Owasso Public Schools [Okla.] removed an 8-inch wooden cross prominently displayed in a public school bus three days after receiving a stern letter from FFRF Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott. The letter, sent Feb. 25, 2011, said, “courts have continually held that school districts may not display religious messages or iconography on the walls (or ceilings) of public schools.” Elliott noted that the buses were under the control of the public schools and thus were subject to the same treatment under the Establishment Clause as school classrooms. Superintendent Clark Ogilvie replied by e-mail Feb. 28: “The cross has been removed from the bus.”
February 28, 2011
