ICC Note: Following a letter of complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), several Christian displays have been taken down from a Wisconsin elementary school classroom. The FFRF suggested that the displays, including a photo that read “God Bless America,” violated the US constitution by promoting a specific religion. At present, the school district has only commented to say that the matter is under investigation.

02/28/2018 United States (Christian News Network) – A number of Christian displays have been removed from an elementary school classroom in Wisconsin after one of the nation’s most conspicuous atheist activist organizations sent a letter asserting that the posters and symbols were unconstitutional.

Rob Moore, the local chapter president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), told WTMJ-TV that he had complained for months about the displays in his son’s fourth grade classroom at Pleasant Prairie Elementary School in Kenosha. Earlier this month, the organization’s headquarters sent a letter to the school district to request an investigation.

“I don’t want someone’s personal myth-ark enforced in the classroom,” Moore, an atheist, told the outlet.

Among the objects that Moore found objectionable were a cross hanging over a whiteboard, a poster that said “In God We Trust,” another poster that listed vices and virtues, and a picture that includes the phrase “God bless America.”

“The district violates the Constitution when it allows its schools to display religious symbols or messages. Public schools may not advance, prefer or promote religion,” the letter from FFRF read. “[The teacher’s] religious classroom decorations violate this basis constitutional prohibition by creating the appearance that the district prefers religion over non-religion, and Christianity over all faiths.”

“This religious display is particularly inappropriate given that about 38% of Americans born after 1987 are not religious,” it asserted. “The display alienates those nonreligious students, families, teachers, and members of the public whose religious beliefs are inconsistent with the message being promoted by the school.”

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