By Madeline Ramirez
Everyone in high school has to consider their options for their future. Some of us look at liberal arts colleges; some look at esteemed STEM schools to pursue careers in that field. Even more opt out of college for a trade career.
But for those who didn’t “make the grades” and are at risk of barely graduating, lo and behold the military. Serving your country is honorable, but the problem is that it’s unethical for military recruiters to target teenagers.
Recruiter policy has become quite unethical in the recent past due to changes made for the Iraq War and new recruit quotas for the military. As early as 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act has given military access into public high schools and information on students, such as their address and personal details. Department of Defense also employs strategies to actively seek out new soldiers within high schools using JAMRS, or Joint Advertising Marketing Research & Studies.
These occurrences are not equally exploitative of any high school student; they specifically target students with low grades and low-income backgrounds. Recruitment information will often be sent to teens who lack school grades that would gain them access to a college. Teens living in low income homes or in low income areas, which are also typically more populated with people of color, are also eligible candidates for military recruitment. Benefits like a funded future and security under the program are used to entice those vulnerable to issues stemming from finances.
Our military’s ratio of white people to people of color reflects a higher amount of African Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos than the average labor force. Recruiters go out of their way to target specific areas with lower levels of “affluence” in order to rope in more teens searching for a post graduate option that can sustain them.
Looking at the facts, it’s clear that the military recruitment of vulnerable teenagers is immoral and unethical. Military participation can’t be whittled down to a basic number game with which high school students are the pawns. Teenagers are more than eligible bodies that our government can throw onto its fields of combat. Recruitment should be an equally dispersed priority across the nation that aims to gain a diverse cast of participants willing to train for combat.
Targeting neighborhood schools that place lower on lists of recorded financial statuses or in terms of academic achievement lacks integrity and strips the country of the equal opportunity it claims to endorse.
