Activist Student Commits Suicide after School Threats

This article is compiled from news releases and press reports.

4/12/06

A Chicano mother buried her activist, middle-school student this past Monday in the Southern California city of Ontario. Eighth grader Anthony Soltero shot himself through the head 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 March 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's death is likely the first fatality arising from the protests against the immigration legislation being considered in Washington, D.C. "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," Louise Corales, his mother said. "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, 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 and father, a younger sister, and a baby brother.

Ms. Corales, like her son, a citizen, along with community activists, will continue to organize around the immigration issue. School officials have to date not commented on their role. The police have not revealed the contents of the suicide note but have suggested that the boy's stepfather could face criminal charges for allegedly not securing the rifle the boy used to kill himself.

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