Evening star., 1943-05-20
School Board Tightens
Procedure to Require
Cadet Training
Principals Are Instructed
To Honor Parents Excuses
Only in Legitimate Coses

AS the first step towards making
cadet training compulsory for boys
during all three years of senior
high school, principals today are
following instructions of the Board
of Education to cut drastically the
number of boys excused from cadet
training at the wish of their par
ents.
Although the law states that the
principal may excuse a boy from
cadet training on the written re-
quest of his parent, it does not state
that the principal is obligated to do
so, said Board Member Charles
Drayton, lawyer. Acting on this
advice, the board decided yesterday
to approve compulsory three-year
cadet training in principle" and
asked their officers to enforce more
strictly the act of 1907 requiring
service in the cadet corps.
A list of Legitimate" excuses &C
ceptable to the principals, such as
medical reasons, will be prepared
by the administrators and returned
to the board for approval.
Seek Uniforms at Cost.
To encourage enrolment also by
lowering the cost of the uniform,
school officials are asking the Army
Quartermaster Corps to make a
decision Immediately on a long
standing proposal that it furnish
uniforms to high school cadets "at
cost" Uniforms now are furnished
by commercial houses.
The board also revised it's plan of
sex education in the senior high
schools yesterday, cutting out the
minute descriptions of anatomy
heretofore given. Teachers instead
will attempt to develop the proper
attitude by stressing the danger of
disease, Importance of the family
unit and responsibilities of marriage.
They have done the impossible
in making silk purse of sow's
ear" said DR.. James A. Cannon, a
member of the board, as he accepted
the course as rewritten by Assistant
Superintendents G. c. Wilkinson.
Carroll R. Reed and Chester w.
Holmes. The doctor, who objected
to the course month ago as
Shocking described the new
course as combining the teaching
of character training, self-disci-
pline and responsibilities of mar
riage.'
Objects in Principle.
DR.. Cannon still objects in prin-
ciple to teaching sex in the schools,
he said, but has accepted it because
he understands it is taught in the
public schools of cities comparable
to Washington. He asked that
danger of venereal disease be
stressed, but that the actual symp-
toms of it be omitted as "confus-
ing" and too technicar' for either
teachers or students to discuss in
telligently.
c. Melvin Sharpe was chosen by
the board to succeed Superintendent
of Schools Haycock as it's official
representative on the District Rec
reation Board during the second
year of the existence of that body.
Mr.. Sharpe was member of the
original Presidents Committee which
drew up legislation establishing the
recreation board.
Other actions approved by the
board yesterday were continued op-
Grafton of the Jackson School,
threatened last fall with closing
because its enrolment was small,
and issuance of orders that new
manpower regulations be strictly
followed in hiring new school en-
ployes.
Definite Excuses" Required.
DR.. Robert A. Maurer warned
other board members that list of
excuses acceptable from parents to
keep boys out of the cadet corps
must be carefully drawn up and
definite" The parents, he declared,
might question authority of the
board" to enforce enrolment so
strictly.
The intent of Congress in 1907.
maintained Mr.. Drayton on the
other hand, was clearly that the
boys should serve unless excused by
the principal alone and preferably
for medical reasons. Excuses from
parents therefore. he said, should
not be accepted without careful
consideration.
1t has been suggested for some
time that the Army Quartermaster
Corps help provide cadet uniforms,
DR.. Holmes disclosed. He said he
hoped in any case that plan might
be worked out to lower the cost