What Can I Do?

Sign and Submit Both Opt-Out Forms

To prevent undesired contact by military recruiters, two different forms should be filled out and turned in:

The Lincoln Public Schools opt-out form can be downloaded here.  This form should be filled out and turned into the school office at the beginning of every school year.  Be sure to check the ‘military recruiters’ checkbox.  Submitting this form will prevent LPS from releasing student contact information to military recruiters.   LPS is legally obligated to release such information upon request by recruiters unless this form is turned in.

The Joint Advertising and Marketing Research & Studies (JAMRS) opt-out form can be downloaded here.  This form should be filled out and mailed to the address contained in the document.  Submitting this form will prevent your private data contained within the JAMRS database from being used for recruiting purposes.  This is a secondary source for recruiting information.  This form only needs to be submitted one time unless you change mailing addresses.

Petitions!

There are currently a couple of online petitions that ATM is supporting.  We encourage you to sign each and contact your representative about these issues.

A nationwide petition that we were supporting had asked for congressional support of the Student Privacy Protection Act, a bill that would have changed existing law to replace Opt-Out with Opt-In on a nationwide basis. Unfortunately this bill was not reintroduced in the current congressional session, however, so the petition was taken off line for now. In the mean time, please lobby your member of congress and your senators to ask that they support student privacy. Our students should not have their contact information released to military recruiters unless they, or their parents, specifically request that it be released.

Another, nationwide, petition asks that your representatives enact legislation which would stop all military recruitment of children, including Junior ROTC and other military marketing currently directed towards children.  Each year hundreds of thousands of our kids under 18 are actively recruited by the military, and every year well over 10,000 of those under 18 join the armed services.

Spread the Word

Word of mouth can be a powerful tool! Talk with your friends about military recruitment, and remind them to send in their opt-out forms.

Become a Facebook fan of Alternatives to the Military – Lincoln
Liking our page will help spread the word about ATM and the ability to opt-out of releasing student data to recruiters.

Become a Facebook fan of the Nebraska Coalition to Protect Student Privacy
The Nebraska Coalition to Protect Student Privacy is a group of Nebraska parents and citizens who are concerned about the release of student information from our schools without parental knowledge or consent. They are currently working on a campaign to get Nebraska schools to choose the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) reporting Option 8, which is the only reporting option that schools can choose that precludes private student data from being released to recruiters. The ASVAB is commonly given in Nebraska high schools. More information can be found on their Facebook Info page.

Become a Facebook fan of Stop Recruiting Kids
Stop Recruiting Kids is a facebook presence dedicated to changing the policies that allow and encourage our military recruitment services to target minors. They maintain that minors should be off limits to military recruiters.

Start an ATM Chapter

Start an Alternatives to the Military chapter in your school or town. We can help!  Contact us for more information.

Volunteer

We can always use more help!   If you would be interested in leafletting, making a few phone calls, or doing some online research, etc., please drop us a note.