Oakland Schools to Reconsider Sales of Phone Lists to Military : Enlistment: The district has sold seniors’ numbers to recruiters for years. But parents’ protests have brought policy up for debate.

Reacting to the threat of war and heeding the protests of parents, the school board is reconsidering its policy of selling lists of seniors’ home phone numbers to military recruiters.

“For our young people, we are talking about a life-and-death issue,” said board member Sheila Jordan, co-author of a measure calling for an end to the sales.

The resolution was prompted by parents who complained that their children were being called at home by aggressive military recruiters. In Oakland and elsewhere, the practice has been common since the draft was abolished in 1973 and the military began seeking recruits, said Susan Lange, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education.

Paul August, an English and journalism teacher at Oakland High School, saw firsthand the recruiters’ persistence when a daughter and a son who went to Oakland schools in the mid-1980s were phoned by Army recruiters several years ago. His daughter was nearly reduced to tears by what she viewed as harassment.

“I thought it was outrageous,” August said in an interview, adding that he believes the practice of selling phone numbers is an invasion of privacy, particularly since his home number is unlisted.

“Some of these youngsters are maybe being suckered into an obligation,” August said. “When something like this (the Persian Gulf crisis) occurs, they don’t know what they’ve gotten themselves into.”

Some parents also complained of phone calls in recent months, school board members said.

The Oakland Board of Education’s resolution, set to be debated at a school board meeting late Wednesday, raises a perplexing issue for the military: as the crisis in the Middle East escalates, it is wearing out its welcome on high school campuses, a prime source of recruits.

“We certainly don’t want to be excluded and we don’t want to be frowned upon,” said Chief Petty Officer Dale Gamble, a spokesman for the Navy’s recruiting effort in Oakland.

Several districts in Northern California, including those in Berkeley, Richmond and Hayward, stopped selling the lists years ago, but Oakland appears to be the first district in California to reconsider the practice in the wake of the Middle East crisis.

Gamble called the lists an important tool in the recruitment effort, and said that without the help of the schools, he was unsure how the military would gain direct contact with prospective recruits.

“Before we shut doors, we need to make sure that other doors are open,” said Shirley Thornton, deputy superintendent of the state Education Department and a reservist who specializes in recruitment.

“I would be upset if the schools were haranguing or forcing kids into the military,” she said. “I see nothing wrong with providing information.”

Even opponents of the list sales acknowledge that the military has been an attractive alternative to unemployment for inner-city students. For many youngsters in Oakland, the military is an alternative to “drugs and jail,” said school board member Toni Cook, another author of the measure. Cook’s son-in-law is in the Army and shipped out for Saudi Arabia earlier in the week.

Cook said there is a need to “level the playing field” and let students know they have other options. “Our youngsters can do more than sports and go into the military.”

State law allows school districts to charge for the lists. Oakland’s schools have charged $150 for lists of names, phone numbers and addresses of about 2,000 graduating seniors, and last year sold them to the Marines, Army and Navy. The Los Angeles Unified School District also sells lists to the military.

Officials did not know how many Oakland students join the military. But whatever the board decides, the military will retain a presence at Oakland high schools through the Reserve Officers Training Corps.

Of the 8,300 high school students last year, 1,050 signed up for the ROTC program.

At lunch-hour near Oakland Technical High School, several young men said they opposed the telephone recruitment pitches. It had been an issue discussed in some classes during the last few days.

“Some boys aren’t capable of standing up to pressure,” said sophomore Ron Easterling.