During a federal court hearing in Columbus on Tuesday, lawyers for the Jackson Ohio City Schools agreed to remove the picture of Jesus that was at the center of a church & state lawsuit brought by the Freedom of Religion Foundation and the ACLU. The district claims its insurance company wouldn’t cover the costs of the lawsuit. There is no word if the lawsuit will continue but for now the district made the right decision.
It was reported on Thursday that the Jesus painting that had been hanging in the hallway of the Jackson Ohio middle school for 47 years and is at the heart of a 1st amendment lawsuit by the Freedom of Religion Foundation and the ACLU, has been moved to the High School at the request of the “owner” of the painting – the Hi-Y Club.
The school board had created a “limited public forum” at the middle school and High School and claimed the painting belonged to the Hi-Y Club in order to cover their obvious violation of the separation of church and state.
The Jackson Ohio school district voted to keep up the Jesus picture hanging in the middle school lobby. It claims since it doesn’t own the picture then they will keep it up and allow other student groups to hang pictures of importance to them. This is an old dodge that people use to justify forcing religion on people. That dodge doesn’t absolve the defendants of violating the 1st amendment and the picture still needs to be removed.
In a follow up news report about the Jesus picture hanging in the Jackson Ohio Middle school, the School District Superintendent reportedly said he was “shocked and surprised” by the lawsuit filed by the ACLU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). This was even after they got a letter from the FFRF, last month, warning that a lawsuit would be filed if the picture wasn’t removed. That wasn’t the only silly thing in the reporting about the lawsuit.
The Columbus Ohio TV station, WBNS, had a report in the evening after the ACLU and FFRF filed their lawsuit. In the report (see video below) it reported that Superintendent Phil Howard was “shocked and surprised” by the lawsuit. WBNS also reported that the school district had finished an investigation of the issue and planned on reviewing the report at the next school board meeting.
Woman who spoke out against the Jesus Portrait was booed by crowdTuesday evening almost 300 people witnessed the Jackson Ohio school board agree to be sued over an unconstitutional portrait of Jesus hanging in a lobby of the middle school. The story had more typical Christian privilege talking points and actions including booing a person who publicly voiced opposition to the portrait. Stay classy Jackson.
WBNS 10TV in Columbus had the story during their 11 PM newscast. The school board meeting was where the Jesus portrait issue was discussed. They had received a letter from the Freedom from Religion Foundation informing them that the portrait, that has hung in the middle school for 65 years, had to be removed or the school district could be sued. This story continued to highlight the typical Christian privilege talking points and actions we see in these church and state battles.
Jesus Portrait in Jackson Ohio Middle SchoolA story, at the top of the 6 PM newscast on WBNS 10TV in Columbus, about a complaint over a Jesus portrait hanging in an Ohio middle school hit all the false talking points over religious symbols in a public school. The report missed or ignored an opportunity to give accurate information on the 1st amendment and instead spent a majority of time trying to defend an obvious illegal act.
WBNS 10TV is the top ranked news station in Columbus Ohio. It’s owned by the company that also owns the only print newspaper in town, The Columbus Dispatch. 10TV gave 3 minutes at the top of their premiere 6 PM newscast, on Monday 01/07, about a complaint lodged against a portrait of Jesus hanging in the public area of the middle school in Jackson Ohio. Chuck Strickler, who is also an anchor at the station was the reporter on the story. The fact they gave the story 3 minutes of time on the primary newscast and had one of their veteran anchor/reporters doing the story shows how important 10TV believed the story to be.