The Rhine River

Anthony Soltero

A DeAnza Middle School student killed himself after telling his mother he could be jailed for joining a pro-immigrant student walkout, a family lawyer said Saturday.

A school administrator told the boy he would be barred from graduation, that his parents could be fined, and that he could face jail for participating in the walkout, said attorney Sonia Mercado. ...

[Anthony] 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 ...

posted by Nathanael @ 8:15 PM