Source: The Wall of Separation

http://blog.au.org/2006/08/bridgeport_batt.html

On August 4, 2006 The Wall of Separation reported, "A school board in West Virginia seems determined to wage a costly legal battle to keep a portrait of Jesus Christ on display in one of its high schools.

Last night, the Harrison County Board of Education for the second time voted to continue its support of a print of Jesus that hangs outside the principal’s office at Bridgeport High School. The 1941 Warner Sallman rendering is the nation’s most recognizable devotional artwork of Christianity’s central figure.

Earlier this summer, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the ACLU of West Virginia filed a lawsuit in federal court arguing that the religious display is a blatant violation of the First Amendment. The case was brought on behalf of two Bridgeport residents, Hal Sklar and Jacqueline McKenzie.

On June 6, the board’s president and vice president voted to remove the print. Their motion, however, failed because one board member, Doug Gray, was absent, and two others voted against it.

Yesterday evening, newly elected board member Mike Queen insisted that the portrait of Jesus be kept on display. Queen asked the other members to support his motion to raise $150,000 in donations by the board’s next meeting Aug. 15 to pay anticipated legal costs. Queen’s motion prevailed by a 3-2 vote. President Wilson W. Currey and Vice President Sally J. Cann voted against Queen’s idea, but members James L. Reaser and Doug Gray supported it."