Immigration Demonstrators March in Name of Dead Teen

[struggle4progress]

By Jean Merl and Richard Winton, Times Staff Writer
7:41 PM PDT, April 15, 2006

Several thousand people--many of them students--marched through downtown Los Angeles Saturday to protest federal legislation that would crack down on illegal immigration.

Organizers of the march dedicated the event to Anthony Soltero, an Ontario, Calif., teenager whose mother says he killed himself after a vice principal allegedly told him he would be sent to jail for missing class to take part in an immigration rights march. Officials of the Ontario-Montclair School District said they have found "no corroborating evidence" that the boy was threatened with prison.

Members of the 14-year-old's family carried placards with his photo as they helped lead the march to a rally on City Hall's south lawn. "Continue the Struggle in Anthony's Name," the signs read. <snip>

Organizers, many of them high school or college students, urged protesters to express their objections to legislation proposed by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., that would make illegal residency in the U.S. a felony and punish those who employ or help illegal immigrants. <snip>

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rally16apr16,0,17251.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Terran1212]

1. Fight! Fight for your rights!

[bluedog]

2. he was on school probation

the other stort from st pete times......seems he has been in trouble before.........

The school district said four students left school March 28. Superintendent Sharon McGehee has said that interviews with students and faculty members show the boy and the other students never marched with protesters. She said the students went to a store, then returned to the school for lunch.

Two days later, the vice principal told Anthony and three other students that for their truancy they could choose whether to miss a field trip or year-end dance, McGehee said.

That was not what Anthony told his mother by phone moments before shooting himself, nor what he wrote in a suicide note, according to lawyers for the family.

Attorney Samuel Paz said that interviews with the other students support the mother's recollection: that Anthony was told he could be jailed for three years and his parents could be fined. Anthony had been on probation for bringing a pen knife to school, according to the family lawyers.


http://www.sptimes.com/2006/04/15/Worldandnation/Teen_s_suicide_may_be.shtml

[struggle4progress]

3. Whoa! "Probation"! That sounds ... well, maybe not awful serious ...

I DO remember the petty tyrants of the public schools I attended. They would play with my head and lie about it later. I had 'em accuse me of crimes, then deny they made any accusation. They told me my parents didn't love me, then denied ever sayin it. It was a constant mindjerk.

I don't have any idea what really happened, of course. But from experience, I can easily imagine the administrator trying to frighten the kid with threats of jail, then denying it after the poor teen freaked ...

I AM inclined to believe what the parents and friends say. Not one person in a hundred thousand would even think of using the suicide of a loved one for political purposes.

[NVMojo]

4. I posted the story of his funeral here and it got moved .people doubted

it was a true story. I didn't want to be right about this.

[struggle4progress]

5. Piden justicia tras suicidio de estudiante

Hoy será sepultado el joven que se habría quitado la vida tras amenazas en la escuela por organizar marcha

Alejandro Cano
[e-mail]
10 de abril de 2006

ONTARIO, California.— Con el corazón destrozado, pero con sed de justicia, familiares de Anthony Soltero, estudiante que habría cometido suicidio luego de ser supuestamente amenazado por autoridades escolares de encarcelarlo por haber participado en las recientes manifestaciones estudiantiles, exigieron ayer respuestas claras y concisas al Distrito Escolar Unificado Ontario-Montclair.

El reclamo fue hecho después de una vigilia celebrada en la iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, en la ciudad de Ontario.

Acompañados por Sonia Mercado y Samuel Paz, abogados de derechos humanos, Moctesuma Esparza, coordinador de marchas estudiantiles de 1968, y Javier Rodríguez, líder cívico, Louise Corales, madre de Soltero, describió brevemente a su hijo y aseguró que las amenazas por parte del subdirector de la escuela secundaria De Anza de encarcelarlo por tres años y de no participar en eventos de graduación “violaron sus derechos constitucionales”. <snip>

http://www.laopinion.com/ciudad/?rkey=00060409194501791057