Teen's death mourned (14, walkout activist, photo)

[NVMojo]

LONG BEACH -- Mourners packed a church here on Monday to remember a 14-year-old boy whose family claimed he committed suicide because he was threatened by a school official for participating in immigration protests.

About 200 people gathered at a church here to remember Anthony Soltero of Ontario. Some of his friends wore black shirts with the eighth-grader's face on the front.

Soltero died following a week's worth of student protests in Southern California that triggered a police crackdown on truancy. The protests were in response to proposed federal legislation that would crack down on illegal immigrants and strengthen the nation's border with Mexico.

Family attorney Sonia Mercado said Soltero was part of a protest at DeAnza Middle School on March 28.

Mercado contended a school administrator pulled Soltero aside on March 30 and told him he could be jailed for three years, banished from his graduation and his parents could be fined for his involvement in the protest.

more here ...

http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_3695730

and here:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/11/204825/960

and here:

http://vivirlatino.com/2006/04/10/first-martyr-of-current-immigration-struggle-age-14.php

[Fountain79]

1. Something doesn't seem right about this....

while inappropriate the teacher's actions don't seem like something to predicate suicide.

[merh]

4. While inappropriate?

Threating a kid with jail and threatening his parents is much more than inappropriate.
It is cruel to a child and an 8th grader is a child trying to figure out what growing up is all about.

[Fountain79]

6. Again...

there seems to be something more to this.

[NVMojo]

7. you are right. 14-yr sshould be strong enough to withstand

the threats of prison from the school district officials. Damn, shame on the kid.

and shame on the AP for making this entire thing up!

[merh]

14. What the hell.

Have you ever faced the threat of jail?

There are plenty of adults that commit suicide when they are facing that possibility.

A 14 year old can't understand the idle threats of an AUTHORITY figure.

More to it, yes, the cruelty of that administrator should be investigated and he should face discipline.

[NVMojo]

16. thanks, merh! a voice of reason!

[merh]

18. I am sick to death of folks that explain away cruelty

and bullies.

It is disgusting that they even have the nerve to post their crap here and I am damned tired of backing down to them.

A fourteen year old boy is trying to figure out who he is. He is no longer a child and he isn't a man. To be told that he could go to jail and has hurt his parents for doing what is lawful and his right is criminal.

[RagingInMiami]

2. I'm afraid he is only the first victim of more to come

On both sides of the issue.

[Poll_Blind]

3. I was incorrect, it was not debunked. The thread it was in was locked.

>Search DU for previous article, posted no earlier than last Thursday, IIRC.

My bad- when I left the thread it appeared that it was forged, then the thread was locked.

PB

[LisaL]

5. Hah? It's not fake, and was not debunked.

His step father could face charges. Do you think it's imaginary step father who would face imaginary charges, or what? This boy's name is all over the net, are you saying it's all fake?
http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_3695846

[NVMojo]

8. ok

[mike_c]

9. you're mistaken-- the story is true....

See also:

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2006/04/153172.php

IN MEMORY OF ANTHONY SOLTERO
by Fil-Am Students for Justice Monday, Apr. 10, 2006 at 12:34 AM
[e-mail]

IN MEMORY OF ANTHONY SOLTERO

We in the Coalition of Filipino-American Students for Justice and Peace condemn the persecution to death of the eighth-grade student Anthony Soltero, urge that his tormentor be brought to justice, and call for a stop to the fascist intimidation, inquisition and repression by authorities of student protesters for immigrant rights. We express our deepest bereavement to his parents, relatives, friends, classmates, and the hundreds of thousands of fellow student protesters he left behind.

Anthony Soltero, a leader of the heroic April 28 student walk-outs, committed suicide reportedly in direct response to threats by the De Danza Middle School vice-principal to jail him for his leadership in the protest actions. In a previous statement, we had already denounced the narrow-minded medieval policy of locking down schools and preventing student street protests as effective imprisonment of the students and as a denial of their right to the wider, real-life education in genuine democracy and civic citizenship that the pro-immigrant protests provide.

In that statement, we also had registered our opposition to the police-state tactics of sowing fear among students through acts of physical brutality, a policy paralleled by the psychological harassment of Anthony. Anthony’s suicide in a sense was a form of protest against and rejection of this policy.

His life has been short in years but long in meaning and depth. Anthony’s life and death illustrate that someone as young as he can acquire not merely the education, but more importantly the wisdom and integrity to believe in and join the struggle for social justice. We enjoin all freedom-loving students and parents to act to ensure that Anthony’s martyrdom will be not in vain.

Let us turn our grief into courage to carry forward Anthony’s principled fight for full immigrant rights to its just and adequate conclusion. Inspired by Anthony’s legacy of conviction and leadership, let us struggle for anti-racist, anti-fascist and anti-imperialist justice for immigrants and students.

COALITION OF FILIPINO-AMERICAN STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE

[NVMojo]

11. did I do something wrong by posting this at LBN? It's April 11?

[merh]

13. Alert or send a message to a mod in LBN and ask them

why they moved this.

Your article is legitimate, imho.

Thanks for posting this.

[JI7]

10. there were questions about whether it was fake because of lack of sources

but i think this article confirms it was true. very sad, i was hoping it was a fake.

[Neil Lisst]

12. Proving causation will be tough unless he left a note or journal.

But the mere possibility makes it a dangerous case for the school district. The actions were not justified, even grossly negligent.

[NVMojo]

15. Do you think the mother is lying about what her son told her

moments before she came home and found him dead? I talked to them on Saturday. I don't think she is lying. She is freaking devastated?

[NVMojo]

17. Media Quietly Tiptoes Around Anthony Soltero

From April 9th. (Many on this board questioned this story too as we reacted in shock and disbelief that this could happen). I called the church the day before the funeral and found out hundreds of people were calling to confirm as people on blogs were spreading that it was a hoax.

-----------------------------------------------

For the last 48 hours there has been much confusion as bloggers and journalists attempted to confirm the story of a boy who committed suicide after the vice principal of his school threatened him with extended prison time after he organized a student protest against the recently considered anti-immigrant legislation in Washington, D.C. The press release quickly circulated on the Internet, but for some reason it wasn't reported by the mainstream media. Because of the timing (April Fools Day) and the lack of mainstream media confirmation, people naturally entertained the possibility it could be a hoax - possibly an attempt to spawn an urban legend that would rally people around the immigration issue. However, as people sought out confirmation from the police, the Church, and the representatives of the family listed on the press release, the tragedy finally began to be reported in smaller press venues and radio news segments.

At this hour, there still doesn't seem to be any coverage by the mainstream media. This astounds me. Not only is it important to illuminate the damage that can be done by authoritarian responses to protest, it's in the public's interest to gain insight in how the immigration issues are playing out in the lives of real people. I don't understand why the mainstream media ignored this story, and I have more than a little suspicion that it was deliberately suppressed for its inflammatory potential - particularly because it's inflammatory in ways that the stereotypical white middle class newspaper readership probably doesn't want to hear about. It's also possible that the reporters were all waiting for some top dog to cover it first, and the longer it remained unreported, the more unimportant it seemed.

What bothers me here is that the failure of the media compounded the tragedy. Because the Internet rumor couldn't be confirmed by authoritative stories, many people just denied it out of hand. The people who supplied the press release were denigrated and attacked for purveying a possible hoax. The few confirmation points (the police, the Church, etc.) were bombarded with inquiries, diverting their attention from other matters. If the intention of the media was to suppress the story, it now seems more likely that they've only provided the fuel for a gigantic backlash.

more...

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/4/9/22942/60445

[Neil Lisst]

19. No, I don't think she's lying, but her statement is not as ...

... valuable as evidence as his own words in his own handwriting, saying so.

Mom may have reasons of her own not to want to blame anything at home. Causation may be a little more complex than "the school made him do it." The school may have helped push him over the edge, but it's likely there were other major problems in his life, too.

[NVMojo]

20. you should call the family through the church instead of this ...

just a suggestion. Because in the end, a confused 14 yr old is DEAD.

[Neil Lisst]

21. why would I want to do that?

I'm sure the family has better things to do than talk to strangers who want to emote with them.

[NVMojo]

24. why bother posting here to debunk them then?

[renate]

22. so sad that he was a citizen himself

He was just standing up for others' rights.

I don't necessarily believe that this was the ONLY reason he killed himself--or maybe it was (an authority figure telling me I was going to jail would certainly have scared the hell out of me, at that age)--but he was evidently too good and too sensitive for this world.

This is a loss for us all.

[Jazz2006]

23. Agreed.

It is very sad, indeed, that a 14 year old - any 14 year old - would kill himself for any reason, let alone because of a perceived threat from an authority figure.

I also think that there is something incongruous about the story to date. I mean that it seems odd to me that a 14 year old with the wherewithal to organize a protest (if he did, as has been stated above) to rightly protest something worth protesting would be so easily inclined to kill himself over something said by a teacher. It takes a pretty smart 14 year old to organize a legitimate protest of the kind outlined in the story, and that includes knowing that (a) his teachers aren't going to like it and (b) that it is worth protesting despite his teachers' views. So, it just seems highly unlikely that someone smart enough to figure out (a) and (b) would then kill himself over stupid and untrue remarks made by a teacher who is part of (a) and (b).

My guess is that his reasons for killing himself run deeper than that.

But, still, no matter what the reasons, it is terribly sad indeed. His family must be devastated.