A Ramadan display set up in the lobby of Bunker Hill Elementary School in Houston was removed earlier this week after Spring Branch ISD determined it violated the district’s policy on religious and political neutrality.
“Because the display was religious in nature, campus leaders were directed to remove it,” the district said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle. A district spokesperson said the removal was prompted by a parent complaint.
The display was put up by the Parent Teacher Association’s cultural awareness committee. Casey Kaf Alghazal, the committee’s chair, said the school has had Ramadan-related decorations in past years, but this year’s display was larger than previous ones. It featured “Ramadan Mubarak” signage and crescent moon imagery in the school’s lobby.
The Harris County chapter of Moms for Liberty posted photos of the display on X late last week. In their post, the group noted the timing, pointing out that the previous Friday had been Go Texan Day, when parents were invited to watch their kids participate in square dancing and line dancing to kick off rodeo season.
“Imagine walking into the school for ‘Go Texan Day’, and this is the decor that greets you,” the group wrote. Moms for Liberty argued in replies to commenters that Christmas trees and Easter eggs are permissible in public schools because they are considered secular symbols, while a crescent moon, like a cross, carries religious meaning and therefore does not belong in a public school setting.
Kaf Alghazal, who is Muslim, said the removal felt politically motivated. She said the committee has also put up decorations for Hanukkah, Christmas, and Easter, and that she had previously offered to purchase materials for a nativity display at Christmas but received no takers.
Following the removal of the Ramadan display, the PTA pulled the Easter decorations as well. Kaf Alghazal said she believes previous religious symbols, including a Star of David and Menorah, remained on display without issue.
The incident is playing out against a broader backdrop of religious neutrality debates within Spring Branch ISD.
Earlier this week, the district’s board of trustees voted 7-0 to reject a parent’s appeal to remove Ten Commandments posters from classrooms. District officials cited Senate Bill 10, a state law effective September 1 that requires every public school classroom in Texas to display a framed or durable poster of the Ten Commandments. The district’s outside counsel told the board that adding other religious texts alongside the posters would conflict with the district’s own neutrality policy, but that the Ten Commandments posters are treated differently because it is required by state law.
Spring Branch ISD is not currently involved in litigation over SB 10. Legal challenges to the law remain ongoing, with a federal district court injunction currently blocking enforcement in certain named districts, not including Spring Branch.
The Bunker Hill incident comes as a separate legal dispute over religious discrimination in Texas education works through the courts.
A Muslim parent filed a federal lawsuit on March 1 in the Southern District of Texas challenging the exclusion of certain Islamic private schools from the state’s Texas Education Freedom Accounts program. Mehdi Cherkaoui, a Harris County resident whose children attend Houston Qur’an Academy Spring, alleges constitutional violations under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. His suit names Attorney General Ken Paxton, Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock, and Education Commissioner Mike Morath as defendants. Cherkaoui argues that some of the excluded schools have no actual connection to terrorism or unlawful activity. The TEFA application deadline is March 17.
