Ohio school loses ACLU battle, removes Jesus Christ portrait
A southern Ohio school district has agreed to keep a portrait of Jesus off district property and pay $95,000 to settle a lawsuit filed earlier this year by the state chapter of the ACLU and a Wisconsin foundation.
In the settlement accepted today by U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley, the Jackson City School District agreed to pay $3,000 in damages to each of the suit’s five anonymous plaintiffs.
The district also will pay $80,000 to cover legal fees incurred by the Ohio chapter of the ACLU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation of Madison, Wisconsin, which sued the district on behalf of the three parents and two students.
“This case could have ended before it began if the school had simply acknowledged that it is not the government’s place to endorse one specific religion in a public school that children are legally required to attend,” James Hardiman, legal director for the ACLU of Ohio said. “This is a basic constitutional principle backed up by decades of case law.”
The picture of Jesus had hung in either Jackson High School or the district’s middle school since 1947.
The lawsuit, filed in February, said the image was an unconstitutional government endorsement of Christianity. The school board had argued that it belonged to the Hi-Y club, a religion-centered student group that had the right to hang it in the school.
As the legal battle progressed, the district took the picture down in April.
[…] Ohio school loses ACLU battle, removes Jesus Christ portrait (theglobaldispatch.com) […]
[…] Not only does a portrait of Jesus have to be removed, but an Ohio school district has to pay the ACLU’s $80,000 in legal costs. […]
I MUST TYPE AS A NEGRO.
I KNOW NOTHING OF Shannon Sharpe’s values. YESTERDAY, ON CBS’ NFL Today, Mr. Sharpe WORE A BOWTIE. [Usually, Mr. Sharpe wears a long tie]. IN THE NEGRO COMMUNITY, MALES WHO WEAR BOWTIES ARE CONSIDERED MEMBERS OF Nation of Islam. AS A FORMER NFL PLAYER, TO VIEW Mr. Sharpe’s appearance IN CONJUNCTION WITH WEARING A BOWTIE CREATES RADICALISM IN THE MINDS OF CAUCASIANS. [As a male with a bald head and bushy beard, I too, wear bowties; and, people ask, “Chris, are you Muslim?”]. SEEING NEGRO MALES IN PUBLIC WEARING BOWTIES – IN CONJUNCTION WITH PEOPLE LIKE, Reverend Al Sharpton, WHO RIDICULE THOSE FOR DEMONIZING Trayvon Martin WHILE BEING QUIET ABOUT THE “evil” OF MIDDLE-EASTERN MUSLIMS – CREATES THE PERCEPTION OF “Jesus Christ’s” decline].
TO PLACE THIS ISSUE IN A LEGAL CONTEXT – LIKE, THIS ARTICLE’S FOCUS ON ACLU’s VICTORY – BLURS THE IMPORTANCE OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE HEARTS-AND-MINDS OF YOUNGER PEOPLE [WHO DOMINATE THE INTERNET]. WE ALWAYS HEAR ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF OHIO DURING ELECTION CYCLES, BUT, Tea Party SHOULD CHECK THE POWER OF ITS NUMBERS.
CHRISTOPHER ALLEN HORTON
OH puleeuz. This isn’t a portrait of Jesus. It’s so hypocritical to fight over someone’s wishful vision of their deity. It’s not only foolish to think this picture is Jesus, it’s hysterical that this is an issue.
“Rational,”
THAT PORTRAIT CLEARLY ILLUSTRATES WHICH RACE OF PEOPLE HAVE GLOBAL POWER. YET, SOMEONE NEEDS TO EXPLAIN WHY CONTEMPORARY PEOPLE IN THE MIDDLE-EAST DO NOT LOOK LIKE THE CHARACTER IN THAT PORTRAIT. RECENTLY, PBS AIRED A PROGRAM ON THE LIFE OF Mahmed [Mohammad]; ACCORDING TO THE NARRATOR’S DESCRIPTION, Mahmed LOOKED SIMILAR TO “Jesus.”
CHRISTOPHER ALLEN HORTON