An elementary school class in South Mississippi did not receive a planned class activity featuring religious content after a national organization warned the Covington County School District that it could violate the separation of church and state.

Officials from the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the district after a Seminary Elementary School parent informed them of a planned first-grade activity that they believed contained religious content. The reported activity was a coloring page of an Easter egg split into six sections where each was assigned a different color with a religious meaning. The assignment was scheduled for March 28, FFRF said.

In its letter to the district, the organization cited several cases where courts found that public schools may not show favoritism or endorse any particular religion. FFRF is a national organization that says it is focused on protecting the separation of church and state and educating the public about nontheism.

“Using a religious holiday, Easter, as a pretext to teach religious lessons in a public school is unconstitutional,” FFRF Staff Attorney Madeline Ziegler wrote in a March 27 letter to Covington County School District Superintendent Babette Duty.

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