Signing day ceremonies are always a big deal across the football-crazy Sooner State.
In the Stillwater High School gym adorned with an Under Armour sports apparel backdrop, several graduating seniors recruited to take their skills to the next level recently affirmed their commitments for the next four years.
But the familiar favorites—Oklahoma State, University of Oklahoma, Texas A&M, LSU—were absent from the April 23 events. No coaches from any collegiate sport were there.
Instead, military recruiters took center stage with the proud, patriotic teenagers and their parents.
Seven honorees committed to the Oklahoma Army National Guard, and one enlisted in the Navy. Each one explained his or her choice to the audience and talked about future goals.
For decades, Stillwater High School held ceremonies to recognize college commitments for student athletes. But this was the first time military enlistees were honored with similar pageantry, Principal Walter Howell said.
“It was a cool thing,” he told The Epoch Times. “It worked out really well. We’re going to keep this going every year.”
The event was Howell’s idea. He first thought about it in 2020, when the graduation ceremony was postponed because of COVID-19. Five military enlistees had to report for basic training before the rescheduled date months after the last day of school, so the principal quickly organized a special commencement event for them.
Similar military enlistee recognition events have taken place in other communities throughout Oklahoma and across the country in recent weeks ahead of high school graduations and Memorial Day.
The recognition ceremonies are appreciated and appropriate, but America has a long way to go in complying with federal laws that require high schools to provide the same level of access to military recruiters as they do to higher education institutions, federal lawmakers and policy organizations say.
The research agency surveyed 1,107 public schools. It found that 51 percent of schools in 2023 did not provide lists of student names to military recruiters, even though they did so for colleges, and 32 percent of schools did not provide military recruiters any access to facilities to set up information booths, participate in career fairs, make classroom presentations, or display posters.
Rand found that high schools in the southeast and Midwest were more recruiter-friendly, while access issues were more common in suburban and urban schools in the west and northeastern parts of the country.
Some school administrators and guidance counselors accused recruiters of “poaching students from colleges, targeting them to be front-liners, or preying on communities of lower socioeconomic status,” the report states.
“There was pushback initially in inviting military in due to social justice concerns,” the report said, quoting an administrator from one unidentified school as saying, “Our population of students was vulnerable, and we didn’t want to exploit students.”
At another school, a parent complained after a recruiter visited a classroom, saying “they don’t want their child to be in that position again,” according to the report.
“School representatives sometimes view the military as the last resort option and do not recognize military opportunities for educational benefits as sufficient pathway to developing a wide range of skills,” the report reads.
“Some recruiters perceived that school counselors and other school personnel have greater incentives to send students to college and hence improve school rankings, and therefore limit recruiter access to schools to discourage students from pursuing military opportunities. “
In response, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) recently proposed the Service Enlistment and Recruitment of Valuable (SERVE) Engagement Act. The legislation promotes Junior ROTC programs, recognizes recruiter-friendly institutions as “HERO Schools,” and creates a National Week of Military Recruitment.
“The call to service is loud and clear, and through the SERVE Act, our nation can bolster recruitment efforts and build the most lethal, efficient, and effective force in the world.”
Howell, the Stillwater High School principal, said the military is deeply personal to him. His father and grandfather fought in wars, as did many other distant family members. He said he was disappointed by Rand’s findings but not surprised.
He challenges guidance counselors across the nation to set aside any biases against the military and at least suggest enlistment in measure with college or the workforce.
“With military or going into the trades, sometimes kids were afraid to raise their hands,” Howell said.
“I think we’ve made a mistake in the past 30 years in public education because we have pushed college for all. Whether it’s college, work, or the military, I want kids to be able to connect with something they believe in.”
