COVINGTON, Ga. – A student-crafted poster based on a play about the Salem witch trials of the 1600′s has been removed from the walls of a Georgia high school after sparking national controversy.

As previously reported, the poster featured a line from the 1953 play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, which declares, “God is dead!” It hung on display in a classroom at Alcovy High School in Covington, Georgia along with other student drawings.

Although parents expressed disapproval of the artwork, district officials stated that the poster is rather a reflection of the drama as opposed to a statement about religion.

“Thousands of students read this book every year,” Sherri Davis-Viniard, public relations director for Newtown County Schools, told FOX Atlanta. “If it’s not appropriate on the classroom wall, where is it appropriate?”

However, some parents believed that the artwork should still be taken down due to its offensive nature. One of the most outspoken opponents of the drawing is parent Crystal Mitchell.

“If my child can’t pray in school and they’ve taken religion out of school, for this to be plastered on the walls of school, is a huge concern for me,” she told reporters.

She said that her daughter, who attends Alcovy High School, has been uncomfortable with the poster. Therefore, to combat the matter, Mitchell created a Facebook page entitled God is Alive in Newton. In just one week, the page received over 800 likes, and currently has over 1,800 likes.

Mitchell met with school officials over her concerns, and was told that students would be advised of the context of the drawing, but that it would remain posted.

“They told us that the kids are free to express what they think from the books … which their school assignments are based on,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “So they said that any poster from a school assignment can be hung. But the Bible is not being studied in class, so I guess that defines why you will not see a ‘Jesus lives!’ [drawing] on a wall.”

However, this week, it was decided to take down the poster–at least for now.

“The teacher made the decision to remove the art work until such time that she teaches the American literature course and ‘The Crucible’ as part of the associated curriculum,” a district spokesperson told MyFox Atlanta.

The district said that the superintendent was also uncomfortable that the matter had drawn national attention.

“She said it had just become too much of a distraction for her and for the school here and for the rest of the school system to tolerate,” Newton County Commissioner John Douglas told the publication.

“This is proof that when a community of people can come together, then good things can happen!” wrote administrator Scottie on the God is Alive in Newtown page on Thursday. “One person’s voice was able to be heard. That’s what makes America awesome!”

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