Opposition Grows to Recruiting Policy : Schools: Two Board of Education members plan to try to halt practice of selling names, addresses and phone numbers of junior and senior class students to military.

Opposition is mounting to a long-standing policy that allows the Los Angeles Unified School District to sell names, addresses and phone numbers of high school students to military recruiters.

Those who condemn the practice, which is allowed under the state Education Code and common in districts throughout California, range from school board members to teachers, parents and students.

On Thursday, at least two Los Angeles school board members expressed outrage over the practice and said they would try to stop the sales, which provide recruiters with the lists of high school juniors and seniors. The district charges three cents per name and made $8,108 on such lists last year, a spokeswoman said.

“I think it should be discontinued,” said Los Angeles Unified School Board President Jackie Goldberg, who plans to talk to district Supt. Bill Anton about the policy. Goldberg said that in recent weeks she has received about 30 angry calls from parents.

District officials said parents are automatically given a form to indicate whether they want their children’s names and addresses released. But some parents complain that although they have signed the form, they continue to be barraged by mail and phone calls.

School board member Rita Walters called the practice “a violation of privacy” and said she has asked her staff to determine what it would take to halt the sales.

Last week, parental pressure forced the Oakland Board of Education to stop selling lists of student names to military recruiters. Other school districts that have refused to hand over lists are Lynwood and Newport Mesa in Orange County. In Southeast Los Angeles, the ABC Unified School District is reviewing its policy.

Many critics charge that recruiters target students in poor and minority areas, touting the military as their only hope out of poverty.

“We think it’s absolutely horrible,” said Florence McKenna, who chairs the Southern California chapter of Educators for Social Responsibility. “The unfortunate thing is it goes over in poor schools because parents say, ‘My kid has a choice, ROTC or gangs.’ ”

Joe Moore, who graduated from Dorsey High School near predominantly black Baldwin Hills last year, said: “It was like continual bugging; it just didn’t stop. I got at least some kind of notice once a week from the end of my junior year all the way till now.” Moore added that he also received about 20 phone calls from recruiters.

“They know that students in the inner-city schools aren’t well off, and that’s what they were targeting, saying they would be paying for my school and getting me a good job,” said Moore.

Military recruiters denied that they harass families or target poor students and say they receive a warm reception on high school campuses.

“We have kids who want to sign up right away . . . some are interested and some are not . . . we get mixed reactions,” said Army Sgt. Reginald Hall, who heads a recruiting office that works with four San Fernando Valley schools.

Los Angeles Unified has sold such lists since 1971 to nonprofit agencies such as the military, trade schools and universities. Recruiters usually request lists for the entire district, not just from poor or minority areas, district officials said.

“I don’t think we do it for the money, we do it for the convenience of the military,” said Barry Mostovoy, a consultant for the district. “It’s not like we’re giving these names to somebody who would be hurting anybody.”

At Chatsworth High, Assistant Principal Shirley Dreiman said about 12% of the parents choose not to release information about their children and that she has heard no complaints from students or parents.

Carole Rosen-Kaplan, an English teacher at Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, said her two sons received numerous phone calls from recruiters even after she signed confidentiality forms.