CA: School: Soltero not at protest - School claims Soltero was not threatened

ONTARIO - A boy who committed suicide over what relatives alleged were threats of jail made by a school official for protesting an immigration bill never participated in any protests, the superintendent said Thursday.

Anthony Soltero, 14, of Ontario told his mother the day he shot himself March 30 that he was pulled into the De Anza Middle School vice principal's office and was threatened with harsh discipline for protesting off campus during school.

But Ontario-Montclair School District Superintendent Sharon McGehee said the investigation into the incident so far has not turned up any evidence that Soltero was threatened the way the boy's relatives and attorneys have said.

‘‘We have no corroborating evidence that he threatened the student with prison,'' McGehee said.

In fact, she said, their investigation determined the boy and three other students never went to the demonstration but instead cut class for several hours, which an attorney for the boy's family denies.

McGehee said Soltero was given the option to miss out on either the end-of-the-year dance or field trip for eight-graders. There were no other forms of punishment issued by vice principal Gene Bennett, McGehee said.

McGehee added that, according to interviews conducted with students and faculty, the boy and the other students never marched with protesters at all.

‘‘The information we have is a couple of them went to a friend's house, and a couple of them went to a market, and they came back to the school for lunch,'' she said. ‘‘We have no information that the students were involved in the immigration protests.''

R. Samuel Paz, the Soltero family's attorney, disagreed with the superintendent. He has interviewed the other students he said were in the meeting with Soltero and the vice principal.

The students told Paz they heard the administrator threaten Soltero with jail, fines and that they would be barred from participating in graduation activities.

‘‘We have eyewitnesses who actually participated in the march with him,'' Paz said.

Ontario police Wednesday night released the original suicide note left by Soltero for his family, Paz said.

He said most of the boy's handwritten note expressed his love for his family, but it also mentioned the vice principal. He would not elaborate on the statement, only to say ‘‘it corroborates what the students have said about the threats and how they affected Anthony.''

The district and De Anza Middle School were flooded with hundreds of phone calls about the boy's death and even included threats against the vice principal, she said.

‘‘I think suicide is a very emotional subject, and immigration is an emotional subject, and when they appear to be linked, it becomes doubly emotional,'' McGehee said.

The superintendent said the investigation will continue for another week or two to determine what was said during any meeting.

‘‘Our sense in the ongoing investigation is that the assistant principal acted appropriately,'' McGehee said.

While it remains uncertain whether the De Anza students left school to protest, hundreds of Inland Valley students who did are facing a variety of consequences, including truancy tickets to detention.

School administrators and police hope the late-March student protests on immigration reform won't happen again, but some districts have been meeting in case they do.

‘‘We'll work with the Police Department on a plan for contingencies in case we see a lot of students hit the streets again,'' said Richard Maxwell, spokesman for the Pomona Unified School District.

The walkouts resulted in a wide-range of responses by school officials and law enforcement, they included simply busing students back to school, assigning detention and, in some cases, writing tickets.

Fontana school resource officers issued 328 citations to students who participated in the walkouts between March 27 to 31, school district officials said. Montclair police wrote 125 truancy tickets to Serrano Middle School students who walked off campus March 28.

‘‘We detained the students, loaded them back up on the buses and took them back to school. It was agreed upon that we'd issue them truancy citations,'' said Montclair police Capt. Chris Weiske.

Several dozen students from the Chino Valley Unified School District received tickets, said district spokeswoman Julie Gobin. Six Ontario High School students received tickets and a dozen were suspended, said Martha Mena-Lopez, school dean of discipline.

Some schools opted to give truant students detention to make up for lost class time, saying suspensions and tickets were counter-productive.

‘‘Giving a student a license to be out on the street for being truant didn't make any sense,'' Martinez said.

Chino Valley Unified also gave 227 students from Don Lugo, Chino Hills and Chino high schools detention for participating in the walkouts, Gobin said.

Rialto Unified School District principals are going through attendance records to determine proper punishment for students who were truant.

While the situation is calm now, school administrators plan to keep a close eye on students in the next few weeks, especially with talks of a May 1 international boycott.

Called ‘‘A Day Without a Latino,'' the event was organized during a April 8 summit in Phoenix. At the meeting, immigrant advocacy groups from across the country discussed a strategy opposing legislation in Congress.

The groups also pushed for people of Mexican or Latin American descent not to show up May 1 at work, school or supermarkets in order to send a message about their role in society and impact on the economy.

HR 4437, introduced by House Judiciary Chairman Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., calls for tightening the nation's borders but also would make it possible to penalize those who aid undocumented immigrants, including religious and humanitarian organizations.

Martinez said suspensions could be issued for students deemed habitually truant. Montclair High students could possibly face tickets, suspension or loss of school privileges, Principal Michael Hook said.

The penalties for citations can range from community service to probation, depending on the number of truancies.

But officials have been providing students with other ways to express their concerns over the legislation with the hope they won't resort to cutting class.

Rialto Unified School District has encouraged its students to write letters to state leaders about the bill, district spokeswoman Syeda Jafri said.

Students serving detention in the Chino district have used the time to discuss immigration and the protests.

Martinez suggested schools give students the option to write a report about the immigration issue. Some schools have been providing open microphone sessions on campus that allow children to speak out.

Activists have planned a vigil march today for immigrants rights in Pomona, said Gustavo Ramirez, co-founder of the Coalition for Safety and Well-Being in Pomona. The march will begin between 4:15 and 4:30 p.m. at the corner of Holt and Indian Hill boulevards and will travel north to Claremont, Ramirez said.

• In cases of habitual truancy, a student could face review by the School Attendance Review Board and possible criminal charges resulting in probation. Parents could also be charged with crimes such as contributing to the delinquency of a minor in extreme cases of truancy.

Source: David Hidalgo, supervising deputy district attorney, West End Juvenile Division of the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office.

School administrators and police hope the late-March student protests on immigration reform won't happen again, but some districts have been meeting in case they do.

Meanwhile, Gloria Romero leads student "protesters."

Planning under way for next mass pro-immigration event on May first.
April 12, 2006

LOS ANGELES Organizers of the next mass pro-immigration rally, called the Great American Boycott, hope the day of the event, May 1st, will be an official school holiday in California.

[CA] State Senator Gloria Romero, a Los Angeles Democrat, supports the boycott and the holiday idea, saying: "As a senator, I represent citizens and non-citizens alike."

What About Gloria, Mr Mayor?
March 29, 2006

On Monday, [CA] State Senator Gloria Romero [Democrat] cheerfully announced in a press release that she was leading a delegation of students from East Los Angeles to City Hall. The senator, who represents part of the San Gabriel Valley, said she never planned to lead a thousand students to City Hall. But as the kids and police noisily made their way down Mednik Avenue, Romero said her "mother instinct" kicked in. "I told the cops to back off, to let them be. They're peaceful," she said.

"I was not there to condemn them. I was not there to tell them to go to the classroom. These students were on a mission," Romero added. Romero said she has a message for Sheriff Baca if he decides to call. "I'm going to tell him that I was proud to walk alongside a new generation of student activists," she said.

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