Thread: The illegals have a martyr

IMMIGRATION PROPOSAL: A school official told him he would be punished for protesting, mother says.


10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, April 8, 2006
By SHARON McNARY
The Press-Enterprise




Officials of the school and the Ontario-Montclair Unified School District could not be reached via numerous phone and e-mail messages Saturday for comment about events preceding the boy's death.

Anthony Soltero, 14, of Ontario, won't be buried until Monday, but his death has drawn attention from those who support legalizing undocumented immigrants.


Soltero was among thousands of students across Southern California who left school in the last week of March to protest a proposed federal law that would make it a crime to be in the country illegally.

Soltero and his mother are U.S. citizens.

They were not targets of the proposal, known as HR 4437, but he was sympathetic to friends whose families include immigrants, said Mercado, a civil rights attorney.

Soltero told his mother that he would not join the March 28 walkout organized by his friends, but he did anyway, Mercado said.

Although he got high grades, he was disciplined last year for bringing a pocket knife to school, Mercado said. He was close to finishing his term of community service and probation, she said.

On March 30, an administrator questioned Soltero about the walkout, Mercado said.

The administrator told him he could not attend graduation, that his mother would be fined $250 for his truancy, and that he could be jailed for three years, Mercado said.

Soltero phoned his mother with the news.

"She said, 'Anthony, didn't I tell you not to go to the walkout?'

"She said, 'Stay home, I'm on my way,'" Mercado said.

When she arrived home she found apology notes from her son, and his body with a self-inflicted bullet wound to the head from a gun his stepfather had hidden in the garage, Mercado said.

He was brain dead, but his body was maintained until April 1, when his heart and other organs were donated, said Deputy Steven Foster of the San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner office.

A student march on Saturday in Los Angeles will be dedicated to Soltero, said Javier Rodriguez of the March 25 Coalition.

A special Mass for Soltero at 11 a.m. today at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Ontario will feature Edward James Olmos, director of the recent HBO film, "Walkout," and Moctezuma Esparza, one of the original students who organized the Chicano student walkouts of 1968 in East Los Angeles.

It's OBVIOUS this kid has mental issues but the Mexicans and Mexican
media are going to spin this to THEIR advantage. SMH.

Originally Posted by sunsetincali

It's OBVIOUS this kid has mental issues but the Mexicans and Mexican
media are going to spin this to THEIR advantage. SMH.

i heard about this yesterday. i dont think theyre getting the press they wanted.

Maybe not yet but they're doing a march in his honor next.