COLUMBUS, Ohio -
The lawyer for the school at the heart of a lawsuit
centering around a painting of Jesus Christ says he will make a recommendation
to the school board next Tuesday at the school board meeting which he believes
will leave both sides "satisfied."
The Ohio chapter of the
American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit last week asking that a portrait
of Jesus hanging in the hallway of Jackson
Middle School be taken
down. The lawsuit is filed on behalf of a "Sam Doe" who is a student at the
public school.
"If religious liberty means
anything it means that government must stay out of the religion business,"
said Gary Daniels, Associate Director for the ACLU of Ohio.
Ohio falls under the jurisdiction of the Sixth Federal Circuit
Court. According to Daniels, in a case with the same facts in Michigan two decades ago the Sixth Circuit
ruled that the religious picture violated the First Amendment and had to be taken
down. Daniels says legal precedent is clear that Jackson Middle School
is violating the Constitution.
"They might think it's not
hurting anybody…but when you have a public school with a portrait of Jesus
Christ in the hallway near the entrance on the wall that is absolutely and
unquestionably an endorsement of religion," Daniels said.
School officials say the portrait
has hung at the school for more than 60 years. However after the ACLU's
objection the district retained the Liberty Institute to investigate and make a
recommendation. Liberty Institute is a Texas
based, non-profit group that focuses on religious liberty cases and now
represents the school.
Hiram Sasser with LI says he was
disappointed the lawsuit was filed days before he makes his recommendation to
the school board on Tuesday.
"I think at the end of the
day next week everybody should be happy with what the reported recommendation
is going to have to offer. And I really believe that everybody on both sides
should be satisfied. I just wish that the ACLU would've waited to see if they
would have felt satisfied by what's going to happen next week," Sasser
said.
Daniels however says his group
repeatedly tried to resolve the issue before filing a lawsuit.
