34 bc liartfori) ouraitf CTNOW THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2009 WWW.COURANT.COM ACLU Hits Town Over Graduations 2nd Group Also Insists On Not Using Cathedral HARTFORD SHOOTING TRIAL Agent Says Lawlor Didn't Mention Seeing A Gun By SHAWN R. BEALS sbealscourant.com Two civil liberties organizations are demanding that Enfield's public high schools move their graduations from the First Cathedral in Bloomfield to a secular location, and threatened to sue if they don't. that any of the other school districts move their ceremonies. "A public school's graduation ceremony should be held in a secular location," said Patrick Doyle, an ACLU spokesman. "Enfield school officials have ample opportunities as far as other places they can do this." ACLU staff attorney David McGuire said Enfield families have made numerous complaints about the location.
"Regardless of the intent, they are devaluing the faith of students and families in the religious minority," McGuire said Wednesday "Some people essentially feel uncomfortable and unwelcome at the graduations. Enfield High School and Enrico Fermi High School have held their June ceremonies at the ACLU, B2 for shooting and killing Bryant and wounding Brandon Henry, the driver. He and Daniel Prather, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, were working together on an anti-gun task force. They were in the neighborhood looking for a suspect.
Under cross-examination, Prather acknowledged that there were moments when he was on the phone or on a police radio and could have missed hearing Lawlor mention a gun. He also said he was focused on the driver and not paying attention to the passenger. TRIAL, B2 By HILDA MUNOZ hmunozcourant.com HARTFORD Hartford police Det. Robert Lawlor didn't mention seeing a gun the night he fired his weapon into a Nissan Maxima on May 7, 2005, killing the passenger and injuring the driver, a federal agent who was working with Lawlor that night testified Wednesday in Superior Court. Lawlor has said the passenger, 18-year-old Jashon Bryant, was holding a gun as he got into the car.
But a weapon was never found. Lawlor, now retired, is on trial, charged with first-degree manslaughter and first-degree assault I ENFIELD I The American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State also are seeking information about graduation sites from four other school districts that use the cathedral: East Hartford, South Windsor, Windsor and the Capitol Region Education Council, which uses the site for the Metropolitan Learning Center magnet school graduation. The organization has not demanded Shelter Proposal Target Of Scare Tactic CLOE POISSON cpoissoncourant.com HELEN UBINAS hubinascourant.com Anybody want to own the hair-on-fire statistic that 50 percent of the homeless men who will use the no-freeze emergency shelter proposed for downtown Hartford are sex offenders? Anyone? I tried to track down who floated that idea. But so far, no takers. Not our number, said Mike Zaleski, head of the downtown business improvement district.
His recollection: It came from city staffers during a conversation about the impact a shelter at Center Church might have on downtown residents and businesses. Really not sure, the city's chief operating officer, David Panagore, said when I asked him the source of the number. Later, he said his staffers merely told residents and business owners that based on a one month survey of one city shelter there was a UBINAS, B12 FOOD DRIVE JUSTIN hern, front, pulls a wagon loaded with nonperishable food items along Memorial Road in West Hartford on Wednesday He was helped by Zachary Vargas, left, and Nathaniel Cutler during the Morley School Red Wagon food drive to benefit the West Hartford Food Pantry More than 180 students in kindergarten, first and second grades helped pull 81 wagons containing more than 5,000 items from the school to town hall. A PUSH (AND PULL) TO FIGHT HUNGER Visit courant.comfooddrive to view more pictures. Foodshare On Its Way To Meeting Goal Of Distributing 18,500 Turkeys Foodshare hopes to collect and distribute 18,500 turkeys to needy families in Hartford and Tolland counties through its turkey drive this year.
The organization also hopes to raise $630,000. As of Wednesday, Foodshare had collected 5,016 turkeys and almost $400,000, including 1,000 turkeys from Stop Shop and $40,000 from Wal-Mart. Difficult Choices In Middletown Closing or expanding Middletown's Commodore Macdonough Elementary School, or adding a magnet school, are among the suggestions made by a consultant to the city's board of education to help it deal with racial imbalance and overcrowding in the city's eight elementary schools. The closing of Macdonough, an award-winning school overwhelmingly made up of minority students, is the most drastic of the proposals. Page B6.
State: Sheff Goals Met With 27 percent of Hartford students now learning in an integrated setting, the state Department of Education says it has met this year's integration goals set by the Sheff v. O'Neill agreement. Page B3. New Digs For Artists The Goodspeed in East Haddam kicked off a $5.5 million project this week that will include 17 new homes in which the artists who are part of Goodspeed's productions will temporarily reside. Page B7.
"Our goal is to make sure that each local food pantry leaves herewith all of the turkeys they need," McAdam said. McAdam said there are several ways people can contribute, including at various grocery stores or through the WDRC-AM Traveling Caravan at several Highland Park markets in the area. The caravan will be accepting donations in Suffield today from 4 to 7 p.m. and in Coventry on Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. For more information, call 860-286-9999 or visit www.foodshare.org.
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