Parents and students rally
to limit data to recruiters
A group of parents and students held a rally in front of the state Department of Education yesterday calling for protection of student privacy from military recruiters.
The No Child Left Behind Act requires all schools receiving federal funding to release the names, addresses and telephone numbers of juniors and seniors to military recruiters.
"We believe that his law violates fundamental rights to privacy, including the Hawaii State Constitution. Information should not be released to the military without affirmative consent," said Kyle Kajihiro, program director for the American Friends Service Committee in Hawaii.
Parents and students, however, can fill out a form to prevent personal information on their children from being released to the military.
Greg Knudsen, spokesman for the state Department of Education, said the department is required to follow the federal law.
"We, in general, feel that release of information that include personal, identifiable data should be limited," Knudsen said.
