Buffalo Soldiers

Hutch Tech's New Program: Forcible Constcription
Allan Uthman

“State education law says a child can only participate in JROTC if they’re 14 years or older, if they voluntarily want to do it, and only if they have their parents’ permission. It’s quite specific.”

So says John A. Curr III, acting director of the New York Civil Liberties Union’s western regional office. But Hutchinson Central Technical Institute Principal David Greco sees it differently. Hutch Tech’s entire freshman class was auto-enrolled in the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps this year, and may have been for two previous years.

Greco says parents were sent two letters over the summer giving them the chance to opt out of the program. But students who missed the opt-out deadline were out of luck—until some angry parents and the NYCLU piped up.