Topanga Peace Alliance Seeks Volunteers for High School Military Opt-Out Drive.

Members of the Topanga Peace Alliance (TPA) continue to distribute military opt-out forms to seven high schools in the area.

Under the "No Child Left Behind" federal legislation, schools are required to share 11th and 12th grade students' personal information with the military for recruitment purposes UNLESS parents and students sign an opt-out form.

While leafleting and talking with students last year, we found that many of them were unaware that the military would have access to their personal information or that they could opt-out. While these forms help keep their information away from the military, there is another way the government is working on recruiting children.

TPA has become aware of a military database called JAMRS. The acronym stands for the "Joint Advertising Market Research Studies" and is funded by the Department of Defense. It maintains data on 30 million Americans between the ages of 16 and 25 that includes information such as name, date of birth, gender, mailing address, e-mail address, race and ethnicity, telephone number, name of high school, graduation date, grade point average (GPA), college intent, military interest, field of study and the ASVAB Test score.

Opt-out forms for this highly intrusive database are not currently supplied to students, and are not available in southern California schools.

TPA is coordinating an effort with LAUSD to add JAMRS opt-out forms to the student packets that go home at the beginning of the school year. If anyone is interested in helping with our efforts please call Julie Levine at (310) 455-9389.