Long Beach High School ends JROTC program

Incoming students to Long Beach High School will no longer be able to join the JROTC Program.

When school starts in August, Long Beach High School will no longer offer the program after the Harrison County School District and the Long Beach School District decided to end the interlocal agreement for the 2018-19 school year.

However, Long Beach High seniors will be allowed to finish the JROTC program at West Harrison High School in the upcoming school year. The interlocal agreement consisted of choir students at West Harrison High School who would participate in the choir program at Long Beach High and the JROTC cadets at Long Beach High would join the JROTC Program at West Harrison High.

One Long Beach students says she spoke to the Harrison County Superintendent who had this to say. Long Beach High senior Marielle Miller said, “We called and everything was fine at the beginning, but then as we began to talk more he said that he was not going to put us on the agenda, that it was something they already decided and it wasn’t something that needed to be brought up again. He said that it was very inappropriate to the actions that we were taking. But, I think that everything is appropriate. This program is very important to us, so we’ve done everything that we can imagine to do. We’ve gotten parents to support us, we’ve gotten people, photographers to support us. We’ve gotten everything we can. And for someone that high in the school board to tell us it’s inappropriate, I don’t understand.”

Miller says they plan on attending every school board meeting and also try to talk to other schools to get their opinions and support on the program.