San Francisco kills JROTC program
Michelle Malkin
"San Francisco values" prevailed last night. Some 1,600 students of all backgrounds will now be robbed of a valuable training program that immunized them against the anti-military hatred that infests the Bay Area:
SAN FRANCISCO — High schools across the city soon will no longer have Junior Reserve Officers'Training Corps programs after officials decided to eliminate them because of the Pentagon's"don't ask, don't tell"policy regarding gay service members.
The Board of Education voted 4-2 late Tuesday to phase out the JROTC from schools over the next two years, despite protest from hundreds of students who rallied outside the meeting.
The resolution passed says the military's ban on openly gay soldiers violates the school district's equal rights policy for gays. ...
... "This is where the kids feel safe, the one place they feel safe,"said Robert Powell, a JROTC instructor."You're going to take that away from them?"
Yes, they are. The program had been in place for 90 years. More on the idiocy from the San Francisco Chronicle (whose left-leaning editorial board supported the program):
Dozens of JROTC cadets at the board meeting burst into tears or covered their faces after the votes were cast.
"We're really shocked,'' said fourth-year Cadet Eric Chu, a senior at Lowell High School, his eyes filling with tears. "It provided me with a place to go."
The proposal approved by the board also creates a task force to develop alternatives to the program that will be tried out next year at various high schools. ...
San Francisco Dumps JROTC, Adopts GayROTC
(2006-11-15) — The San Francisco School Board last night cut off funding for a Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) program that served 1,600 students in seven high schools, because board members said it promoted the U.S. military, which discriminates against homosexuals.
In place of JROTC, the district will institute a new character development program called GayROTC...
I've received tons of letters in response to my post yesterday on the San Francisco school board's decision to kill its JROTC program. I'm reprinting a sample, plus one published in the San Francisco Chronicle this morning and another received by California Conservative, which is tracking the story: ...
