Military recruiters to return to Anchorage schools after removal in response to sexual misconduct by National Guard.

Superintendent Ed Graff

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch: 

Superintendent Ed Graff suspended all military recruiting indefinitely on Oct. 20, pending review of the program and discussion with recruiters on student safety, reporting protocol and other issues. Graff outlined what meetings military recruiters would have to attend and what paperwork they would have to submit before they would be permitted to return to ASD schools. 

"When students come to school each day, they deserve to be safe and treated with respect by everyone in the building, including visitors," Graff said in a statement. 

Investigative files leaked to the media describe accusations of widespread sexual misconduct among officers in the Alaska Army National Guard's Recruiting and Retention Battalion, including incidents involving Anchorage students. 

District spokeswoman Heidi Embley said Wednesday the district has received a stack of paperwork from military recruiters that includes answers to questions probing into their training and management. The guard met with Graff last week in an additional meeting to discuss their procedures, she said. 

Embley said Graff has approved the first group of military recruiters to move forward and talk with school principals. The rest should be approved by next week, she said. She would not specify which branches of the military made up the first group. 

"At this point we have no concerns, it's just having an opportunity to review the paperwork," Embley said. 

Yeah well I have concerns, and I certainly don't think that the recruiters should be returned to high school campuses so quickly, or to be honest at all. 

I have never been comfortable with the recruiters plying kids with pizza and sodas while selling them on a job that could see them fighting for their lives on foreign soil.

And even if these kids return in one piece we have now learned that looks can be deceiving as they may be saddled with emotional issues, permanent brain damage from bomb blasts that did not rend their flesh, and PTSD which could make them unemployable and possibly suicidal.

My advice to parents and their teenagers is to steer well clear of these war pimps, and my advise to the superintendent would be to rid our schools forever of even the possibility that these men may physically or sexually assault any of our kids.

What will Superintendent say the next time this happens? Sorry?