In the past few months, you may have noticed the appear­ance of mili­tary recruiters here at Justice High School. The Army, Coast Guard, Air and Space Force, and the Marine Corps have all made appear­ances at Justice this year, includ­ing at the recent College & Career Fair. But the big ques­tion is: Do mili­tary recruiters belong in schools?

Many Justice students don’t have a prob­lem with the mili­tary recruiters. “I’m cool with them. I like that they give out free stuff with the [push-up chal­lenge].” said Justice student Colin Thomp­son (11^th). For context, the Marines do a chal­lenge where if you do 60 push-ups, you get a free Marine Corps shirt.

Despite the promises that recruiters make to students, includ­ing a paid educa­tion, other students aren’t convinced. Accord­ing to the student news­pa­per Pathfinder, recruits are occa­sion­ally aggres­sive in their tactics, often to meet personal quotas.

Per Section 9528 of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, high schools are required to give the mili­tary as much access to campuses as possi­ble for recruit­ing purposes “Due to this regu­la­tion, we are not allowed to turn them away.” said Justice Student Services direc­tor Christy Hanlon. Whether this is for the best or the worst is entirely up to you.