The Associated Press

A school district may resume distributing fliers promoting religious events to its students, the federal appeals court in Cincinnati ruled Thursday.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision in 2002 that the Crestview Local School District in Van Wert County violated the Constitution's prohibition against a government establishment of religion by distributing religious material to students in their school mailboxes.

The district, which serves about 1,000 students in the rural northwest Ohio community of Convoy, plans to resume the distributions unless the case is appealed, district Superintendent John Basinger said Thursday. Classes resume Aug. 24.

The school distributed the material from churches and affiliated groups along with material from other nonprofit organizations that work with young people, including the American Red Cross, 4-H Club and sports leagues, he said.

Judges Deborah Cook, Julia Gibbons and Alice Batchelder reversed a ruling by U.S. District Judge James Carr of Toledo, who blocked the district from distributing any materials associated with religion. The American Civil Liberties Union is likely to appeal, said Scott Greenwood, an attorney who argued the case for the ACLU of Ohio. Greenwood represented a parent of two Crestview students who objected to the distribution of religious fliers. School administrators said they have the right to distribute notices of religious programs that occur after school hours and off school property, without endorsing the events or messages.