Oct. 7, 2006
 
LETTER TO EDITOR: Harrison County Board of Education Votes to Settle ACLU Lawsuit
 
Dear Editor: The Harrison County Board of Education voted 4 to 1 today, Oct. 6, 2006, to settle the lawsuit brought by the ACLU regarding a portrait of Jesus which for 37 years hung at the entrance to the principal's office at Bridgeport High School.
 
The portrait was stolen back in August just days before 850 high school students returned from their summer break.
 
I voted AGAINST the settlement today but I will support the decision of the entire Board. I am not an attorney but I can tell you that constitutional law is very difficult and frustrating for me to fully and completely understand. The settlement passed today seems to me to leave several important questions unanswered, or at the very least, subject to interpretation.
 
I must tell you, however, that the agreement does clarify some very important points that I and the Christian Freedom Alliance has been advocating. In the coming weeks, the attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund will summarize those points in easy to understand non-attorney language. I will forward that to you.
 
The agreement passed today will end the controversy over this one portrait in one high school. No legal fees will be paid to the ACLU.
 
I would like to make one final plea to the thief who stole the portrait to please return it. In an effort to recover the portrait, the Board of Education voted unanimously nearly two months ago to not hang the portrait back up. That agreement was restated in the settlement reached today. To date, no arrests have been made and the portrait has still not been found.
 
The School Board gave the ACLU until 5:00pm today (October 6, 2006) to agree to the settlement. The Board adjourned our special meeting at about 11:30a.m. School Superintendent Carl Friebel called me at about 1:00pm this afternoon to say that all parties (the ACLU and the AU) had signed the settlement agreement. The lawsuit is over.
 
That settlement agreement will be filed with Federal Judge Irene Keeley on Monday.
 
ALLIANCE DEFENSE FUND
 
At last count, 361 contributors from 23 states donated more than $151,000 to the trust fund established to support the Harrison County Board of Education regarding legal fees in this specific lawsuit.
 
While no legal bill has been sent to the Fund yet, we do expect a small invoice for services from the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson for fees generated before the Alliance Defense Fund was hired.
 
Legal counsel to the Fund has suggested that donations made to the Fund should be returned to the original donors. I expect that to be done within the next three to four weeks.
 
If it wasn't for this Fund, the School Board would have had no choice but to give in to the ACLU and take the portrait of Jesus down a long time ago. Details are being worked out to create a National Christian Freedom Fund to develop and maintain funds to assist school boards and local governments with legal fees to defend themselves from the ACLU. I hope to have more information on that effort at a later date.
 
Finally, I want to thank all of you who have donated your money, your time and your prayers to this effort. While it may appear as if we didn't win, please join me in considering today's settlement "an opportunity to fight another day".
 
I can't tell you how much your support has meant to me personally during the last four months. With deepest appreciation, I am,
 
Sincerely,
 
Mike Queen, member, Harrison County Board of Education
 
Post Office Box 907
Clarksburg, West Virginia 26302-0907
(304) 624-5080