Local political activist George Rodrigues’ recent decision to drop a court action against a member of the Westbrook School Committee raises a serious question: Why was he filing for it in the first place?

Rodrigues said he decided against pursuing the protection from harassment order against School Board member Tim Crellin because of a desire to work for the greater interest of the Westbrook school system. Crellin has said he felt Rodrigues used the entire event as a ploy to publicize his cause.

If Rodrigues had a legitimate reason to file for protection from Crellin, then he should have pursued the matter to its end. Otherwise, his filing of the court action and then his sudden decision to drop it before a hearing smacks of a publicity stunt.

The only thing that is certain is a great deal of time and money has been wasted on an abandoned legal action.

Rodrigues certainly seems sincere in his desire to ensure the Westbrook schools are providing the best education possible. But, at the same time, some of Rodrigues’ recent actions seem to serve his personal agenda at the expense of others.

In February, Rodrigues and a group of anti-abortion protestors interrupted a spaghetti dinner organized to raise money for heating assistance. Rodrigues was protesting the pro-choice voting records of state Reps. Bob Duplessie and Tim Driscoll, who were sponsoring the event. The group was asked to leave, and eventually police were called to keep the peace.

While the protest called attention to two Democrats and their stances on abortion and the church’s inconsistent attitude toward pro-abortion politicians, it did so at the expense of people who couldn’t afford to heat their homes.

In the case of the meeting in March, Rodrigues started off speaking out against a proposal to amend the school department’s sexual education curriculum to teach contraception in the middle and high schools. However, he then began to make public comments regarding the beliefs of a Westbrook teacher, jeopardizing that teacher’s reputation. At that point, he was asked to stop, and when he refused, he was removed from the meeting.

Crellin was present at both events and was one of the people who asked Rodrigues to leave the premises. Rodrigues has said he felt threatened by Crellin, which caused him to seek the court order.

Now, it appears Rodrigues has changed his mind, and he has expressed his desire to work with the school department and the School Committee, which includes Crellin, for the benefit of the city.

“I hate to see tax dollars wasted. I would hope that we can all work more cooperatively in the future,” Rodrigues said this week. “The publicity needs to stay focused on the issue, which is the introduction of contraception to junior high school kids. It’s not about publicity for me, but about a parent’s right to speak about (issues) in a community forum.”

While Rodrigues said he doesn’t want to see tax dollars wasted, the fact is, his recent decisions have cost taxpayers money. If that money were spent ensuring the right of parents and residents to speak out by making a public official answer for his actions in court, it would have been well spent. However, if that money was spent advancing Rodrigues’ agenda or generating publicity, then it was wasted.

Even though he decided against pursuing the court order, the school department and Crellin still had to prepare a defense in case the hearing took place.

“Tim had to be prepared,” said Crellin’s attorney Dan Rose. “A lot of that preparation happened before George stood up before the school board (and said he wasn’t going to the hearing). Did it take some time and effort to prepare? Of course it did. On behalf of the school department, we had to be prepared, had to talk to witnesses. You don’t just show up.”

The school department hasn’t received the legal bills for preparing Crellin’s defense, so it’s unclear how much this is going to cost Westbrook’s taxpayers.

But the fact that it is going to cost the taxpayers anything is a shame. This is a situation that escalated out of control, and never should have gotten as far as it did.

Both Rodrigues and Crellin are intelligent men, who do have the best interest of the schools and the city in mind, albeit from very differing points of view. There should have been a way for this problem to have been settled without wasting time and money on a court action that was eventually abandoned.

Mike Higgins, assistant editor

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