Residents ask U-46 to allow counter-recruitment tables in high schools, cite military risks and alternatives

Several residents and members of local organizations used the public-comment period of the School District U-46 board meeting on April 14 to ask the district to allow volunteers to set up monthly tables at high schools to provide information about alternatives to military service.

Bettina Perillo, a resident of Elgin and member of Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren, said she wants a regular table at Elgin High School to present programs such as AmeriCorps, which she said offers a student stipend and service opportunities. Perillo told the board she had contacted Elgin High School administrators and had not received follow-up from the principal and assistant principal after multiple calls.

Cheryl Brumbaugh Hayford, an Elgin resident who volunteers with counter-recruitment outreach, asked administrators to instruct high school leaders to welcome representatives of a counter-recruitment team to table during lunch. She told the board she had previously volunteered at Larkin High School before the pandemic and said students deserve information that military recruiters may not provide. Hayford cited a range of reports she said document high rates of harassment and assault of women serving in the military and urged the district to allow alternative viewpoints to be presented in schools.

Earl Silvar said his experience tabling at Larkin High School for five years showed military recruiters do not typically tell students about higher-than-average rates of suicide among service members, veteran homelessness, substance-addiction risks, or long-term health issues related to exposure to toxic agents such as dioxin (Agent Orange) or depleted uranium in certain munitions. He offered to share sources if the district wanted more documentation.

Mary Sheskren, chair of Fox Valley Citizens for Peace and Justice, asked the board to restore the group's pre-pandemic ability to disseminate counter-recruitment materials in high schools. She cited a 1984 decision in which a court in the Northern District of Illinois ruled that denying access to groups with alternative viewpoints could violate the First Amendment once military recruiters had been allowed into schools. Sheskren offered to send a link to the decision to district staff.

Board members did not respond directly to the public commenters during the meeting; the district stated in the public-comment instructions that the board listens but does not respond during the meeting and that a written response would be mailed if requested.