Where is the Cranston High School West Prayer Banner?

The is the banner at the center of the whole Jessica Ahlquist saga:

This is the space where the banner used to be (taken in March):

So we have to ask: Where is the banner now?

It’s gone the way of the Coca-Cola formula. Only a few people actually know…

It’s not just the banner’s future that’s unknown, it’s current location is also a mystery. School committee member Frank Lombard couldn’t tell us where it’s being stored and says its location is being kept secret for a reason.

“To not to create any audiences to look at a banner that’s basically encapsulated in concrete and wood,” said Lombardi.

Lombardi says only a few people know where the banner ended up, himself not included…

…

“I think it should be sold, I think it should be sold to the highest bidder, provided the dignity that it is afforded,” said Lombardi.

Money from the sale would help Cranston cover the legal fees it owes to the ACLU.

“Dignity”? Please. I suggest doing what they did with the Steve Bartman baseball.

The school committee will decide the banner’s fate in August.

newavocation

Talk about violating the 3rd commandment and making a martyr out of a sign. I’m sure it will be paraded around as a church fundraiser soon.
Gordon Duffy

At least a bidding war could help pay the legal fees.
Edgar

They should have gave it to Jessica Alquist as a trophy of her victory, then she could have done whatever she wanted with it.
LesterBallard

Sounds like it’s in the same place as the Ark of the Covenant.
Alan Christensen

A while back, I rewrote the banner: http://halfdemolishedkitchen.blogs.com/my_weblog/2012/04/secularists-do-it-better.html

Oh, and I happen to be wearing my Evil Little Thing t-shirt today.
Xeon2000

So they’re trying to turn some banner into a mysterious religious artifact or what?
Lawrence Lombard

So is it Lombard or Lombardi? Some people, like me, Larry Lombard want to know.
Gregory Marshall

You know if you change the word “Prayer” to motto and dropped the words “Our Heavenly Father” and “Amen”. You would have a nice little school, well, motto.
Don Gwinn

“Top men are working on the problem of the Cranston School Prayer, Dr. Jones, I assure you.”
“But who . . . ?”
“Top. Men.”
rhodent

The school council was in fact given the opportunity to make that change before the issue went to court. They refused. When it became clear to them that they were going to lose the case, they offered to make the change as a compromise and were basically told (by the judge, IIRC, but someone correction me if I’m wrong) that it was too late for that.
TerranRich

You’d also have to change all the appeals to a higher power, like “Help us,” “teach us,” etc. But yeah, pretty much.
JohnMWhite

An ostensibly religious artefact being sold to the highest bidder is ‘dignity’? Kind of demonstrates who their real god is…
Bill Santagata

It’s Lombardi. He’s now using his pro-prayer banner fame to run for RI State Senate (and in my district ugh).
3lemenope

“Where it’s being studied. We have top men working on it now.”

“Who?”

“Top. Men.”
Hibernia86

I wounder what is in those other boxes…
C Peterson

Why not put it into a box with a bit of the True Cross, Saint Swithun’s little toe, and Jesus’s foreskin, and tour the country, selling a peek to the curious. That proved a great source of income in the Middle Ages, and it seems that many people are still there, intellectually.
Hibernia86

When I think of something that is “provided dignity” rarily do I think of it being “sold at auction.” Most of the time that’s just a way to make a quick buck.
Bob Becker

So long as it doesn’t end up on the walls of another public building, I don’t much care where it ends up. Suggestions about giving it to JA as a victory trophy etc are unwise I think. The important victory was won when it came down off the wall. Rubbing that victory in, even symbolicly, gains us nothing significant and in the end will only increase the rancor over the banner that’s already gone way too far. When you’ve won, and we did on this, it’s important to realize that, and to walk off the field. There’ll be other battles, but this one’s over. No more “rub their noses in it” victory laps needed.
Tim

Any news on how jessica is doing?

I hope she has stopped getted hassled for her stance
Hemant Mehta

Saw her last weekend at the SSA conference and she’s doing well 🙂
SeniorSkeptik

Why oh why did the prayers of the school board members to keep the prayer banner not work? And since their prayers did not work, they proved our point.

And any one of us could have given the correct answer in a nano second.
sunburned

When I think of dignity I think of the amount of respect and/or treatment given to a person or group of people. Objects on the other hand are given care and venerated based on their value. ….
machintelligence

banner that’s basically encapsulated in concrete and wood,” said Lombardi.

Perhaps it’s keeping Jimmy Hoffa company.
Isilzha

I thought taking the banner down would destroy it because of the way it was attached to the wall. Did the school actually cut OUT the wall to keep the banner intact??
Edmond

I’m sure they’ve only quietly reassigned it to a new district, where they hope it won’t violate any more separations of church and state.
TheKevinBates

I actually think having a private citizen buy it, and I guess keep it at their house would be a fine solution to cover their fees. Of course, it’s not like they wouldn’t just display it as prominently as possible on their private property. Like a storefront window or something. Oddly enough, for following a dude who said to turn the other cheek, my personal anecdotal evidence suggests the opposite.