SAN DIEGO -- Junior ROTC programs associated with the San Diego Unified School District will not be able to conduct weapons training in the next school year.

The Board of Education voted 3-2 Tuesday night to approve a resolution written by member John Lee Evans to stop marksmanship practice and convert facilities used for that purpose to other uses by the beginning of the next academic year.

Students at Mission Bay and Lincoln high schools and activists have fought on-campus weapons training for the past year as incompatible with the district's "zero-tolerance" policy on bringing weapons to campus.

"The message is we don't want weapons training as part of our educational system," Evans said. "There can still be Junior ROTC programs without weapons training."

Board President Shelia Jackson, a 21-year Navy veteran, joined Katherine Nakamura in opposing the measure. Both said there was no connection between school marksmanship programs and community violence.

Several students spoke to the board about violence in their neighborhoods, including recent shooting deaths of students at Lincoln, Point Loma and Mission Bay high schools.

The board gave a boost to Junior ROTC earlier in the meeting by voting unanimously to give physical education credit for students who join the program or marching band instead of taking a physical education class.

A state law adopted several years ago put constraints on PE credit and has been interpreted by many districts as not allowing such classes to be supplanted.

Supporters of Junior ROTC and band said the programs would suffer from lowered participation if students weren't able to receive PE credit.

Superintendent Terry Grier said the district recently received a go-ahead from a key state Department of Education official to resume offering credit for those programs.