Portland School Board

The Portland public school board passed an Equal Access resolution tonight (10/24/2011) with a unanimous vote.  The resolution will allow counter miltary recruiters to be present at school sponsored events any time miltary recruiters are present.   This is a significant victory for the War Resisters League and other Portland activists who have worked towards this goal for many years.  There was a solid show of support in the room with many people holding small signs reading "Equal Access" throughout the meeting.  While there was some testimony opposing the resolution, the school board members ultimately proved supportive of providing students with a balanced perspective on the realities of the military.  

Now that the resolution has passed and counter-recruitment groups have equal access to students, the real work of organizing people to be present at recruiting events begins.  We will be in need of volunteers to , so if you would like to be involved, please contact us.  We are especially interested in having veterans talk to students as their perspective on the realities of the miltary provides a powerful balance to the message of military recruiters. Thank you.

The Portland School Board is scheduled to vote this coming Monday (Oct. 24th) on a resolution to grant "equal access" to counter-recruitment groups.  The full text of the resolution is at the end of this post.  Currently all counter recruitment activities are banned from Portland public schools and this resolution would guarantee that counter-recruitment groups would have access to students on an equal footing with miltary recruiters.  The War Resisters League and other local activists have been pressing the school board on this matter for some time, and this resolution has a good chance of passing. There are no guarantees, of course. 

The passage of this resolution would go a long ways toward allowing groups such as the War Resisters League to present students with information about the realities of the military and alternatives to military enlistment.  As such, we would really like to pack the auditorium on Monday night to show that the community is behind equal access for counter-recruiters in our schools. We are encouraging a low key but solid show of support. We are planning to have lots of supporters holding small "equal access" signs throughout the auditorium.

So please do your best to show up, and bring a friend or two. The school board meeting begins at 5pm at the PPS administration building, 501 N. Dixon St. (2 blocks north of NE Broadway at the east end of the Broadway Bridge). The business agenda is scheduled to come up at about 6:30pm. We suggest you get there at least by 6pm.