Bob Shaw, Associated Press A portrait of Jesus, seen in this June 28 file photo, was stolen on Aug. 17 from the main hallway of Bridgeport High School in Bridgeport, W.Va.

By Cindi Lash
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. -- After hanging for decades beside the door to the high school office, the simple wood-framed portrait was such a fixture that school administrators didn't notice at first when it disappeared.

Only after they spotted a smashed window in a lab last month did startled administrators realize that an intruder had carried off the object that had sparked a community controversy, a federal lawsuit and an increasing -- and not entirely welcome -- spate of national attention.

"I was embarrassed," said Assistant Principal Mary Frances Smith, who'd walked in and out of the office several times without noticing the empty hook on the yellow block wall. "We were flabbergasted."

For months, the portrait of Jesus and a lawsuit filed against the county school board to force its removal from the high school had riled much of Bridgeport, a city of about 7,300 people and nearly 40 Christian churches.

And that was before a young man roiled things further by breaking into the school Aug. 17 and carrying off the copy of Warner Sallman's well-known "Head of Christ" that, in Bridgeport, may now be as much a symbol of contention as of Christian devotion.

As a result, the Harrison County Board of Education this week will ask U.S. District Judge Irene M. Keeley to dismiss the lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

The suit was filed on behalf of Bridgeport attorney Harold Sklar, who is Jewish but has taught Sunday school classes in the Methodist church his wife attends, and Jacqueline McKenzie, a substitute teacher who attends All Saints Catholic Church. Their children have attended or are attending Bridgeport schools.

The lawsuit charged that the portrait's presence in a public school was unconstitutional, offensive and an endorsement of Christianity over other faiths. While the community traditionally has been made up predominately of Christian residents, the lawsuit notes that it is becoming more diverse and that Jewish, Muslim and Hindu students attend its schools.

The board of education initially pledged to fight to keep the portrait in the school, even thought their attorney, Richard M. Yurko Jr., of Clarksburg, said chances of winning were slim. They signed on with attorneys from a national organization that litigates for Christian causes after quickly raising $150,000 in private donations toward legal fees.

But then a thief climbed on a folding chair and smashed a window to a school lab shortly before 3 a.m. Aug. 17, Bridgeport Detective M.J. Lemley said. As he walked through the sprawling building, he averted his face from security cameras, Detective Lemley said.

The thief lifted the portrait from its hook, sliced it from its gilded wooden frame and left through the window. No one has been arrested and the portrait has not been recovered, despite a $1,000 reward offered by Marty Queen, brother of newly elected board of education member Michael Queen.

Police suspect the thief is familiar with the school because of his apparent knowledge of the cameras' locations. They said he is a white man in his late teens or early 20s, who weighed between 220 and 250 pounds and wore a beanie or ski cap.

After meeting with their attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund, board of education members voted Thursday to seek the dismissal of the lawsuit because the theft had made it moot.

Michael Queen, the father of an 11-year-old boy and a leader of Bridgeport's keep-the-portrait movement, said alliance attorneys explained it would not be possible to defend the presence of a portrait that no longer hangs in the school.

Andrew Schneider, executive director of the ACLU of West Virginia, said attorneys for Mr. Sklar and Ms. McKenzie have offered to withdraw the lawsuit and seek no fees if the board agrees to post no other artwork depicting Jesus or religious leaders or events.

If the portrait ever turns up, the board will not hang it in its former spot, Mr. Queen said Friday. But he said he did not believe the board would agree to everything the ACLU requested.

"We would hope the school board has finally come to a correct decision, that this picture does not belong in Bridgeport High School," he said. "We hope that now the school can return to its proper role of educating the young people of Harrison County without this needless distraction."

But the issue may not be over.

Mr. Queen said he expects the board will consider establishing a comparative religions class and will draft policies to guide students and employees on posting or displaying religious items in schools.

And on Friday, students who helped to raise money to defend the lawsuit presented incoming high school Principal Mark DeFazio with a framed mirror to hang where the portrait had been. The mirror's inscription reads: "To know the will of God is the highest of all wisdom. The love of Jesus Christ lives within each of us" -- an inscription that Mr. Schneider said is also inappropriate for a public school.

"We don't want every trace of Christianity erased from our schools," said Mr. Queen, a former state legislator who owns trucking and public relations firms and is known in West Virginia for antigambling activism.

"This particular case cannot go forward. I'm disappointed that someone's been able to keep us from having our day in court, but we're moving forward with a strategy. We're moving forward with the merits of addressing Christianity in schools."

Should that happen, or should the inscription remain on the mirror when it is placed in the school, Mr. Schneider said, "The case lives on."

A former high school guidance counselor, the late Arnold Henthorne, brought in the portrait and placed it in his office about 38 years ago, Superintendent Carl Friebel said.

At some point, someone scrawled graffiti outside the entrance to the main office. That prompted school officials to hang the "Head of Christ" to hide the damage, Mr. Friebel said.

"Until recently, it never has been a problem," he said. "Periodically, there were very sporadic questions [of] 'Why is this picture there?' It was taken care of at the building level."

That's not the view of Mr. Sklar and Ms. McKenzie, according to their lawsuit. Mr. Sklar, a U.S. Department of Justice attorney who works at the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services complex in nearby Clarksburg, would not comment extensively; Ms. McKenzie could not be reached.

But their lawsuit states that Mr. Sklar began complaining about the portrait in 1996 and that Ms. McKenzie repeatedly complained between 1991 and 1995. According to the lawsuit, Mr. Sklar asked for the portrait's permanent removal, saying it sent "a powerful visual message" that school officials endorsed Christianity and favored Christian students.

The portrait's presence violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, which bars the establishment of an official religion, Mr. Sklar said. He said he'd told district officials that previous courts had found displays of religious objects in public schools to be unconstitutional.

"It isn't just non-Christians who object to this picture. I think there are many Christians in Bridgeport who believe the school is an inappropriate place to have a religious image," Mr. Schneider said. "But putting the picture of Jesus up there does intimidate people who do not subscribe to that religion."

Attorneys for Mr. Sklar and Ms. McKenzie wrote to the board, saying they would sue if the portrait remained on the wall. A majority of the five-member board voted in June to keep it.

By the time the lawsuit was filed June 28, many Bridgeport residents and students were burned up. They called radio talk shows, banged out letters to the editor, displayed signs and groused to neighbors on street corners.

E-mail and blogs took it national as Bridgeport residents corresponded with friends and relatives who'd moved away. Television crews turned up on Bridgeport's streets. People called or wrote from all over the country, offering to replace the portrait.

Many residents said they perceived the lawsuit as an attack on long-held traditions and values, even as they bristled at suggestions that keeping the portrait suggested a lack of tolerance for other faiths.

"This community has a very strong religious family base," said Mr. Queen, who said he was raised a Catholic but isn't a regular churchgoer. "All we [were] doing is reflecting the value we place on that."

Calling the portrait a symbol of values she wants her two sons to learn, DaLynn Markley, 36, complained: "They're trying to take God out of everything. It's very important to me and it's important to a lot of people."

Others residents argued that the portrait had historical significance because it had hung for years in the school. Stoking their anger further: the involvement of out-of-town advocacy groups and a national spotlight that they believe has cast supporters of the portrait as intolerant and provincial.

"Next thing you know, the Pledge of Allegiance will be out the door. And everybody gets stereotyped now off of their religious beliefs," said Curt Riggs, whose two daughters attend kindergarten and second-grade classes in Bridgeport.

But other residents said the portrait had no place in a publicly funded school and the board of education had no business spending time or money on an issue on which others courts already have been clear.

"People say, 'What Would Jesus Do?' Well, I don't think he would be running up court costs," said Anna Smucker, 58, of Bridgeport, a former children's librarian who now writes children's books. "I think he would be appalled at all the anger.

"This is a predominately white, Christian area and we often have trouble putting ourselves in other people's shoes. But we need to respect the diversity we have here."