Students at Christian university confess to hanging Obama effigy from tree

Students at Oregon's George Fox University gather at an assembly a day after a cardboard cutout of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was found hanging from a tree on campus. (Courtesty KATU TV)

School officials at the Christian university declined to identify the four students or provide further details about their punishment. Local police are not pursuing the incident because they didn't find the act to be criminal, but the FBI has opened a preliminary investigation into whether or not any civil rights laws were violated, according to FBI spokeswoman Beth Ann Steele.