As part of the "No Child Left Behind" Act of 2001, your high school is required to give your personal information to military recruiters when ever they ask for it.

Yes, you read that correctly. Since the Bush Administration sponsored bill has been put into law all that any branch of the military has to do is ask for your name, address and phone number and your high school is required to give it to them.

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

Military recruiters can start trying to recruit you as early as ninth grade, your first year in high school. Ninth grade! You have just left your old grammar school. Remember all that paper that the school administration sent you in the mail, like the school handbook of rules and the anti-violence policy? Somewhere in all that paper they were supposed to tell you about this policy and let you decide if you want to give out your vitals. They must also tell you of your right to opt out.

IT IS SIMPLE TO OPT OUT

It is simple to opt out. Here is the piece of information you need to do this. It’s Section 9528 of the "No Child Left Behind" Act of 2001. It gives you the right to request that no information about you be released to any military recruiter without your written consent. School administrators must honor your request and protect your right to privacy.

You can do it, or your parents can do this for you if you ask them - or you can do it together. It just has to be one sentence long on any piece of paper. Nothing fancy. Your info gets sent out to military recruiters early in the fall. Giving your note to your school official should be done soon, very soon, after school starts this year, According to Cambridge Peace Commissioner Cathy Hoffman by September 18.

So, think long and hard about whether you want your personal information given out to military recruiter. Decide for yourself…after all it is your right.

The paperwork that your high school is doing for the recruiters will also come in handy if they decide to bring back military conscription – also known as The Draft.

It so happens that liberal Democrats have already introduced legislation to do just that. The Senate version is called S.89, the Universal National Service Act. The House version, HR163, was introduced by Rep. Rangel "To provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes."

According to a national survey taken in May by the Horatio Alger Association, 55 percent of high school students think The Draft is coming back.

Just in case you’re thinking of heading for the border, the U.S. and Canada have already headed you off. Google up the treaty called the Smart Borders agreement of 2002.