could have an influence when the act is reauthorized in the next congressional session.
Woolsey is currently working on amending Section 9528 with the intention of changing the opt-out form to a voluntary opt-in form.
"Environmental policy and the campaign to end the Vietnam War started with activists, and this is the same," she said. "Members of Congress work for the grass-roots."
McDermott and Anti-Flag met last year, when the congressman spoke at a show in Seattle on the band's Punk Voter tour, which encouraged young people to vote in the 2004 presidential election. When the band members became aware of Section 9528 of the education act, they contacted McDermott and learned that he and his colleagues had begun an effort to overturn the provision in Congress.
"It's great when you're working on the activist level to have the cooperation of people inside the power structure," Thetic said. "We agree exactly on the issue"
