Students attending DeKalb High School may be asked to join the U.S. military.

However, parents do not know they can choose to remove their child’s name from the military’s directory.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, schools that receive financial assistance need to provide U.S. military recruiters the same access to secondary-school students that is provided to prospective employers or post-secondary institutions, in order to comply with 2001’s No Child Left Behind Act.

Of the nation’s 22,000 secondary schools, 95 percent provided access to military recruiters in October 2002, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

“Most schools are dependant on that money in a wide variety of ways and most of the school districts in the state of Illinois can’t give up that funding,” said Lindsey Hall, principal of DHS.

Names, addresses and telephone numbers of junior and senior students are considered “directory information” and are provided to military recruiters unless parents opt out by completing an exemption form.

“We received several hundred forms,” Hall said. About 800 students make up the junior and senior class at DHS, 1515 S. Fourth St.

These forms exempt students from the compulsory notification and were provided to parents at registration, Hall said. Parents are again reminded of the option in mid-August.

“A wide range of parents are involved and informed with this issue,” Hall said.

Even though DHS allows the presentation of this information, the school is aiming for a neutral stance.

“The school is not taking sides,” Hall said. “We’re not promoting any agenda except to inform.

“There are personal feelings involved with the matter, and statistically, students usually take the same political stand as their parents.”

The district superintendant shared a similar view.

“I think the parents understand the school district’s requirement on the issue,” said District 428 superintendant Paul Beilfuss.

Military recruiters have been at DHS once this year.

“They set up a table and students approach them,” Hall said. “They don’t approach students.”

Elaine Alexander, a freshman accountancy major, said military recruiters approached her and other students at Wheaton North High School.

“They called my house and asked me what my major was and had a table set up in the school,” Alexander said.

“I never approached them because I was never interested in the military,” said Anthony Martel, a freshman philosophy major who attended Parkland High School in Pennsylvania.