ENCINITAS —— Saying they were trying to present high school students with alternatives to the military and to war, area peace activists last week wrapped up a spring semester drive to counter military recruiting in local schools.

Activists staked out five high schools in San Diego and two in North County late last week, including Orange Glen High School in Escondido and San Dieguito High School Academy in Encinitas, passing out fliers warning students that military recruiters "have you in their sights."

"Here, read this and learn your rights to privacy," said 76-year-old Encinitas resident Miriam Clark, handing a fluorescent green leaflet to a teenage boy at the main gate of the San Dieguito Academy on Santa Fe Drive.

The boy read it all the way to the first set of buildings, where he disappeared from view.

Others, in a hurry to make it to class before the bell Thursday morning, just shoved the fliers into pockets or backpacks and hustled off to class.

'Counter recruiting'

Such so-called "counter-recruiting" efforts have increased all over the country, fueled by anxiety over the war in Iraq and by the military's increased access to high school students' information.

Local activists have passed out more than 60,000 counter-recruiting fliers at San Diego area schools over the last three years, according to Stephanie Jennings, an organizer from a peace group called the San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice.

"This is one of the more significant programs we've had," she said in a recent phone interview.

While there seems to be no way to tell if the "counter-recruiting" efforts have had an impact on young people, some of the activists said they are encouraged by recent reports that both the Army and the Marine Corps have missed recent recruiting goals.

"A lot more of them used to say 'No, thanks,' " said Clark, who said she has been trying to steer kids away from the military since the 1970s. "Now a lot more take it. I think with the war they're getting more curious."

Organizers said they passed out fliers to about 500 students at the Encinitas school in the half hour before classes started early Thursday morning.

Opting out

Along with general information warning students about what military recruiters may not tell them about military service and war, the two-page leaflet they passed out at North County schools last week included a form giving students the choice to prevent their personal information from reaching military recruiters.

Under a provision in the federal 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, a law governing school testing, public schools are required to give recruiters access to students at school. The law also requires schools to turn over personal information to track and locate students coming of military age.

A little-known clause in the law gives parents the option to keep their children's names and other information off recruiters' lists.

The peace activists, members of various groups organized under the San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice, said schools often don't advertise the "opt-out" option to parents or students.

The fliers provide a form for parents to sign and give to school administrators, one that carries a warning to school officials that "it is a serious violation of federal law to disregard it and release the name, address and phone number of this student to any military recruiter without prior written consent."

'Last-ditch' effort

School officials did not return calls Thursday, but English and philosophy teacher Vanora Saint Clair said the school fosters open discussion of such issues. She said she didn't see a problem with the protesters' efforts just outside the school perimeter.

"These students are very aware of what's going on in the world," she said, holding one of the green fliers she had just been handed by an activist on Melba Road.

Backpack-bearing students raced by on the way to class, most with the green handouts in hand.

"They take the whole range of views on things," she said before she, too, hurried off for class.

Nearby, former San Dieguito business teacher Carol Swift stopped a group of four students, handing them fliers and saying, "You should read this; it's good for you."

"This is our last-ditch effort before the kids get out of school (for the summer)," she said.

Rick Jahnkow, a leader of the Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities —— or Project YANO —— said the fact that the armed services have recently missed recruitment quotas is a good indication that more young people are scrutinizing the recruiters' "slick" pitch.

"We want to help students make informed decisions," he said. "Going into the military is a life-altering decision."

Army missteps

Jahnkow said he graduated from San Dieguito Academy in 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War. He said his own activist light came on when he saw some of his former classmates come home from Vietnam emotionally scarred and physically disfigured.

With a lottery draft in place at the time, many of his generation did not have a choice but to go to war, he said. But this generation does, and he said it is his mission to offer them paths.

"Military recruiters are only going to give them one side, which is a scripted sales pitch," the goateed Jahnkow said as he slipped fliers to students arriving to school a little late Thursday morning.

Jahnkow, however, was being kind with his choice of words.

After several consecutive months of wartime shortfalls —— the Army was down 42 percent from its goals in April alone —— some recruiters under pressure to make their quotas have taken the low road to get there.

Recent reports have revealed more than just "slick" and "scripted" sales pitches, but instead have uncovered widespread deception and hard-sale tactics used by recruiters to allow unqualified recruits to fudge the entry requirements or to coerce reluctant prospects into signing on the dotted line.

The problem was so bad that the entire Army recruiting system ground to a halt on May 20 for a one-day "stand down" to retrain recruiters and reaffirm the Army's stated ethical standards of honesty and honor.

Doug Smith, the civilian spokesman for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, said the system was again ready for action.

Smith said he respects the counter-recruiters' rights to offer students another point of view.

"Everyone has their First Amendment rights," Smith said in a telephone interview Friday from his office at Fort Knox, Ky. "One of the most important roles of the Army is to protect those rights."

Smith said the Army wants only informed and "very intelligent" recruits to join its ranks.

"Young people need as much information as possible to make informed decisions," he said. "If other people have a different point of view, then they have every right to share that with them. We want them to make informed decisions."

Alone in their shoes

Although their ultimate goals collide on the school ground, the Army recruiting spokesman and counter-recruiting leader seemed to agree on methods to reach young people.

"We don't tell them what to do," Jahnkow said at San Dieguito Academy on Thursday. "We just ask them to ask hard questions from everyone. They can't make an informed decision if they only know one side."

He handed another student a flier.

In a cartoon depicted inside, a caricature military recruiter sizes up a high school student and says, "It's OK, son. We only want your name, address, phone number and body-bag size."

Jahnkow said students themselves have taken on the leafletting in some local schools this year —— a sign to him that they are starting to counter the recruiters on their own.

"We encourage students to make up their own minds," he said. "Because out there, no one —— not us, not the recruiters, not their parents ——- are going to be in their shoes. Just them."

Contact staff writer Darrin Mortenson at (760) 740-5442 or dmortenson@nctimes.com.