ANTI-ROTC PROTEST IN KANSAS - "Hey, hey, ho, ho, ROTC rifles got to Go"

Junior ROTC protesters change tactics

By KATE BEEM - The Kansas City Star Date: 05/22/00 23:14

Shawnee Mission students opposed to the district's Navy Junior ROTC program stepped up their protests Monday night, lining the walkway outside school district offices and chanting anti-ROTC slogans during a school board meeting.

Between 40 and 50 students and adults held picket signs and wore sandwich boards with slogans such as "Get the guns out" and "Guns and peace don't go together." Two students played drums while the crowd chanted.

Meanwhile, the school board continued its regular meeting inside the building and gave no official statement to the protesters, who began their protest an hour before the 7 p.m. meeting.

District officials have said they have no plans to re-evaluate the Junior ROTC programs at Shawnee Mission North and West high schools.

The district evaluates its curriculum on a cycle. The Junior ROTC program would be assessed as part of the physical education curriculum, which recently was evaluated and isn't due for another appraisal for about eight years, administrators have said.

The Junior ROTC curriculum includes classes in military history and an extracurricular drill team, which drills with deactivated rifles. Those rifles are allowed under the district's weapons policy.

Led by Shawnee Mission North High School junior Emiliano Huet-Vaughn, the student protesters have approached the school board several times since February.

The students took a different tack Monday, choosing not to speak during the school board meeting but to demonstrate instead. To the beat of the drums, they chanted, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, ROTC rifles got to go."

The demonstration came after Huet-Vaughn's group received a letter from the school board, which has no plans to discuss the Junior ROTC program, said Brenda Funk of Kansas City. Funk, an adult protester, is a member of the Greater Kansas City Committee on Militarism in Schools. The committee is a consortium of 15 religious, community, and peace and justice groups.

Junior ROTC supporters have appeared before the school board since February and spoken of the leadership skills the program instills in its cadets.

But the protesting students think the Junior ROTC curriculum, which involves about 160 students at each high school, is nothing more than a recruitment tool for the military, Funk said.

As the protesters chanted, "Public schools, not recruitment tools," Funk said that is a valid concern.

"We believe it is about recruitment," Funk said. "It's not about leadership training. They know it's about recruiting young people into the military."

Huet-Vaughn, who has gathered 600 student signatures on petitions against the Junior ROTC curriculum, promised future action.

To reach Kate Beem, education writer, call (816) 234-7734 or send e-mail to kbeem@kcstar.com