Patterns of Misbehavior

Army recruiters accused of sexual harassment of female recruits
by Glen Milner, Free Press contributor

Four years of involvement with counter-recruiting issues in the Shoreline School District have uncovered a number of sexual harassment cases involving U.S. Army recruiters and female high school students. If not for the close scrutiny recruiters were receiving from activists and the media, it is doubtful the incidents of sexual harassment would have been made public. The question remains: how common is the sexual harassment of female students in our schools by military recruiters?

Shoreline School District has two high schools and is located immediately north of Seattle. The neighborhoods in the district are middle to upper-middle class. Generally, military service is viewed as not the best choice here, but an acceptable choice for some.

In the 1997-1998 school year, parents of children at Shorecrest tried to persuade Shoreline School District to develop a policy on military recruitment and equal access for alternative views. Again, the media covered school board meetings and our efforts to establish policy for equal access. During this time, a local reporter noticed a police report regarding a 17-year-old female Shorecrest High student who was sexually assaulted by a 36-year-old Army recruiter.

On January 8, 1998, Sergeant Rodney L. White took April Parcells, a female student, off campus to a park where he reportedly put her hand on his crotch, pulled up her shirt and asked her to have sex. He drove Ms. Parcells to numerous locations over several hours while refusing to take her home. The next day, Sergeant White returned to Shorecrest High School and allegedly asked her not to tell anyone. The family reported the incident immediately to the Army and was assured the recruiter would be properly investigated. After more than a month of no action from the Army, the family reported the incident to the King County Sheriff's office and Sergeant White was arrested. An investigation by Shorecrest High School at the time concluded that sexual harassment had taken place.

The Army later convinced King County prosecutors the recruiter would be properly tried in the military justice system and the county charges were dropped. On March 11-12, 1999, Sergeant Rodney White was acquitted of four charges of failing to obey an order, five charges for indecent assault and three charges for indecent language in a court-martial at Fort Lewis, Washington. The victim's mother, Paula Danielson, afterward said, "They gave us a snow job." The Army called the case an "isolated incident", promoted Rodney White to Staff Sergeant 1st Class and sent him to a post in Kentucky.

A Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. Army on the incident brought the release of a Commander's Inquiry dated February 5, 1998. The report by an Army investigator recommended that Sergeant White and a second Army recruiter, the sergeant in charge of the recruiting station at 150th and Aurora Ave. N., should also be removed from duty. The Commander's Inquiry of February 5, 1998 further recommended the U.S. Army Recruiting Battalion Seattle "do quarterly training on both sexual harassment and prohibitive activities in USAREC IAW USAREC Reg 600-25 to ensure all personnel understand behavior of this nature is unacceptable."

On May 26, 1999, a third Army recruiter from the same station in Shoreline picked up a 16-year-old female student on her way to school, bought her a pack of cigarettes, took her to her house and allegedly asked to have sex with her. A police report was filed against the 29-year-old recruiter in the City of Shoreline.

This incident prompted the Shoreline Schools Superintendent, Marlene Holayter, on August 19, 1999, to ban the Army from recruiting at the two high schools in the Shoreline School District.

When this Army recruiter was brought to trial on February 3, 2000 for communicating with a minor for immoral purposes, the charges were dropped. The prosecutor for the City of Shoreline had determined that even if the charges were proved, the 16-year-old student was at the legal age of consent. The recruiter was determined not to be in a "position of trust" as in the case of school teachers. The Army discharged the recruiter for medical reasons before the trial in Shoreline. He is now a corrections officer in Colorado.

On October 29, 1999, during a three-day workshop in Olympia, Washington for 250 Army recruiters of the Seattle Recruiting Battalion, a 20-year-old female recruiter was allegedly sexually assaulted by fellow Army recruiters. It is believed the assault may have involved three male recruiters. The female victim was treated and released from St. Peter's Hospital.

The Army is still investigating the charges. No information can be released by either the Olympia Police or the U.S. Army while the investigation is in process. Lt. Colonel Hagg told a Seattle Times reporter on November 1, 1999, "I told her I'm not about to try to cover anything up. Obviously, I'm hoping there was no assault, for her sake."

How common is the sexual harassment of female students by Army recruiters? It is certain the problem will remain until the U.S. Army spends more time on solving the problem than trying to deny it.