HomeTestimony to the Board of Education, August 27. 2008
Prepared Statement of Craig B. Mousin Before Chicago Public Schools Board of Education August 27, 2008
Good morning. My name is Craig Mousin. I am a parent of CPS students and a volunteer in Chicago elementary and high schools. I have previously stated my opposition to Rickover Naval Academy and the Chicago JROTC programs. Although I oppose these programs for many substantive reasons, I return to ask you to stop your ongoing recruitment of students and your sponsorship of violence through your partnership with Chicago JROTC. I have provided you with an op-ed article that I wrote for the April 17, 2008 News-Star which points out how your JROTC programs violate fundamental principles of public education. This morning I focus on how JROTC, by its very nature, constitutes recruitment.
Although you deny recruitment takes place, your own words, web sites, and activities betray you. One year ago, I asked you to remove the free downloads accessible through the Chicago CPS JROTC website for “America’s Army,” a first-person shooter video game that the Army uses to recruit young boys and girls in our schools.
Although I was pleased that CEO Duncan wrote a letter to the Army requesting removal of the game, I have not heard how the Army responded to his request. I note that my child—any Chicago child with computer access at home—can still play the game through links on the Chicago JROTC website or download it free for their home use. Just last night, I found the offer of free downloads of this game through live links from the Chicago JROTC website.
I can only conclude that this first-person shooter game’s continued access through the CPS website provides the Army’s answer. In addition, a guardian of a CPS high school student also complained that her student received an actual copy of the game provided by recruiters at Amundsen High School during the last school year.
The Army’s thus continues to recruit through your cooperation. I draw your attention to an article by Michael Reagan, “US Military Recruits Children: “America’s Army” Video Game Violates International Law” Reagan writes, “To make the connection between the game and recruitment explicit, the “America’s Army” web site links directly to the Army’s recruitment page.” He later adds “The game records players’ data and statistics in a massive database…which records every move a player makes….” This system allows the Army to track “overall kills [and] kills per hour.” We all oppose violence in our schools yet you allow the Chicago JROTC website to access a first-person shooter game that tracks “kills per hour!” How tragic.
In addition to the grounds that I argued why you should remove this game over a year ago, I now bring your attention to Mr. Reagan’s article and a report by the American Civil Liberties Union, entitled “Soldiers of Misfortune.” In that report, the ACLU alleges JROTC programs and the use of the first-person shooter game, “America’s Army” in our public schools violates international law which our nation has adopted. The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (Optional Protocol) seeks to protect children from military recruitment. The U.S. Senate ratified the Optional Protocol in December 2002 . According to the ACLU, “[R]ecruitment of youth ages 16 and under is categorically disallowed in the United States.” The report documents how JROTC programs and the distribution of “America’s Army” first-person shooter games to youth under 17 violate international law as adopted by the US Senate.
Your own websites and sponsorship of the JRTOC academies provide evidence of your own complicity in violating these protections for our youth. For example, look at the website for the Naval JROTC at Corliss High School and the pictures of many students who appear to be younger than 17 as, “Two Professors of Naval Science, CAPT K. Flowers of Southern University and CAPT T. Jones of Savannah University touted the benefits of becoming a Naval Officer.” A captive audience being influenced with the promises of scholarship money! See also the Chicago Tribune picture when Admiral Mullen, now head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with Rickover cadets to tell them about “careers in the Navy.” Talk about undue influence over youth!
This partnership with JROTC must end. Rickover must be closed. How will you avoid violating the law? How will you end your encouragement of youth violence with your permission to play such violent first-person shooter games through the Chicago JROTC website? Please end these JROTC programs.
P.S. I am still waiting for your response to my January FOIA request on the budget, income and expenses of the CPS Military Office. Is there more information there that you do not want disclosed that shows how integral recruiting is to the JROTC program? Why the delay in responding?