Rally to Honor Student Walkout Leader Driven to Suicide By Our Education System

Rally to Honor the Student Walkout Leader Driven to
Suicide By Our Education System and to Demand an
Education System that Works for All Youth

WHO: Education Not Incarceration Coalition and Allied Organizations
What: A Rally to Honor Student Walkout Leader Driven to Death By Our
Education System, and to Demand an Education System that Works for
All Youth
When: Noon, Monday, April 10
Where: State Building, 1515 Clay St, Oakland, CA 94612

Rally Information: Contact: Education Not Incarceration at 510.225.8491
For Information on Anthony Soltero's Death:
Contact: R. SAMUEL PAZ (310) 410-2981, (310) 989-6815

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 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 Anthonys 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 cant punish our children for
exercising their rights.

Anthonys 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.