By: A Concerned Individual

I am sad to report that H.B. Beal Secondary School has a very open pro-military stance in regards to student recruitment.  Beal advertises military programming by making video clips of student recruiters and broadcasting them on the TVs throughout the school, hanging posters of military soldiers in the hallways, and hanging yellow ribbons around the trees in the front of the school without consulting its students.

After speaking with members of the administrative team I was informed that the military offers scholarship programs for the “less fortunate students, who want post-secondary education but can not afford it.”  This is highly offensive, morally destructive, and should not have any place in an institution which offers education.  Students who do not have the funding for post-secondary education should not be put in a situation in which they are persuaded to enroll in the army to achieve their aspirations.

Beal’s motto: “Our Mission is meeting the needs of a diverse student population to encourage individual potential and the achievement of excellence. Our Goals: (i) to provide an appropriate and relevant programme that meets the needs of Beal students in order to improve their academic achievement. (ii) to maintain a safe an positive learning environment.”

How are the needs of students met when the school and or government is unable to suggest forms of opportunity in post-secondary education or employment other than joining the military? No other post-secondary opportunities are advertised in the school with expensive large posters and television clips.

How is the school encouraging individual potential and achievement of excellence by allowing child predators (recruiters) into their school environment making promises and using forms of manipulation/romanticization and their authority to recruit students?

“Our Goals: (i) to provide an appropriate and relevant programme that meets the needs of Beal students in order to improve their academic achievement.

How does providing a resource to war, murder, hatred, manipulation, abuse, and dishonesty a relevant programme to improve students academic achievement?

“(ii) to maintain a safe and positive learning environment”

Does advertising with posters of soldiers dressed in camouflage and armour holding guns provide a feeling of a safe and positive learning environment? Does is allowing recruiters into the school create a safe environment?

Young adults who are recruited may eventually face combat and/or eventually get a free education. These campaigns lure young people with the promise to “see the world” and to have post-secondary education paid for. As a student, I am deeply disturbed at the link between Secondary School Administration and the military, who seem to work as a team to find fresh stock to fight wars like the one we are currently fighting in Afghanistan. Not only do ordinary citizens not know what is actually happening there but certainly young adults at Beal are NOT being educated about these matters. Recruiting teens in high schools is irresponsible: if not simply because they could be killed fighting but because like other generations (such as those who fought in Vietnam) they don’t know what they will be fighting for.