San Francisco Bans JROTC

Board cites concern over recruitment, stance on homosexuals.

After a 90-year run in San Francisco’s high schools, the popular Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps has been cut from the city’s schools.

The school board axed the program this month because of objections that include the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on homosexuals and concern that the program uses public schools as a recruiting ground.

The seven-member panel voted 4-2, with one member absent, on Nov. 14 to end the program after the 2007-08 school year, despite emotional pleas from dozens of students and protests that drew hundreds of...