Education, Not Ammunition

Organizers of the military counter-recruitment campaign estimate that over 150 students walked out of classes and marched on recruiting offices at three different locations around Seattle on May 23rd. Three recruiting centers – one near the University of Washington, another in the Central District and one at the Northgate Mall -- were forced to temporarily close their doors, as students blockaded the facilities and picketed outside.

Three students were forcibly removed from the Army Recruiting Center at Northgate Mall by Sergeant First Class, Jessica Hicks.

Army spokesperson Bill Pierce maintains that Sergeant Hicks was protecting the recruiters and military property. "People can come into the station to talk about the Army," he said, "but they can't break into the station with the intent to do damage."

The students who entered the Army Recruiting Center at Northgate Mall deny that they had any intention of damaging property. They claim they were loudly criticizing the U.S. military's recruitment practices on school campuses when they were physically forced out of the facility. After the students were ejected, the station closed its doors and Seattle Central Community College student Marlo Winter declared a victory. "Nobody can be recruited while we are here," she charged.

During the demonstrations the students chanted, "Education, not war! Kick recruiters out the door!" They held signs saying, "Money For Education, Not Ammunition" and "I Want To Learn To Read, Not To Kill."

Two other recruiting centers were the focus of protests -- one near the University of Washington and another near Garfield High School in the Central District. Garfield graduate Duwan Tyson traveled from Olympia with other students from the Evergreen State College. "It was awesome," he told Seattle P-I reporter Jake Ellison. "They closed the doors on us and retreated."

The Marine Recruiting Center near the University of Washington locked its doors when the protesters arrived. Military personnel dropped the shades and hid inside the building despite repeated requests from the students to talk with a recruiter. The Army Recruiting Station there also reportedly closed their doors. Twenty-three-year-old Army Sergeant Melissa Porter told Ted Warren of the Associated Press that demonstrators, "pounded on some of the windows and doors."

On May 9th, the Garfield High School Parent Teachers Student Association (P.T.S.A.) passed a resolution banning military recruiters from their campus. This campaign has been led by Amy Hagopian, president and co-chair of the Garfield P.T.S.A.

According to Hagopian, "Our P.T.S.A. has a mission to promote the welfare of children and youth and to support and speak out on their behalf. That's the mission of P.T.S.A.'s everywhere in America. And we would encourage other P.T.S.A.'s to act on behalf of their mission and also look seriously at the recruitment happening in their schools and the nature of that recruitment, the frequency, the intensity, and the hard pressure tactics."

On Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman asked, “What would happen if the government decides to withdraw funding in response to the P.T.S.A.'s stand on military recruitment?”

Hagopian responded, "We can’t physically stop them, and we can’t legally stop them, but we can stand at the doors and explain that they're not welcome, as can every high school in the country. Somebody obviously needs to challenge this legally, but that's a hard task to ask of public schools that are strapped for money."

Parents and students protested when recruiters returned to Garfield High School. In another incident earlier this year, angry students chased two military recruiters off the campus at the Seattle Central Community College.