Published: September 01, 2006 04:07 am      

Harrison BOE seeks dismissal of lawsuit

Citing August theft of ‘Jesus Portrait’ from Bridgeport High

FAIRMONT — Citing the theft last month of the “Jesus Portrait” from Bridgeport High School, the Harrison County School Board agreed Thursday to seek dismissal of a civil liberties lawsuit filed in federal district court by complaining parents.

The theft of the reproduction of artist Warner Sallman’s life-size “Head of Christ” leaves the school board without a viable legal argument, said Michael Queen.

“Our basic legal argument on keeping the portrait hanging is based on its ‘historical significance,’” Queen said Thursday afternoon. Federal courts have ruled in some cases that religious symbols with a historical tie to a public building display can continue in place.

The board made its decision after meeting for about two hours in executive session with lawyers from the Alliance Defense Fund. The national Christian law firm specializes in religious liberty cases. The ADF is representing the board for free.

Spokesmen for the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The two groups are representing two complaining parents, plus other unidentified students and parents who have complained to school officials and the school board in past years about the portrait’s display outside the principal’s office.

When the portrait was stolen Aug. 17, an official with Americans United said the group might continue the suit anyway.

At issue is what Americans United and the state ACLU believe is an unconstitutional preferment of Christianity over other religions.

Without the original print, however, which has hung outside the high school principal’s office for about 37 years, the board cannot continue to seek to keep the portrait hanging, Queen said.

In other developments Friday:

• Queen announced a $1,000 reward for tips leading to the arrest and conviction of an unidentified man who broke into the school in the early morning of Aug. 17 and stole the portrait. His brother, Marty Queen, a Clarksburg businessman, has posted the reward, Queen said. Residents who have any tips are being urged to call Bridgeport police detectives at 842-8264.

• Student members of the Christian Freedom Alliance, a grass-roots group that has recently sprung up, plan to present “a welcoming gift” to new BHS principal Mark DeFazio at 3 p.m. today. The gift will not be another copy of the “Head of Christ” painting, a source said. Although he is not connected to the student group, Queen said he had heard that they want their unidentified gift “to hang in the area where the portrait used to hang.”

• Queen also challenged the state chapter of the ACLU to turn over its membership roster, plus local names of those who have made donations to the group or otherwise supported it recently with letters or e-mails, to Bridgeport police detectives.

“I’m asking as an individual board member that this occur, that the ACLU membership names go to police, not the school board, of course” to protect the privacy rights of the ACLU members.

Without directly saying the ACLU or one of its members stole the portrait, Queen said, “It just seems to me that the person who stole the portrait knew exactly what they were doing because the theft has left us with no legal leg stand on.

“It appears as if that until the portrait is returned, the board has no option except to ask for immediate dismissal” of the lawsuit, he said.

“We cannot defend a portrait that we no longer have or know who has it,” he said in an e-mail to supporters of keeping the portrait hanging in the school.

A sophisticated camera surveillance system at the high school captured a man breaking into the school early on the morning of Aug. 17.

Despite the clarity of the tapes, police so far have been unable to arrest the thief.

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