Written by Southern Poverty Law Center
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25 March 2010
This time of year, high school seniors around the country answer that question on a daily basis. Most can offer a ready—and truthful—answer. They're heading off to college, joining the military, starting out in a trade.
But about 65,000 will not be able to answer so easily. For them graduation speeches proclaiming that "today is a beginning, not an end" will ring hollow. Graduation is the end for them. They are the children of undocumented immigrants. These young men and women have lived in the United States, perhaps for most of their lives. They've gone to school here. Like their fellow students, they've played sports, taken the state tests, worked at part-time jobs and been urged by their teachers to aim for the stars.
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Most of us have a story about being bullied back in school. Thankfully, most of us did not go through the childhood that William Rivers Pitt endured. This bestselling author faced years of torment by classmates. Switching schools only made things worse. Teachers and administrators either looked the other way or took ineffectual action.