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<P>REXBURG, Idaho — Elementary students chanted "assassinate Obama" on a school
bus in eastern Idaho last week, an official with the Madison School District
says.</P>
<P>District spokeswoman Janet Goodliffe says the second- and third-grade
students were young and most of them didn't understand what the word
"assassinate" meant when they chanted it in reference to President-elect Barack
Obama.</P>
<P>Goodliffe says the Rexburg-based district is in a "highly conservative"
community that overwhelmingly voted for Republican presidential candidate John
McCain.</P>
<P>Superintendent Geoffrey Thomas emailed district employees Friday to remind
them words such as "kill" or "assassinate" are taken seriously by law
enforcement and can carry severe sanctions.</P>
<P>Goodliffe says the superintendent also stressed tolerance of different
political viewpoints.</P>
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<P><FONT size=2>Chuck Kovis</FONT></P></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>