14yr old protest organizer suicides over threat from school faculty

[NVMojo]

:cry: This poor family ...the poor young boy!!! Shame!!!!


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEWS CONFERENCE
Sunday, April 9, 2006
12:00 p.m.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church
710 S. Sultana Ave., Ontario, CA 91761

Louise Corales, whose 14 year-old son, Anthony Soltero, died on April 1 after committing suicide, will speak to the community and ask for a prayer for her son this Sunday, following the 11:00 a.m. mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Ontario, California.

Eighth grader Anthony Soltero shot himself on Thursday, March 30, after the assistant principal at De Anza Middle School told him that he was going to prison for three years because of his involvement as an organizer of the April 28 school walk-outs to protest the anti-immigrant legislation in Washington. The vice principal also forbade Anthony from attending graduation activities and threatened to fine his mother for Anthony's truancy and participation in the student protests."

Anthony was learning about the importance of civic duties and rights in his eighth grade class. Ironically, he died because the vice principal at his school threatened him for speaking out and exercising those rights," Ms. Corales said today. "I want to speak out to other parents, whose children are attending the continuing protests this week. We have to let the schools know that they can't punish our children for exercising their rights."

Anthony's death is likely the first fatality arising from the protests against the immigration legislation being considered in Washington, D.C. Anthony, who was a very good student at De Anza Middle School in the Ontario-Montclair School District, believed in justice and was passionate about the immigration issue. He is survived by his mother, Louise Corales, his father, a younger sister, and a baby brother.

Ms. Corales will speak to the community after mass on Sunday, April 9, 2006 at 12:00 p.m. at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. She will ask for a prayer for Anthony, whose funeral and burial are scheduled for Monday, April 10 in Long Beach, where he was born..

http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2006/04/if-you-think-things-couldnt-get-worse.html :cry:

[monarch]

1. Good god!

How have we come to this?

[NVMojo]

2. yes ...read the blogger's comments ...just when we thought it couldn't

get any worse than the Schiavo nightmare ...

[monarch]

7. Thanks. I did but I was mad

enough already. I come from a family of educators and my partner is a retired guidance counselor so I am predisposed to favor teachers. I know how hard the job can be for the really dedicated person but that idiot was truly insane. It's clear that the people above him are fully culpable because they gave him a position of authority. It is often the assholes who do move quickly up the administrative ladder, by the way.

[Quakerfriend]

3. OMG! This is horrible and it reflects all that is wrong with the BS

this admin is putting out there.

[benburch]

4. This could turn ugly. Well, uglier. nt

[intheflow]

5. This is so tragic!

I K&R'd it, but I wish it had never happened. I have a friend whose son was berated so badly by a Catholic school principal in 8th grade, he's been in counseling ever since. (He's 17 now.) He's th most amazing, socially active kid I ever met, but in the locksep world we live in, that's just not acceptable. I feel so for the Corales family. My prayers go out to them. :cry:

[Raksha]

6. Absolutely heartbreaking. This hits very close to home

because I used to live near there. My son and daughter both went to school in the Ontario-Montclair school district. Anthony Soltero was doing nothing illegal by exercising his constitutional rights and would never have been sent to prison for three years. That vice-principal should be fired for bullying him with LIES!

[sarge43]

8. Firing is a good start, but

the vice principal should be banned permanently from any employment involving children. What s/he did was verbal and emotional abuse.

[The Doctor.]

14. That was the worst example of abuse I've heard of...

Threatening a kid with jail, threatening his family, alienating him from graduation...

This fucker should pay.

I hope the mother is suing the bejesus out of the school system for this. It will never make up for her loss, but perhaps other schools will take that kind of abuse seriously and start holding teachers accountable for such extreme bullshit.

[goclark]

15. Absolutely!

She should be fired immediately!

The School District should have immediate sensitivity sessions, as should ALL Districts that are dealing with the feelings of children in this situation.

[Raksha]

60. I totally agree with you.

The vice principal should be banned from the education field permanently. I thought of that after I posted my note.

[bowens43]

9. Rack up one more kill for the xenophobes.

[Totally Committed]

68. I couldn't agree more...

more proof that Xenophobia kills.

TC

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pretzel4gore]

13. hey, great cdriggs! welcome to DU....

those self hating reichists shouldn't be teaching, and we should tell them that. btw when did frank burns become the voice of reason and authoritah in america??

[blondeatlast]

17. Thanks for the research and welcome to DU!

:toast:

[jberryhill]

48. Welcome to DU - but the research is wrong

There are two De Anza Middle Schools in California.

Cdriggs posted the email addresses of the administrators of the WRONG school.

[TheBaldyMan]

20. I'll email when I'm less angry,

I want to give them a piece of my mind but I want it to be stone-cold and coherent.

[mdmc]

32. welcome to DU. thanks for the email addresses

peace and low stress...

[jberryhill]

47. The email addresses are WRONG

The posted email addresses above are for a DIFFERENT De Anza Middle School than the on in Ontario, CA.

LOOK:

http://www.omsd.k12.ca.us/deanza/

Notice the original post refers to ONTARIO, CA.

Notice the email addresses posted above correspond to a De Anza Middle School in VENTURA, CA

Notice:

De Anza Middle School - Ventura:
http://www.ventura.k12.ca.us/vusd/deanza.htm

De Anza Middle School - Ontario:
http://www.omsd.k12.ca.us/deanza/

Two "De Anza Middle Schools" - both in California.

Whomever wrote to the email addresses posted above, just unloaded on the wrong people entirely. Congrats - and CHECK YOUR FACTS!

[NVMojo]

50. I haven't written them yet. Was going to wait til Monday and call.

Thanks for posting.

[cdriggs]

66. Whomever wrote to the email addresses posted above, just unloaded on the w

yikes... Thanks for the correction, and I will check in the future...
I never would have figured there were two schools with the exact same name...
Great job on your part!

[NVMojo]

35. Thanks for backing me up on this cdriggs. You are a hero, welcom to

DU! I tried to email you but you can't receive DU emails yet. Can you email me?

[jberryhill]

46. Wrong School

You posted the info for De Anza in Ventura, CA

There is another one in Ontario, CA, which from the post above, would appear to be the correct one.

http://www.omsd.k12.ca.us/deanza/

Note how the OP says "De Anza Middle School in the Ontario-Montclair School District"

You posted email addresses for a different De Anza in a different district, and I dearly hope that nobody has unloaded on these thoroughly uninvolved people.

[crispini]

11. How horrible.

:cry::cry::cry:

[stephinrome]

12. sorry, I really hate to be skeptical about this, but...

...I tried searching for the boy's name in google news just because I wanted to read more, nothing. The mother's name, nothing. Suicide in Ontario California, nothing. Seemed a bit odd since the date of the suicide was 1 april. I also searched the obituaries for the local Ontario newspaper, nothing with that name. I could be wrong, but it looks suspicious to me.

[LisaLynne]

16. I did find a My Space page for a young man from ...

Ontario, CA and someone had edited the account to indicate that he has passed. Don't worry about being skeptical -- that's a good trait and something I think we progressives should be proud of. It stops us from being duped, like too many other Americans.

I wish this weren't true. It's sickening.

[NVMojo]

25. LisaLynne, I have contacted Rico, the poster of the story on the blog

as he has a Diary on DKos. Hopefully, I hear more back from him. Thanks.

And yes, I wish this wasn't true to but I am pretty sure it is.

[NVMojo]

22. Well then I wonder if my friend is lyin? He lives there &sent me this link

...he couldn't email the obit. I'll let him know you couldn't find anything on this.

[lonestarnot]

18. Holy crap...What the hell went wrong here. Where was the fight against

the administration at the school on behalf of this boy? :angry: :shit: :grr:

[oscarmitre]

19. More evidence that fascism has not only arrived...

it's taking root.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

21. K&R

:kick: you deserve all these votes for this thread Mojo. good stuff!

[eauclaireliberal]

23. I'm not trying to be as asshole here, but...

is there an actual link? I know that a lot of lefties are Kos fans, but I would like to smear this (if true) in a few freeper faces of whom I know personally. Otherwise, this story is moot. I like to have genuine sources when gloating/rubbing it in.

[NVMojo]

26. I left a message at the church where they are supposedly holding the

funeral as I will send flowers if this is true. I'll let you know.
It's a Spanish church.

Our Lady of Guadalupe-Spanish - 0.5 miles SE - 710 S Sultana Ave, Ontario, 91761 - [phone]

[eauclaireliberal]

27. Thank you.

This is f'n inexcusable. It needs to be known. Local media needs to cover it and paste it on their websites for all of America to see.

[NVMojo]

28. I am still on the phone, the man I spoke to and me ...we started crying

they are getting calls from all over the country of support. We talked about how the people feel about the political backlash against them, some who have lived here for many years. This young man was born here. The gentleman I spoke to said we can send flowers to the family at the church. If checks are sent to the mother, please make them out to Louise Corales and the church will collect them up and give them to her. They were going to give me her home address but I declined to post it here as I do not want to endanger this poor family further. Those of you who live in Ontario, please attend if you can. Maybe we can get the local paper to cover this. It will only go nationwide two ways, if the paper does a story and puts it on the AP, if they are AP subscribers, OR IF WE BLOG THE HELL OUT OF THIS!!!!! Rage against the machine!

[eauclaireliberal]

34. My ma is a retired administrator from the Palo Verdes USD

and I can assure you that she would have tossed this POS out on his ass, and notified a licensing bureau.

[mdmc]

37. what does your mom have to say about this incident?

[eauclaireliberal]

38. Still waiting to hear from her...and what she knows

nt

[mdmc]

41. keep us informed, will you Bro?

:kick:

[eauclaireliberal]

42. Will do.

nt

[mdmc]

67. any news?

[eauclaireliberal]

69. She finally got back to me. Its not much.

This sounds like a hoax to me. Knowing what misery pimps the media can be I would expect someone to cover this juicy story. I check around and found no reference to this anywhere.

[proud patriot]

24. Tragic

That Vice Principal needs to take a civics class
the power drunk bastard .

[Terran1212]

29. God bless her child

[NVMojo]

30. I told the priest to let the family know there are people supporting them

and praying for them at this time. The priest said they are getting calls from all over the country about it. The funeral is in the morning.

[mdmc]

31. I didn't read this OP / thread yet , just linked over from your other OP

peace and low stress... reading now....

[NVMojo]

33. Thank you. I appreciate it, mdmc. This family deserves our support

if we want to give it. I can't even imagine how this mother must be feeling now. I could care less how the school freeps feel at this point but I hope it brings them to their knees in shame. I am doing my best to contact media sources in the area about this. These are Hispanic folks and may not have the luxury of blogs or news connections to use besides sending out that sad press release. I am a former journalist. I still have a few contacts I can work which I am doing now, wish I had not received found that story so late last night and today is Saturday.

[mdmc]

36. there were some school email addresses up thread

I was going to send a simple

Dear ___, I heard that you lost a student at your school as a result of a tragic suicide. I know all to well how difficult this type of event can be on a family, and on a community. I just wanted to let you, your staff, and your students know that you are in my prayers. Sincerely, Michael May, Newburgh, NY.

I don't know what I can do for the family. At this time, I think that they must still be in shock.

Peace and low stress. Thank you for your posts on this matter.

[Ian David]

39. Is one of these his MySpace page?

http://search.myspace.com/index.cfm?Mytoken=2BF67671-AA3A-4E64-B1E384EDE67AF489230174453&fuseaction=find&circuitaction=search&searchType=ALL&f_first_name=Anthony&f_display_name=&f_Last_name=Soltero&InterestType=&f_email=&f_search_criteria=&page=0&Country=US&distance=100&Postal=90210&first=No

[NVMojo]

40. It could be ...see the mod's comments above, LisaLynn #16...

[hyphenate]

43. I hope that the fucking assistant principal

gets time in prison for aiding in this kid's suicide. What a fucking asshole.

[radio4progressives]

44. Please Send this article to CNN, Lou Dobbs and Cafferty

in fact flood their websites with it.

and then let them know this is it... we're not going to take this shite from them anymore!

[NVMojo]

49. I sent it to a few Dem senators also

[radio4progressives]

51. Good job!

Good work...:applause:

[AnotherMother4Peace]

45. God bless this boy & his family. It sounds like he may have been bullied.

[omega minimo]

52. Where did the boy get the gun?

[ClayZ]

53. .

:cry:

[firigon]

54. Chicano Power!

The Vice-Principal was probably emboldened to act the way he did because the Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, chastised the Latino students for walking out and ordered the corrupt riddled LAPD to strongly enforce the truancy laws. When a Latino with that political power speaks and against those students, a reactionary vice principal will use that as his/her cover to oppress the Latino students. It is important for the Latino community to warn Villaraigosa that he is either with them or against them, and he should apologize to the Latino student activists for his offensive remarks.

[dailykoff]

55. No Child Left Behind

until they try to excercise their human or civil rights. So sad.

Incidentally this is why the mortality figures coming out of Iraq are crap. Notices on the internet are no measure of anything.

[Canuckistanian]

56. I was hoping against hope

That this was another overblown story when I saw the post listing.

I was mistaken.

K&R.

[gordontron]

57. my god

they weren't actually going to do that to him were they?

[NVMojo]

58. we may never know the truth now ...

[stephinrome]

59. I was wrong

The local paper now has a story on the vigil: http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3689773

Sorry, it was just the April 1 date and the fact that there was no news coverage of this when it happened a week ago.

Anyway, heartfelt condolences to the family. I found a fax for the church and will send a message for the family. (http://parishesonline.net/scripts/HostedSites/Org.asp?ID=17337)

[orleans]

61. k&r

how horrible!

[file83]

62. Small error in the story - it says April 28 walk outs...wouldn't that be

the March 28 walkouts? :shrug:

[xchrom]

63. outrageous

just how hate filled this country has become.

[Deja Q]

64. Saddening.

I don't know why he is against the immigration "reform" (I'm against it because it's exploitation and assisting the demise of the middle class, many within keen on repaying bills like good people while learning updated or new trades when permitted), but suicide?! That's extreme.

Still, the principle is an asswipe. When schools bring in topical issues for the kiddies to think about, this sort of tuss;e is inevitable.

[Zhade]

65. KICK

This is horrible!

[Douglas Carpenter]

70. Democracy Now has a segment on Anthony

Here is the link to watch the segment:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/11/1426249