By LeAnne Gendreau, NBCConnecticut.com
Police have charged a 68-year-old Torrington man with breach of peace and criminal trespass after he caused disturbances at two schools to? complain about a decision to allow a student to wear a T-shirt with an anti-gay message to school, according to police.
Wolcott schools, under pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, decided to allow a senior at Wolcott High School to wear a T-shirt with a slash through the rainbow after the ACLU threatened to sue.
Derrell Rice, 68, of Torrington, took issue with the decision, according to police, and went to the school to complain.
But, first he lodged the complaint in Plymouth.
Read more at NBCConnecticut.com
Rice, who school officials described as an elderly, well-dressed gentleman, drove to the Plymouth Center School on North Street on Wednesday morning and rang the buzzer to be let in, Plymouth police told Wolcott Police.
When school officials questioned him through the intercom, the man said he was there to register his granddaughter for school, so school staff met him at the door.
But, the man, later identified as Rice, began to express his displeasure with the school department allowing an anti-gay shirt to be allowed in school, according to police.
School officials told Rice that the shirt incident happened in Wolcott and not Plymouth.
They said Rice was upset, loud and causing annoyance and alarm, so the school officials called Plymouth Police and Rice drove away, according to police.
At 10 a.m., Wolcott Police received a call from the Plymouth Police about the incident, so they notified the Wolcott School Department to be on the look-out for Rice.
Soon after, Wolcott school officials called police and said a man who met Rice?s description was there and wanted to be let in. When police responded, they found Rice ringing the buzzer to be let in, police said.
When police asked Rice why he was there, he said he wanted to speak to the superintendent of schools because he did not agree with his allowing a shirt with an anti-gay message to be worn, according to police.
Supt. Joseph Macary met with Rice and told him he understood his concerns and that the decision to allow the shirt was based on the First Amendment, as well as school policy, police said.
Macary then told Rice that he is not allowed on any Wolcott School property and could leave because the conversation was over.
But Rice refused to leave and said he was going to the high school to tell everyone what was going on, police said.
Rice was charged with breach of peace and first-degree criminal trespass because he caused annoyance and alarm and refused to leave school, according to police.
Plymouth police also charged Rice with breach of peace.
Bond was set at $1,000.??
NBC Connecticut was not able to find a phone number for Rice.
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Speaking to Total Film, Del Toro says
Internet access in many regions in Sub-Saharan Africa is still far from perfect, and a number of non-profits are working to improve this situation by providing technical assistance and working with local organizations to provide services to ISPs. Today, Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, announced that it is providing a total of $4.4 million to the Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC) and the Internet Society (ISOC) to help improve Internet access in this region. A majority of the $4.4 million?($3.1 million) will go to the Network Startup Resource Center, an organization based at the University of Oregon that trains network engineers and operators who “develop and maintain the Internet infrastructure in their respective countries and regions by providing technical information, engineering assistance, training, donations of networking books, equipment and other resources.” The grant is specifically meant to help the NSRC bring Internet access to students and staff at about 50 schools in Sub-Saharan Africa. The remaining $1.3 million will go to the Washington D.C.-based Internet Society, which will use it to improve and create Internet Exchange Points (IXP) in emerging markets. Internet service providers use IXPs to exchange traffic between their networks. Because the traffic is directly routed between ISPs, these providers then don’t have to pay a third-party provider to move the data between the two ISPs’ networks. This grant, the Internet Society writes today, will allow it to bring more of these IXPs to providers in emerging markets. This should help local ISPs to work more effectively, which in turn should also drive down end-user cost and increase Internet performance. “The Internet Society has proved to be one of the most effective institutions in the Internet community,? said Vint Cerf, vice president and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google in a statement today. ?I am confident that they will apply their grant wisely to extend their work to increase Internet access for everyone, including those in emerging markets.” Today’s grant marks Google.org’s second major grant so far this year. In January, Google also provided the Energy Foundation with a $2.56 million grant to support smart grid policy reform.
