One student-made sign at Hamilton Elementary School in Fresno, Calif., is causing controversy among parents after the school displayed it in the lobby, KFSN-TV reports.
The sign, made by a seventh-grade student as part of an assignment during a history unit on the Crusades, depicts Jesus with a caption reading "I want you to kill all the infidels," as well as "meet me in Jerusalem, get a free ticket to heaven."
The term "infidel" was used during the Crusades to describe those not of the Christian faith and who were being targeted for conversion.
While some parents told the station they took issue with the poster being on display and want it removed, a spokesperson from the Fresno Unified District released a statement, saying it was a harmless product of a class assignment.
"Students at Hamilton were assigned to create a help wanted poster for soldiers needed to fight in the crusades and write a poem about Joan of arc, the Black Death, or the Magna Carta and create a visual background for it," the statement said, according to KFSN. "This was one of several posters displayed."
Back in April, Maverick Couch, a 16-year-old gay high school student in Ohio, sued his school district after his principal prevented him from wearing a t-shirt that read "Jesus Is Not a Homophobe."
According to a lawyer for the school district, Couch's shirt was "sexual in nature and therefore indecent and inappropriate in a school setting." A court ruling in May, however, overturned the school's decision.
A Spring Hill, Tenn., student also ignited Jesus-related controversy at his high school after wearing a costume of the Christian figure to school for "fictional character day." Although his school principal told Jeff Shott, a sophomore, that he may be forced to remove the costume, the student received praise as well as a $1,000 scholarship from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist organization.