At right: Iraq War veteran speaks at Senn.

Hundreds protested the Navy during fall of 2004. This included

• petitioning
• pickets
• 1000 students walked out

We support the students of the Rickover Naval Academy (RNA), and wish for their continued health and safekeeping, and for their education as independent thinkers and future leaders of their society. Because of this, we are extremely concerned about their presence in a military academy.

These students are being deliberately propagandized into recruitment at an early and vulnerable age. You can see this, for example, on the Chicago Public Schools JROTC web site*.”Get ‘em young” works for gang recruitment, it works for advertisers, why should the military be any different? This indoctrination is an extreme offense to the youth of our city. They are being molded to obey without being exposed to the critical thinking skills so touted in the rest of the Chicago high school learning community. What’s the hurry? If this program is so good, why not wait until they can freely choose, at 18 years old? Why this eagerness to train youth for the military at 14, 13, 12? The answer, of course, is that if the military waits until later, it is too late. The 18-year-olds are wiser, more cautious, and can find alternatives. And they see the results of the disastrous war in Iraq. And they do not enlist.

As recruitment has fallen due to the Iraq war, deliberate construction of a military education program in this city has increased accordingly. The militarization of youth in Chicago has taken on epic proportions. Chicago has the largest number of these programs of any city in the country. Note that these programs are not being placed in wealthy suburbs where there are more options available; instead they prey on urban, low-income youth who are most in need of the promised financial incentives and least able to resist them.

RNA students are not the only ones penalized by being at this school - the students at Senn have been penalized, as well. The reduction of Senn High School space; classrooms, labs, and gymnasium, makes all students victims of this extremely ill-conceived plan. That is why we have advocated that RNA leave the Senn H.S. building.

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Fact: 10,600 Chicago students are in some form of military education.

Fact: It is illegal for the Rickover Naval Academy to be trying to recruit its students into active military service. As General Eric K. Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, testified under oath to Congress, in reporting on the JROTC program “…we don’t recruit them [students]; as you know, we’re not permitted to do that…” He said this before the House Armed Services Committee on February 10, 2000.

Fact: Although the military says these programs are not for recruitment, 40% of youth in Navy JROTC programs go on to active military service (See the CPS JROTC web site listed below under *.).

Fact: The flier advertising this concert put out by the Rickover Naval Academy includes the same recruitment motto that is used by the Navy, “ACCELERATE YOUR MIND.”

Fact: Navy JROTC gained an ok for a student “field trip” to the Naval Academy in Annapolis.

Fact: The head of the Navy came to RNA and told the cadets that he hopes they choose the navy as a career.

Does this not involve illegal military recruiting? —————-

Please get involved, Find out more. Contact the SaveSenn.org website. Visit military websites such as the CPS JROTC website *(http://www.chicagojrotc.com/index.jsp?rn=1107458). Check the news. Become knowledgeable and informed. Protect our youth from those who prey on them before they have the judgment and wisdom to think fully for themselves. We thought you should know that in this case, saving Senn may save far more, as well.

        Save Senn Coalition, P.O. Box 60365, Chicago, IL 60626….773.250.3225.

Formerly this sign boasted of the “Rickover Naval Academy” but repeated complaints caused it to be removed.

For updates on their schedule go to http://www.chicago.afsc.org or call the American Friends Service Committee at 312-427-2533

During the first week of school Cindy Sheehan’s national bus tour stopped at Senn. The tour featured a number of Iraq Veterans Against the War speakers, as well as Gold Star Families, relatives who had lost loved ones in the war. About 125 people came to the event.

As the new school year begins we are continuing our efforts to build the kind of high quality, community school that we want–and we aim to have a school that is free from a military curriculum, harrassment by military recruiters, and a military academy within our building. The Save Senn coalition is actively working to: + resist the military takeover of our school + insist on community involvement in school decisions + counter aggressive military recruitment of our students. The Naval Academy at Senn is connected to a larger pattern in the Chicago Public Schools in which military education is mushrooming, while community schools and their elected school councils are being dismantled and replaced by privately managed schools accountable only to hand-picked corporate-type advisory committees.

The picket at Rickover’s opening ceremony was attended by more than 50 protestors. Most news stations covered the protest, and Daley, Duncan and Durbin were forced to spend time answering questions about the militarization of schools, and its negative effect on Senn as opposed to promoting the benefits of military education.

The Struggle continues

As the new school year begins we are continuing our efforts to build the kind of high quality, community school that we want–and we aim to have a school that is free from a military curriculum, harrassment by military recruiters, and a military academy within our building. The Save Senn coalition is actively working to:

+ resist the military takeover of our school + insist on community involvement in school decisions + counter aggressive military recruitment of our students.

The Naval Academy at Senn is connected to a larger pattern in the Chicago Public Schools in which military education is mushrooming, while community schools and their elected school councils are being dismantled and replaced by privately managed schools accountable only to hand-picked corporate-type advisory committees.