By MARSHA POLOVETS
Hear ye, hear ye: The Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) will receive physical education credit through independent study, ruled the San Francisco Unified District’s Board of Education at its Tuesday meeting.
Armed with posters, students chatted in cliques outside 555 Franklin Street before the meeting, showing love for the program with messages such as “JROTC HELPS” and “LET THE PROGRAM WORK.”
Students from Balboa High had many reasons for why JRTOC should be given P.E. credit, saying that it “teaches discipline and fitness” and that they “have fun doing it.”
Howard Epstein, chairman of the San Francisco Republican Party, said that the program is “tradition” and “keeps kids in school.”
“These kids work very hard at it,” he said. “I’m just coming to give a little moral support.”
“They work harder than P.E. classes,” said Lowell junior Cheryl Chan, a member of the Student Advisory Counsel.
“I don’t understand why they don’t want to give it P.E. credit,” added Academy of Arts and Science senior Luis Martinez, another SAC representative.
Even seniors who graduated showed up to the meeting to support JROTC
“I love it,” said Galileo High School graduate Kyle Belamide, saying that the program helped him “be open” and gain confidence. “It changed me as a person,” he said. Belamide will be joining the Army, according to the SFUSD JROTC Graduating Seniors Report.
Code Pink protested in silence, occupying the front row of the board meeting room and making a fashion and political statement with all black attire and in your face white masks.
The debate heated up when it was time for speaker cards.
The first speaker began the show with a bang. “I have never been so embarrassed, so humiliated to have to defend the citizens of San Francisco,” said Dr. Reuven M. Jaffe, a retired long time public school and Jewish religious educator and chaplain. “Wake up, wake up,” he told the board. “We have an outstanding program.”
“We set an example for our kids,” said a JROTC instructor. He addressed the board’s concern that JROTC instructors are not credentialed P.E. teachers: “Even today you will catch me at 24 Hour Fitness,” he joked.
Indicating that JROTC does not push students into joining the military and encourages them to value education, he said that out of the 90 seniors enrolled in JROTC, “89 graduated” and “89 are going to college.”
He said instructors “consulted” with the families of the three JROTC graduates who decided to join the armed forces.
“If we are recruiters, then we are doing a lousy job,” he said.
Mission High JROTC graduates will be attending UC Santa Cruz and CCSF. None have enlisted in the Army, according to the Graduating Seniors Report.
The Board debated the viability of JROTC in completing the state requirement that students complete 400 minutes of physical education every 10 school days. Approval also required that the board allow for JROTC instructors who are not credentialed PE teachers.
“One of the things that’s really difficult for me is to give credit for something that you’re not earning,” said board memebr Hydra B. Mendoza. However, she acknowledged the need for options in student programs. “I think that it’s really important to provide our students with alternatives.”
Commissioner Sandra Lee Fewer was skeptical about JROTC giving the students the same health benefits as P.E.
“I firmly believe that physical education should be taught by credentialed physical education teachers,” she said. “Physical activity does not equal physical education.”
Perhaps as a rebuttal to a comment from a speaker, she said that “this is about 55,000 students” and not only those who came to the meeting to support the program.
Seven SFUSD high schools offer JROTC, which functioned until 2006 as an alternative to gym class to satisfy the state’s two year physical education requirement. The board voted to curb the program in 2006, reinstating it for another year in 2007 to develop an alternative. Last June, it ruled no on JROTC satisfying P.E. requirements. The state requires two years of physical education in high school.
The JROTC debate resumed last year after voters approved Proposition V in November , which called for the return of the program. In May, the Board voted yes on JROTC, unless the school has less than 50 students enrolled in the program—then, the school is free to drop the program for the following year.