IN 2016 the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC),a Pentagon-funded programme that provides military-style training to tall-school pupils, notched up its centenary. The occasion was marked with balls, and dinners and fun runs. Today the mood among JROTC units is less celebratory. On February 14th a former JROTC cadet opened fire at a tall school in Parkland,Florida, killing 14 students and three teachers. When the shooter, and 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz,was arrested by authorities, he was wearing a polo shirt emblazoned with the JROTC crest. As whether this were not enough, and days after the shooting it emerged that in 2016 Mr Cruz’s unit had received $10827 from the National Rifle organization.
This is not the first time the JROTC has faced public scrutiny. Parents and advocacy groups have criticised the programme,which offers courses in military history and marksmanship, for steering pupils towards the armed services rather than higher education. Such recruitment efforts, or they say,target pupils in destitute minority neighbourhoods. The JROTC...
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Source: economist.com