I spent two years of my four years of high school in JROTC with an equal good and bad experience ratio; The classic love/hate relationship. My first year, I enjoyed it mainly because it forced a lot of discipline on me, which I probably needed at the time. By the time my second year rolled around, my schedule was jammed with so many extracurricular activities revolving JROTC. I was given a leadership position, I was on one of the drill teams, and I had a list of responsibilities longer than both my arms. I walked into the classroom every morning waiting to be yelled for something I forgot, or for something that hadn’t even happened yet – I guess my instructors could see fifteen minutes into the future.

When the San Francisco School Board voted 4-2 to ‘phase out’the program over the next two years I had mixed reactions. For the following years after I left the program I still harbored a lot of resentment. Mainly because of the endless favoritism that set the tone for who got what sort of honors and positions, whereas the rest of us who didn’t kiss-ass got stuck in limbo.

During the final weeks before the end of my sophomore year I was super incredibly psyched to be almost done. No more stupid lectures, no more stupid 8 a.m. snarls from the office, no more feeling useless because of favoritism, no more weekly uniform changes, no more inhaling brass cleaner every Tuesday night for Wednesday morning inspections. I was done. I was free. I didn’t care what happened as long as I never had to go near that room again. I was free to go back to my loner life of leisure – guilt free.

Though I don’t go around shouting my love for the JROTC program, my reasons are vastly differently from those opposed to the program for more political reasons. The main issue the San Francisco school board had with the program, or more specifically its parent program the military, was the ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ policy. The military policy keeps men and women who are homosexual and bisexual from disclosing their sexual orientation within the armed forces.

The S.F. school board’s philosophy is that because of ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ JROTC discriminates against openly gay students from being in the program, and openly gay retired military officials from teaching in the JROTC program.

Remember back when the White House was considering invading Iraq, and they kept throwing out every reasons in the book they could think of – well this is pretty similar. The school board’s vote is a direct attempt to combat military recruitment and an overall military based advertisement to young people in high school.

With President George W. Bush pushing for more troops in Iraq for the’ “long struggle” ‘, it’s really no wonder some people are a bit put off by the idea of young people getting lured into the military. Not to mention the teetering approval ratings of the war in Iraq, the notion of giving the military more leg room would get any anti-war liberal knotted up into a pretzel.

By flexing their political muscles San Francisco’s School Board has taken a very sharp turn from being a bipartisan branch of local government to picking a side on the political line drawn in the sand.

There aren’t a lot of organizations in high school that have a wide range of students that keep coming back because they want to. I saw a lot of dedicated kids walk in and out of those doors, some stayed for one year, some two, others three, the freakishly dedicated kept their sanity long enough to be there the whole four years. A lot of the time spent in the program, other than just for in-class lectures and outside army drills, was volunteer work and team events. People wanted to be there.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but as much as the program left a bad taste in my mouth, I will admit it did a lot of good for me and the reasoning behind pulling the program has more to do with sending a message than it has to do with protecting anyone.
I hate to sound like a PRO-R.O. ad but JROTC helped a lot of people I know become confident, strong, and capable individuals. I know the program didn’t turn them into poster-children of ‘junior-army-training’ but it gave them a good enough push to develop skills that would probably benefit them in the future. For example, I hate public speaking. Always have, always will. My stomach rolls into a giant knot and the room start to spin whenever I feel thirty-or-so eyes locked on me.

Every morning I stood in front of the podium, taking attendance and reading announcements. For that one year I trained myself not to feel like a complete dunce in front of people. Sure, after I quit I wasn’t able to be completely confident in front of a large crowd but I could tell a big difference compared to before I started the class. My little shy quiet girl’s voice grew – a lot. I mean, you sort of have to get a good, loud, deep voice when all call your company of cadets to attention at 8:15 a.m. in the morning, no one was fully awake, not even me.

The motives behind the JROTC ouster, no matter how you slice it, are as political as the sky is blue. Even though Mayor Gavin Newsom has pitched his hand into the fight to keep JROTC alive in public schools the decision by the school board looks less than likely to be overturned. I don’t know if I buy the whole reasoning of the school board, but from my experiences I never felt the pressure of having to join the military, the instructors were there if we wanted to know about recruitment but they never forced it on us. Thankfully so, I look weird in camo anyway.

-Eming Piansay