Published: August 19, 2006 12:51 am      

Christian law firm to defend Harrison BOE

In constitutional struggle over Jesus portrait at Bridgeport High

CLARKSBURG — A national Christian law firm that specializes in religious liberty cases will defend the Harrison County School Board in a constitutional struggle over the “Jesus Portrait” at Bridgeport High School.

By a 4-1 vote Friday, the school board agreed to have the Alliance Defense Fund represent it for free in a pending federal lawsuit.

Two parents sued the board earlier this summer. They claim the board has ignored their complaints for years. By exhibiting the portrait for decades outside the principal’s office, the board and school officials are endorsing Christianity over other religions, they argue.

The display is government sponsorship and preferment of a religion, something that violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment, their lawyers claim.

“When the Harrison County School Board chooses to display a portrait of Jesus outside the principal’s office at Bridgeport High School, it shows favoritism toward Christian students and tells non-Christian students and their families that they don’t belong,” said Richard Katskee.

He is the assistant legal director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The firm and the West Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union are representing the parents.

But Gary McCaleb, a senior vice president of the ADF, said the firm is taking the case “because the Constitution is a bedrock document.”

“When we look at ways how the Constitution has morphed from a document that guaranteed liberty to a document used to censor people, then yes, I think we have a major issue on our hands.”

Nate Kellum, a lawyer with the ADF’s regional center in Memphis, Tenn., will be the lead lawyer on the case.

Although the large print of artist Warner Sallman’s “Head of Christ” was stolen early Thursday morning, the lawsuit will go forward because of the issues involved, lawyers on both sides said.

Aided by remarkably clear videotapes from a sophisticated surveillance camera system, Bridgeport police said they are checking a number of tips from residents.

Footage from outdoor cameras show the suspect was in and around the school for about 35 to 40 minutes before he broke a window at the rear of the school and went inside, detective Mike Lemley said Friday. The suspect was in the school for only about four minutes, from about 3:41 a.m. to 3:45 a.m.

Earlier, “the suspect walked to an area of the Bridgeport Middle School” where police later found a broken window, but he did not go into the middle school, Lemley said.

Wilson Currey, the Harrison school board president, voted against the ADF offer. About seven other national law firms had also offered free representation.

“I’ve been consistent. I’ve voted ‘no’on this thing all the way through,” Currey said. The board met behind closed doors with its lawyer, Richard Yurko of the Clarksburg firm of Steptoe & Johnson, for about 45 minutes beforehand.

Currey said he feels the board is making a mistake.

The board has agreed not to spend tax dollars on defending the suit.

Mike Queen, who was just elected to the board in the May primary, helped lead a private fund-raising effort. The Christian Freedom Fund collected about $150,000 in just several weeks.

Most of it will be held in reserve in case the board loses and it must pay court costs and punitive damages, Queen said afterward.

The board politely rejected an offer of a replacement portrait.

Pastor Dennis Swindle of the Meadowbrook Church of Christ said a church member bought it at an auction and offered it as a replacement.

Citing all the unanswered legal issues, Queen said it was not the time to hang another portrait.

E-mail Bill Byrd at bbyrd@timeswv.com.