- David Morales
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Inadequate High School Courses Pushes Students into the Military
From Draft NOtices, July—September 2009
– David Morales
I remember meeting a girl named Katia Ortiz. She was a junior in high school, probably 16 years old. She was in JROTC. Katia would hide from me the days she was forced to wear her Marine JROTC uniform. She was embarrassed. I asked her why she was in JROTC. She told me her counselor had placed her there for the physical education credit and that there was no other class available. So there was Katia, a week into the semester of JROTC, learning how to march and being bombarded with military propaganda. There was no more room in the 11th grade English classes; she was stuck until the following semester. “JROTC will have to do for now,” her counselor said.
Katia’s situation is no surprise or abnormality. There is a lack of academic and college preparatory courses in our public high schools. If more students decided to take the courses required to apply to colleges in California, there would not be enough space, books, or teachers for them. This contributes to the increasing military recruitment in schools.
In 2006, at Mission Bay High School in San Diego, where 75% of the students are youth of color, there was a highly promoted college-preparatory AVID program (Advancement Via Individual Determination). A section of the school was set aside for the AVID Academy, which consisted of a network of teachers supporting students fulfilling academic requirements. Mission Bay had an AVID coordinator, an AVID counselor, and more than 120 students in the AVID Academy.