Jackson City Schools Superintendent Phil Howard said the decision to remove the portrait from a school hallway came because the district could end up paying significant legal fees and costs if it lost the lawsuit brought by two parents and a student.

American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio spokesman Nick Worner says the district voluntarily agreed to remove the Jesus portrait during a U.S. District Court hearing Tuesday in Columbus.

School officials say the portrait, which has hung in school hallways since 1947, is owned by a Christian-based student club and represents private speech.

Since just after World War II, a Jesus portrait has hung in a Jackson City Schools building, attracting little discussion and no controversy that anyone recalls.

But a Wisconsin-based group actively opposed to religious displays in schools stirred things up last month by writing the school board, saying it received a complaint.

A federal lawsuit followed, but the school district is countering with a claim that it is protecting its students’ rights.

Board members voted late Tuesday to keep the portrait up, while allowing other student groups to hang portraits related to their club’s focus.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation say the large depiction unconstitutionally promotes religion. T

They filed a lawsuit last week in U.S. district court on behalf on an unidentified student and two parents.

The Jackson City Schools board will meet Tuesday evening in an elementary school gym.

Superintendent Phil Howard says the district was “shocked and surprised” at the suit. Attorneys for the district have been examining the matter.

The district says the picture was donated by a student group and has been in the school since about 1947.

Church secretary Jane Runkle says no one knows for sure when the figure was taken. But it had stood on a pedestal in front of the church for nearly 30 years.

“We had wondered if someone had taken it and sold it for scrap metal,” Runkle says. “Which someone has said was worth less than $2. But the value to the people here is, you know, there’s no amount of money you can put on it.”

The figure was erected as a memorial to a boy who was struck by a car while riding his bicycle and killed. The figure is only about 3 feet high. But spotlighted, it casts a giant image of Jesus with his arms reaching out on the front of the church at night.

“To a lot of people it gives them peace. The open arms, you know he’s welcoming people here,” Runkle says. “We’ve had a lot of comments from people who have had children at Children’s Hospital and they have said how much it has meant to them it’s been kind of a calming effect on them seeing it.”

“Church member Glen Rogers had already brought new hardware to the church Tuesday afternoon and was reinstalling the piece. This time, he says, it will be locked into place.

“Hopefully when I get done this will be the locking bar so that they won’t be able to get him off,” Rogers says.

Roger’s wife Julie says the figure’s nighttime shadow is known not only in Columbus but in other parts of the world. She’s delighted she says, that it’s been returned.

“Oh I think it’s great,” says Julie Rogers. “I think it’s God’s way of telling us we need to be here and we just need to go on.”

“And this has just been a blessing to people. We’ve had letters from people who have just been traveling down the freeway and what it’s meant to them. We’re always known for it.”

“Pastors in the United Methodist Church in Asia knew about this church and the shadow. So it’s been a blessing for probably 30 years to this community and all over the world.”

“We’re just thankful that it’s back. Very thankful.”