Tom Brown, principal of Grand County High School, is among those who dislike the program. "I am opposed to being required to provide our student information to the military. I feel it was a back-door effort on the part of the current government to gain access."

Others do not mind it. Richfield High School principal Randall Brown said, "I don't think it's a negative. The military options are certainly just that: options. . . . We should allow all options to be exposed to our youth."

A new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll asked Utahns whether — if they had a high school senior — they would want his or her name removed from recruiting lists. A 51 percent majority said they would want them on such lists; 38 percent would want them off; 8 percent did not care; and 2 percent did not know.

School access

Federal law requires high schools to provide access to military recruiters if they also allow it for college or employment recruiters. It also requires colleges to provide similar access, or lose federal funding.

But not all schools are equal targets for the military. Manuals tell recruiters to prioritize schools into three categories depending on how supportive school staff is — how many recruits they produced in the past; how close they are to recruiting offices; and their passage rates on military entrance exams.

High-priority schools tend to be visited monthly, or sometimes weekly. Bottom-priority schools may never see a recruiter.

Of Utah high schools responding to a Morning News survey, 11 percent said they receive no visits from recruiters during the school year, 39 percent say they receive an average of only one visit per branch a year, 25 percent say they receive visits an average of once a quarter per branch, and 25 percent say they are visited monthly or more often.

An example of a school that never sees a recruiter is tiny, remote Big Water High School in Kane County. "Military recruiters don't want to travel this far for four to five graduates a year," principal Gary Young said.

Among the big, urban schools where recruiters are common is Alta High School in Salt Lake County. Assistant principal Ken Westwood said, "I'd say we have someone here recruiting about once a week."

Recruiters offer a wide variety of freebies — pens, pencils, calendars, key chains, folders, bags, hats, T-shirts, mugs, mouse pads and more — to attract students for conversations.

Schools can, and do, limit the frequency of access and where recruiters are allowed. Several said they limit visits to once a semester or year, while others essentially allow recruiters to visit whenever requested.