Military attire under fire at Schools

Now this is just going too far

Military attire under fire

By CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC
Bucks County Courier Times

Earlier this year, one of Lance Cpl. Duane Longfellow's former teachers invited him to come back to school and talk to students about his experiences at boot camp.
The 19-year-old Central Bucks West graduate was excited about the opportunity.
“He wanted to incorporate what the Marine Corps had done for him — how they gave him discipline. He had drive now. He had purpose. He had a vision. He had a direction in which he was going,” said his mother, Eileen Longfellow.
“Someone at the school told him to come in civilian clothes. He said, "I won't be there. I am a United States Marine. I will not, not wear my uniform.'”
Eileen Longfellow did not know who at the school told her son to come in civilian clothes, and she declined to say at which school the incident occurred. But she did know her son, currently stationed in Okinawa, was upset.
“He couldn't understand why he couldn't address the class in his uniform,” she said. “He wasn't a civilian anymore. He said, "I earned the right to wear this uniform.' They just don't give it to you.”
Duane Longfellow isn't the only serviceman who said he's been turned away from his school because he wore a uniform. Parents of other servicemen and servicewomen have told similar stories.
Eileen Longfellow and Mary Madison of Doylestown have worked to found Semper Fi Families of Central Bucks, a support group for family members of servicemen and servicewomen. Madison said the group has 25 families.
“It turns out, in our small group of about 25 families, and the Souderton group of 25 families, we have a good half dozen incidents of this happening,” Madison said.
The parents recently shared their stories with state Sen. Chuck McIlhinney, and he has proposed legislation that would prohibit school officials from denying people in military uniform access to school grounds. The legislation, which has 17 co-sponsors, imposes a fine of $500 on any school director, administrator or principal who violates it.
McIlhinney thinks it's “despicable” some schools would prohibit young men and women from wearing their uniforms on school grounds.
“If those uniforms are good enough for our military men and women to wear while defending our freedom and our way of life across the globe, then they are good enough to be worn in our public schools,” McIlhinney said in a press conference Monday.
McIlhinney said the 17 co-sponsors of his bill have shared similar stores from their districts.
“It's becoming apparently a statewide issue and they want it addressed as well,” he said. “Let's go to the heart of the matter and put it in the state statute.”
Central Bucks West principal Kevin Munnelly said Monday afternoon he had not heard the Longfellows' story before and no one had called him.

Central Bucks School District does not have a policy on visitors wearing military uniforms, but allows alumni to visit as long as they arrange the visit in advance for a mutually agreed time.
“I can't imagine why someone would turn Duane away when they asked him to speak about boot camp,” Munnelly said. “If you're speaking about boot camp, you should be in those clothes. You should be proud of that uniform. And the lesson would be driven home better if the students were looking at someone who was in uniform.”
Lance Cpl. Michael Hunt of Abington was turned away when he showed up at his former high school in his uniform in September 2007, his mother said.
Susan Hunt said her 19-year-old son, wanted to visit a principal, a teacher and a librarian.
“He wanted to go back and say, "Thank you' and that he made it, and show them how he looked,” Susan Hunt said.
“He was wearing his dress blues. We had just picked them up that morning from the dry cleaner. And he looked wonderful in them.”
Someone at the school told Michael Hunt, currently stationed at Cherry Point, N.C., to leave the grounds and come back in jeans. Susan Hunt said her son simply said, “Yes, ma'am,” and left. Michael Hunt returned the following day in jeans and was admitted to school grounds.
The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching the Abington School District superintendent and spokesman for comment Monday.
“If I had been there with my son, I can guarantee you he would have gotten in to see who he wanted to see. I'm not a Marine and I would have thrown a fit,” Susan Hunt said.
“They won't fight for themselves. They want to do their job and they want to be respected for doing their job. And they're not being respected.”
“When they come fresh out of boot camp, they are such a driven machine to do what is right, what they are taught, what they're told and when they're told to do it. They love the Corps and they don't want to bring any attention to it other than what is honorable. They are afraid there will be some retaliation or spot on the Marine Corps itself,” Eileen Longfellow added.
The parents see it as their responsibility to fight for their sons' right to wear their uniforms.
“We can say something. We can inform the senator of what's going on,” Longfellow said.
“They say, "Mom, don't call the school. It's no big deal.' It's a big deal for us.”

Military attire under fire (phillyBurbs.com) | Courier Times

 

Already happens in British schools, unfortunately. Many refuse to allow forces recruitment teams over the front gate.

 

We have that problem here in Portland too. But the Marine in the article wasn't even going there to recruit. Im glad to see though that a few of the students and parents are backing him and others up.

 

We do it in a different way. Those students interested in the military, may spend a week in a base to check things out. They are volunteers and apply with a written letter to the base officer. If they like it they could join the army when they leave school, if they don't : that's fine too.

 

I think IMO that if he was just going to the school to speak and not as a recruiter then he should by all means be able to wear his uniform.

 

True JC; they wouldn't tell a cop to wear to wear civvies.

 

Whats the world coming too?

 

A similar thing popped up in Houston. It turned out the Marine in question came uninvited (he just showed up and started hanging out on school grounds). With the trouble schools are having nowadays, visitors to campus should go the extra length to make sure they are legally on campus to avoid trouble.

The Houston problem was quickly resolved, but if you let any former student just show up, you have to let them all show up, be they Marines, pornographers, or drug dealers.

 

Indeed and the biggest excuse is look at Iraq and so on.

 

Too many fine Americans have fought and died for those people to have the right to a public education, to have the right to choose whether or not they join the military, to have the right to study as they wish and choose their own path in life.

This angers me in so many ways, I'm near speechless. When will people stop being such utter morons? How many kids at that school were wearing clothes that might be deemed inappropriate by other circles? Girls can wear clothes cut up to here and down to there, boys wear pants that are so low they show their underpants - but not this man. Not this MARINE. He can't wear the uniform that represents his personal sacrifices that he made to defend this country? He can't wear with pride a symbol of honor and virtue. He can't go to represent the countless Marines who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Pure Bollocks.

As Marines, we are not the arbiters of policy, we are those who carry it out. Right or wrong, we took the oath. Political situations, personal agendas, private opinions, and individual beliefs have no place to be taught in the public school, and they further have no place to influence a matter such as this. Someone should have the personnel at that school fired.

I wonder if they'd rather live in a country where men in different colored uniforms patrol the streets and impose cerfews; where they walk through the schools and enforce "proper education," or perhaps a country where there are no schools - the children work in the fields or factories.

The Marine in Cherry Point, swallowed his pride, and in a manner fitting a Marine, said "Yes Ma'am" and complied. That says it all.

 

Well in this instance he was invited. That makes it wrong even more. I wonder how schools where there is a Junior ROTC feel about this?

 

Luckily that hasn't happened here in Corpus Christi-which is "Navy Country." I heard that in San Francisco-they want nothing to do with the military. I'd say-well that's fine-we want nothing to do with you either. Anyway, if they want nothing to do with our own military, then the Fed Govt should tell them that they aint going to recieve any federal funding to help run and repair their City either.

 

SF is well known for its hate of anything military. I believe if the schools want to persist in what they are doing then they should also ask any police, fire or emergency workers to also not wear thier uniforms.

 

I once visited San Fran, couldn't say I cared much for it. Luckily we didn't stay long as we were on our way to drive through Los Angeles on our way to Norwalk.

If they hate the military so much, I think they should not recieve a penny of my tax Dollars.

 

I agree. I was there once for about a day. That was enough for me.

 

I wonder why Clint Eastwood loves that City so much? Must have been because he was born there. Other than wanting to ride one of their trollys, I can't seen any reason to ever go back there. I've got some good old friends in Calif-but thankfully, they all live in other areas.

 

LOL Well when I spent the day there I was 18 and spent the day on the "Strip" LOL. It was the day after Christmas and a sunday. It was about the only area open LOL.

 

We were there in late Summer and all I really remember from being in San Fran-was that we drove down that famous street that is twisty-turney and narrow-ina 33 foot motorhome ;-D My Brother was driving the thing, I was sitting w/ my Mom in the passenger seat-and my mom was literally shewing her fingernails off because my brother was just missing parked cars-by a few inches-while driving about 25-30 MPH. My Dad was behind us in a seat-laughing his ass off-which ticked my mom off to no end.

 

Hail from the People's Socialist Democratic One World Politically Correct Greater S.F Bay Area, where the only thing that is rarer than something on the endangered species list is a conservative. Fortunately we live about 35 miles east of S.F., althought we did live in Bezerkeley for almost three years. (Would be a great place to live if not for the people.) Used to catch a lot of flak over when we flew our American flag, only one in the neighborhood amongst foreign & one world flags. They eventually learned that I did not want to hear their left wing politics.
Anyway, back on topic.

Amen Brother Lippert-give this choir a sermon. Yes, it seems around here that everyone is welcome except those that are willing to fight and die for you. I was trying to find an e-mail that was sent to me a while back. It was about a teacher trying to get her students to realize who had bought and paid for their desks and school. If they got it right they would get their desks back (she had removed them). At the end of the day not one of her classes got it right. Then she had all of the desks brought back in by Veterans in uniform and explained that they have all of this because these people had already paid for it with the blood sacrifice that freedom demands. Whether or not it is true I cannot say. But, i promise you this, it certainly did not happen in Kalifornia. Unfortunately, people of this mindset do not seem to realize that the very repressive cultures they seem to admire (focusing strictly on the utopian aspect of shared community/all are equal in monetary and material goods) that they will be the first ones that the repressive culture gets rid of. First to go after the takeover are the free thinkers, artists, press corps, etc... so that way the people that got them into power cannot turn on them once they realized they've been duped. Because by then there is no one left to defend them. Scary thing is, these are the people we are allowing to teach our children. We get what we vote for folks.

Take care,
Salty

 

Not to be off topic but:

I'm horribly sick of schools in America... Why did we have to learn the order of the 9 planets in 9th grade? I'd heard about it for 9 freakin' years and could repeat the order in my sleep. The same for english class, I knew what a pronoun, noun, adjective, and verb were by the 6th grade. It was extremely monotonous.

On Topic:

If a U.S. Soldier can not wear a uniform to a certain school I say we cut off Federal funding to said school. You don't like the guy's who fight for your freedom, we don't fund you. So sit on that and spin!

Yours,

Bill