This is pretty much a strawman, especially since the majority of objectors to Santa in schools are Christian. Examples: http://users.rcn.com/tlclcms/santa.htm http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n1132.cfm You've got some pinheaded administrators out there trying to avoid even slightly offending anybody, and then you have demogogues like Bill O'Reilly trying to make a political issue out of it. I don't blame him. Conservatives have taken so many hits over the past year for everything from failed policies to blatant corruption, they've got to find something to break the slide. This choice is pretty lame however.

I have and will see Santa Claus, a secular figure, in a public school setting before I see any religious figure. The Establishment Clause that supposedly creates a separation of church and state was written by the Framers to protect the rights of individual citizens to express their religious beliefs without fear of reprisals by others or the government, and to deny the government the ability to sanction a single religious faith as the sole allowed religion in the Republic. It has since been misconstrued by many a court as a way to suppress the very thing it was intended to protect. Year after year, the secular makes inroads on quashing the sacred. I get dirty looks from strangers when I wish them a Merry Christmas instead of the politically correct Happy Holidays, simply because I expressed my faith as is my right in the Constitution. I also have read stories of churches who no longer put up their nativities to avoid being sued by the local neighborhood association. I see Santa Claus on every billboard for miles, even before Halloween this year. Santa sells the toys that grease the economy at Chrsistmastime. Santa is accepted, and in fact encouraged, at every level save the church, and the church is so afraid of standing up that they have no voice left. It's a sad day when the Constitution itself is wielded as a weapon against the very freedoms it was written to protect.

Public schools are run by the state. Separation of church and state is a constitutional right that insures that the government will not be religiously biased. Therefore, you cannot have a religious figure (i.e., Santa) in school as it is run by the state.

I don't even live in the U.S. I'm talking about a case where a pre-school here in Australia wouldn't allow a Santa to come at the end of the year, because they worried about being politically correct. It's beyond ridiculous. Let everyone LEARN, at school and still allow them to celebrate customs.

What's the big deal? Isn't it obvious that public schools are simply baby-sitting for our culture? Our kids can't read or perform basic algebraic functions (if you don't believe me, check out the percentage of foreign students studying science at graduate schools). . .arguments about religion in schools do nothing to help the issue of education. Keep Santa away and make kids actually read a book.

I didn't even know Santa was a religious icon! I've heard of Santaria,but.....